In the early 1960s, Fennell contributed essays for several Dublin publications and was briefly exhibitions officer of the new Irish Arts Council. Influenced by the approaching fiftieth anniversary of the 1916 Rising, he read the writings of the leaders of the Irish Revolution, identifying their project as "restorative humanism": a movement aiming to redefine Ireland as a democratically self-governing nation, economically self-sustaining, intellectually self-determining and culturally self-shaping. Some Fennell essays of this time were "Will the Irish Stay Christian?", "The Failure of the Irish Revolution – and Its Success", "Cuireadh chun na Tríú Réabhlóide" and "Irish Catholics and Freedom since 1916". He collaborated with Fr. Austin Flannery OP, editor of the monthly journal "Doctrine and Life" which published his writings.