The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1913-11-01
THE FENIAN MOVEMENT
PEACE OF MIND OF GREAT BRITAIN DIS
TURBED BY Actively OF
FENIAN ORGANIZATION
GOVERNMENT THOUGH TO REST OUETLY
AFTER DEATH OF DANIEL OCONNEL
SINCERITY OF MEMBERS FIRST TO CON.
VINCE GLADSTONE OF JUSTICE
OF THEIR CAUSE


In the year 1850, English statesmen
had reason to be pleased with the
state of affairs in Ireland. O'Coora /
vas dead; the Repeal organization
had been broken up; the Young Ire
land rebellion Of '4S had been merci-
less.y quilted and the leaders were
other prisoners in penal Settlements
or fugitives beyond the sea; the
famine of '49, artificially promoted by
| the government, had turned the coun-
try into q huge graveyard; the emf
grant ships were bearing away, il
! thousands, those whom the famine
had spared; and, for the moment a
! regular dissolution of the Irish nation
/ seemed to be in progress. From the
point of view Of English statesmen it
was glorious victory, ana the Times
of 1850, gloating over the passing IF
the Irishman, announced that soon, a
cell would be so rare iii Ireland as
a red Indian on the shores Of Man
haitian.
But they who sow the wind must
must reap the whirlwind. Before 1860,
English law combined with Irish land
lordism, had planted beyond the At
lantic new Irish nation, and, with Il.
q new movement more dangerous to
British power than even the United
Irishmen or the Young Ireland Society
Everywhere In America, from the At.
lantic to the Pacific, in the city and
in the hamlet, Oh the farm and in the
railroad yard, away out in the log
cabin and amidst the din of teh busy
! city factories, were Irishmen whose
every thought OF England was a curse
AS children, they had seen the horrors
of the famine, the unburied corpses
and the unattended funerals, and they
had heard the pleadings Of the hun
ger-stricken and the means of the
fever-stricken. They had seen, too.
the work of the crowbar brigade, the
wholesale evictions, the house levelled
TO the ground, the old, the sick and
the children thrown out on the road
side in the depth of winter or during
the heavy autumn rains-and, worse
than all, many Of them had tasted the
bitterness Of the new workhouse sys-
tenn where the poor people, driven In
like sheep, were huddeld together,
naked and unshaved, screaming, ours
ing, whining for food, fed like dogs
and losing all the higher instincts of
men in the acquisition Of those of the
lower animals. When they came to
d country where there was freedom
Of speech, they let their feelings b.
known, and, with theuse of story Ian
guage, they acquired, too, the desire
to battle with the enemy. In the
Civil war. thousands joined one side
or the other for the sole purpose of
learning the use of arms, and when,
in 1865, peace came, there were at
least 100000 Irish American soldiers,
trained, commanded by officers of
their own race, and ready to fight En-
gland.
AS 1 have said, during all this time
think that the last ditch of Irish re-
bellion had been captured and that
they had won their final victory. In
this they were mistaken. At the very
same time that they were chuckling
over the defeat of Irish patriotism. and
fe]icitating one another on the reduc-
tion that had taken place in the popu-
'atton of Ireland, two Irishmen, fugi-
tives in Paris after the '4S rebellion.
were laying foundations for a more
dangerous movement then any with
which the British government had pr:
viously grappled. These men were
James Stephens and John O'Mahony.
Their first attempt In 1858, was
1asco. Stephens who had returned to
Ireland In the guise of private tuto'
to the family of a Killarney gentle
man. enrolled a large number of young
men in an oath-bound secret society,
ostensibly literary, but really revolu-
tionary, called the Phoenix Literary
Society. Its headquarters was at Skib-
bereen with its branches extending
throughout West Cork and Kerry.
The society soon collapsed; O'Dono.
van, Rosa and Sullivan, two leaders.
were arrested and put on trial, and
Stephens escaped back to France
| The men connected with the move.
ment were not disheartened by this
first failure. From their center of in
trigue in Paris, they began to build up
6 still more formidable society, at first
called the Irish Republican Brother
hood, but afterwards generally known
as the Flanna or Fluians. Stephens
was IN supreme command, and wa
called the Head Center. The Brother
hood In each district was organized
into Circles under the leadership of
Center, these centers, in town, were
organized into Circles under higher
Centers, and thence. through higher
Centers. commanding numerous Cir.
cles, all authority conveyed edwards
the Head Center. In this way, the
power for evil, on the part of traitors,
was reduced to minimum John
O'Mahony wss appointed Head Center
for America, with Doleny as his chief
lieutenant. Charles Hickman, Thomas
Luby, John O'Leary and O'Donovan
Rosa were the agents In Ireland All
these men were Of good breeding and
Of literary attainments.
During 1860, 1861 and 1862, the
Circles were rapidly filed. Many cir.
cumstances favored the work. One
Of these was the feeling Of hatred felt
towards England by the Irish Ameri.
cans. Another was the breaking out
of the Civil War, and especially, the
possibility that England, owing to
breaches Of the neutrality agreement,
would be involved in struggle with
the United States. But probably the
most stimulating event of all was the