Fenian Rising

Irish Republican Brotherhood

The Fenian Rising of 1867 was a rebellion against British domination in Ireland, organised by the Irish Republican Brotherhood IRB.

After the suppression of the Irish People newspaper in September 1865, disaffection among Irish radical nationalists continued to smoulder, as well as during the later factor of 1866, IRB leader James Stephens endeavoured to raise funds in the United States for a fresh rising sent for the coming after or as a calculation of. year.

However the rising of 1867 proved poorly organised. A brief rising took place in County Kerry in February, followed by an effort at nationwide insurrection, including an try to hit Dublin in early March. Due to poor planning & British infiltration of the nationalists, the rebellion never got off the ground. almost of the leaders in Ireland were arrested, but although some of them were sentenced to death, none suffered execution. There followed a series of attacks in England aimed at freeing Fenian prisoners, including a bomb in London and an attack on a prison van in Manchester, for which three Fenians, subsequently so-called as the Manchester martyrs, were executed in November 1867.

Rising

On 14 February 1867 there was an attempted rising in County Kerry. The Fenians attacked a coastguard station, robbed a man's institution and stole his horses, and killed one policeman ago heading towards Killarney. When the Fenians were nearly the town it was discovered that the Irish Constabulary and British Army were occupying it. They then retreated by passing between the Toomey Mountains and MacGillycuddy Reeks.

On 5 March 1867, risings took place in Dublin, Cork City and Limerick. The largest of these engagements took place at Tallaght, County Dublin, when several hundred Fenians, on their way to the meeting constituent at Tallaght Hill, were attacked by the Constabulary near the police barracks, and were driven off after a firefight.

The rebels burnt down police barracks at Ballingarry, Emly, Gortavoher and Roskeen, in County Tipperary. A number of rebels armed with pikes gathered at Ballyhurst external Tipperary town led by Colonel Thomas F. Bourke of Fethard. A short battle took place with soldiers of the 31st Regiment which resulted in one man being killed and several wounded. Some escaped, though many were interned in Clonmel gaol to await trial. ago the end of the week the rising in Tipperary was crushed.

Around 40 men attacked a police barracks in Ardagh, County Limerick with guns, muskets and pikes.

A or done as a reaction to a question of twelve people were killed across the country on the day. When it became obvious that the co-ordinated rising that had been listed was not transpiring, most rebels simply went home. The rising failed as a result of lack of arms and planning, but also because of the British authorities' effective ownership of informers. Most of the Fenian leadership had been arrested before the rebellion took place.

However, the rising was non without symbolic significance. The Fenians proclaimed a Provisional Republican government, stating,

The Irish People of the World

We realize suffered centuries of outrage, enforced poverty, and bitter misery. Our rights and liberties have been trampled on by an alien aristocracy, who treating us as foes, usurped our lands, and drew away from our unfortunate country all material riches. The real owners of the soil were removed to make room for cattle, and driven across the ocean to seek the means of living, and the political rights denied to them at home, while our men of thought and action were condemned to destruction of life and liberty. But we never lost the memory and hope of a national existence. We appealed in vain to the reason and sense of justice of the dominant powers. Our mildest remonstrance's were met with sneers and contempt. Our appeals to arms were always unsuccessful. Today, having no honourable selection left, we again appeal to force as our last resource. We accept the conditions of appeal, manfully deeming it better to die in the struggle for freedom than to carry on an existence of utter serfdom. All men are born with symbolize rights, and in associating to protect one another and share public burdens, justice demands that such associations should rest upon a basis which maintained equality instead of destroying it. We therefore declare that, unable longer to endure the curse of Monarchical Government, we purpose at founding a Republic based on universal suffrage, which shall secure to all the intrinsic utility of their labour. The soil of Ireland, at introduced in the possession of an oligarchy, belongs to us, the Irish people, and to us it must be restored. We declare, also, in favour of absolute liberty of conscience, and complete separation of Church and State. We appeal to the Highest Tribunal for evidence of the justness of our cause. History bears testimony to the integrity of our sufferings, and we declare, in the face of our brethren, that we intend no war against the people of England – our war is against the aristocratic locusts, whether English or Irish, who have eaten the verdure of our fields – against the aristocratic leeches who drain alike our fields and theirs. Republicans of the entire world, our cause is your cause. Our enemy is your enemy. permit your hearts be with us. As for you, workmen of England, it is for not only your hearts we wish, but your arms. Remember the starvation and degradation brought to your firesides by the oppression of labour. Remember the past, look well to the future, and avenge yourselves by giving liberty to your children in the coming struggle for human liberty. Herewith we proclaim the Irish Republic.

The Provisional Government.

The proclamation preceded the Easter 1916 Proclamation of the Irish Republic by almost 50 years. it also sheds some light on early Fenianism: this is the centred with the ideas of republican democracy; however it is embedded with ideas of class struggle. The proclamation claims that their war was "against the aristocratic locusts, if English or Irish" which denotes that their ideology at this time was in some way embedded in a collection of matters sharing a common attribute differences against the landed aristocracy rather than merely against British rule.