Fenian movement

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Fenian movement Secret Irish-American revolutionary society. The Great Potato Famine (1845–49) spurred the Young Ireland Uprising (1848), the failure of which prompted many revolutionaries to emigrate. In the USA, John O'Mahoney founded (1848) the Fenian Brotherhood. In Ireland, James Stephens formed (1858) the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB). The growing strength of the transatlantic movement led the British government to arrest the leaders of the IRB. In 1867, James Kelly led the abortive Fenian Rising. The Fenians split into factions: the Home Rule and Land League movements led by Charles Stewart Parnell and Michael Davitt; and Sinn Féin led by Arthur Griffith. Patrick Pearse led the IRB in the abortive Easter Rising (1916). In 1919, Michael Collins formed the Irish Republican Army (IRA).

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