The Fenian Movement

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Consider the ideals, goals and methods of the Fenian movement in the period 1857-1867 and assess whether the movement should be considered a success or a failure. Your essay must make reference to the relevant secondary source article studied in seminar 8. Undoubtedly the Fenian movement was both revolutionary and unique in the time period spanning 1857-67. Although it has not been widely recorded or treated with major significance in the context of Irish history as a whole, it did not cease to leave a major impact on Irish society during this time era. W.B Yeats eloquently described the very essence of Fenianism as ‘the kind of historical crisis which produces literature because it produces passion’[1] The Fenian movement was first borne abroad in the United States of America. The name for the Fenians derived from the age old Irish warriors ‘the Fianna’. Two men, John O’Mahoney and Michael Doheny led this group in 1848, a movement dedicated to reform and the expression of utmost hostility towards Great Britain. By 1858 the movement was in the process of being organised and formed in Ireland with the aid of leadership under James Stephens. A prominent figure in the Irish Fenian circle was O’Donovan Rossa, the founder of the phoenix society. The Phoenix National and Literary Society fitted in with the interests of the Fenians or Irish Republican Brotherhood acutely. Their main aims were to push Irish intellectuals towards nationalism, to gain support for the concept for liberation by force of arms and lastly, to promote cultural revival in Ireland, an island which has been stripped of it’s enriching identity under the grasping and greedy hands of the British. The main goals of the Irish Fenians coincided with that of the phoenix society, for that very reason came the decision to merge the two movements together. The Fenians main desires were straightforward
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