Fenian

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Fenian Originally a member of a secret revolutionary society, named after the Fianna, the Irish armed force in legendary times. Founded as the Fenian Brotherhood in the USA by John O'Mahony and as the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) by James Stephens in Ireland (1858), the name was later applied to supporters of Irish republicanism. Many of its early members had been actively involved in the YOUNG IRELAND movement. Its military wing was known as the IRISH REPUBLICAN ARMY (IRA). Their exploits drew attention to Irish discontent and helped to convince GLADSTONE of the urgent need to find a solution to Ireland's problems. Several Fenians became Members of Parliament at Westminster during the HOME RULE period. In the latter part of the 1860s the Fenian Brotherhood split into three sections, each in theory supporting the IRB but in practice sharply divided by personalities and policies. The organization was super-seded in the USA by Clan-na-Gael, a secret society headed by John Devoy, and by other open Irish-American organizations supporting Irish republicanism.

Fenian. Neologism coined in 1804 by charlatan scholar Col. Charles Vallancey. Although apparently derived from Féni, a name for early, landed freeholders, Vallancey used it as an anglicization for fianna. In many 19th-century writers, e.g. Sir Walter Scott, Fenian pertains to stories of Fionn mac Cumhaill. The ambiguous reference to both fianna and Fionn persists in the naming of the Fenian Cycle. In 1858 ‘Fenian’ was adopted as an alternate name for the Irish Republican Brotherhood, a secret revolutionary society dedicated to the overthrow of English authority in Ireland. Never fully quashed, Fenian activity in the British Isles and North America peaked in 1866–7. In the 20th century ‘Fenian’ popularly denotes Republican anti-British activity, especially in the six countries of Ulster, still a part of the United Kingdom.

Fenian a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, a 19th-century revolutionary nationalist organization among the Irish in the US and Ireland. The name comes from Old Irish féne, the name of an ancient Irish people, confused with fiann, fianna ‘band of warriors’, the partial source of the name of the modern party Fianna Fáil.

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