Stephens, James
Stephens, James (1825–1901). Fenian. Stephens, a protestant railway engineer from Kilkenny, was one of the few who joined Smith O'Brien in the abortive 1848 rising. He escaped to France and returned to Ireland in 1856. He found little nationalist enthusiasm but resolved to organize an Irish republican cause. Such a movement should have a dictator, ‘perfectly unshackled’ in charge, and Stephens volunteered for the role. In 1858 he founded what later became the Irish Republican Brotherhood, drawing on his experience with revolutionary groups in France. An excellent organizer, he was said to be ‘vain, despotic and overbearing beyond any man I ever saw’. On a fund-raising trip to America 1858–9 he joined in founding the Fenian Brotherhood and in 1863 launched the Irish People, a weekly newspaper. But while the Fenians were still drilling, the government struck and raided the Irish People offices. Stephens was later arrested but escaped and fled to America. The American Fenians then organized an abortive attack upon Canada, a rather devious way of liberating Ireland. When Stephens urged a further postponement of any Irish rising, he lost all credibility, and his successors in the leadership initiated the rising of 1867. Stephens was allowed to return to Ireland in 1885.
J. A. Cannon
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Stephens, James