The Irish standard., 1897-06-05
Such Was Fenianism to. Britain
Says William O'Brien
IN CONTEMPORARY REVIEW.
If Properly Handled 1t Would Have
Succeeded.
1T INSPIRED CONSERVATION.

Strength of 1t Lay in Military
Ramifications.
i:1l,' rRzsi9
Mr.. VIM. O'Brieu contributes to the
May number of the Contemporary Re-
view an interesting article-"Was Fen
ianism Ever Formidable?" from which
we take the following extracts
It was in 1865, and not in 1867, that
Fenianism had the capacity to strike q
formidable military blow at England;
and it is from it's inner history, rather
than from its performances in the field:
that a prudent statesman will measure
it's importance. To begin with, the
civilian organization was, to all intents
and purposes, the enrolment of three
fourths of the able-bodied population
of the country (and the population was
then 100000 more than it is today.
For the province of Munster, at least,
can say with certainty that any young
man of spirit who was not sworn or
unsworn item in the ranks wou1d' have
felt as much ashamed of himself as a
young Englishman who should refuse
to volunteer if foreign army were
landed in Kent There are proofs in
the strong boxes of Dublin Castle that
at one moment hundred thousand men
at the least would have responded to the
signal of any capable military leader
who could put arms in their hands And
If modern war-lords, secure behind their
girdle of hell-fire from magazine rifle
and Hotohkiss cannon, should be inclin-
ed to smile at the soldering of raw cit
izen mobs, pray let them remember that
we are still in the days of muzzle-load-
ers, before the battle of Sadowa had
brought the needle-guns in fashion, and
that the 10000 Constabularymen, with
whom the insurgents would have their
first brush, had only one day in the
year on which to practice shooting.
But far grimmer danger than the
Fenianism which learned the goose-step
by the light of the moon, was the Fem
ianism which did not so much conspire
as all but openly faunt itself in every
barrack-room and on every parade.
ground in the island. Probably we shall
never know the full extent to which
disanection seized upon the army, the
militia, and even the constabulary. Mo- !.
body who holds the key of the archives
Of the war office is ever likely to let
the secret out. Assuredly, since the Z
Mutiny Of the More, England passea
through no such nightmare vision Of a e
forest Of her own bayonets pointed at
her breast. The court-martial made,
some signal examples. One Of the Hus-as
sars they sentenced to death lived to d
be the greatest Irish poet and one Of
the three greatest Irishn4en of his gem
eration-John Boyle O'Reilly. It is only.
one Of the hideous commonplaces of the
Anglo-Irish connection that the man for
whom England could find no better bus
mess than to tear of his uniform in i
the square of the Royal Barracks In
Dublin, and ship him off In a convict
hulk had only to be known in Boston
to rival the commander Of the May
flower in the love of the Puritans Of
New England. But the epidemic WIS
not an affair of individuals, but of COM ]
panies, and of whole regiments. To at. /
tempt to impeach all the military Fem
ians before courts-martial would have ];
been to throw England into a panic, IT.
not to participate an appalling mutiny.s
and invite foreign invasion. It was
deemed wiser to transport them to India
by regiments and to replace them by
unseduced English regiments, all temp.
tations having been removed out OF
their way by the sentences passed on
organisers like John Devoy, who q
have heard it stated) at one time was
obeyed by more Of the soldiers Of the
Dublin garrison than the commander
in-chief was. All I can attest on the
subject from my own knowledge is that
I heard bands of carabiniers marching
through the streets of Mallow singing
the Fenian charter-song- 81:
"Hark, the time is coming
When our darling flag Of green,' 'ss
without the smallest regard for offcerass
or picket; and that for us children moy-s
ing about the hotel-yards where detach.
ments passing through our town St.
bled their horses, it excited as httissss
surprise to hear the soldiers TALKING
Of the forthcoming "rising," !" and naeil-s'
tioning that the barracks at Cork Fer5ss
moy, and Clonmel would fail without a
blow any night the Feniahs choss
knock at the gates,
civilians casting bullets III y =
so6 by.the mountain rad on 1!s
slIeht nikht As.
suses,ts nok 4 i ri s. &