‘The green flag will be flying independently’

On 10th November 1861, great numbers gathered in the sleet and rain for a remarkable funeral in Dublin. Terence Bellew McManus of Fermanagh, who had been present at the Battle of Widow McCormack’s Cabbage Patch in 1848, who had been transported as a convicted felon to Tasmania, who had escaped captivity to reach California, had died in poverty in San Francisco.

McManus’s body had been disinterred by the Fenian Brotherhood of America, been given a lying-in-state in St Patrick’s Cathedral in New York, and now was being taken to a final resting place in Glasnevin cemetery.

Men on horseback, wearing black scarves and armlets and equipped with batons, held back the crowds estimated to total between 20 and 30 thousand. The coffin, held aloft by four pall-bearers, was followed by carriages carrying veterans of the 1848 rebellion (including its leader, William Smith O’Brien, released from captivity), 8,000 members of the National Brotherhood of St Patrick, and men of the Dublin trades, in full regalia, and all marching with military precision, while a band played the Dead March of Saul.

After the formal funeral oration given by torchlight at the cemetery, the radical priest, Father Patrick Lavelle of Partry, gave an impassioned impromptu address, frequently interrupted by cheers.

The funeral was a triumph for James Stephens, the founder of the Irish Republican Brotherhood. Not only had he upstaged moderate nationalists but he had also successfully defied the hierarchy of the Catholic Church.

Archbishop Paul Cullen of Dublin had refused a lying-in-state in the Pro-Cathedral and Bishop David Moriarty of Ardfert had called down upon these militant republicans… 'God’s heaviest curse, his withering, blasting, blighting curse' on these ‘criminals’ and ‘swindlers’, declaring that for their punishment 'eternity is not long enough, nor Hell hot enough.'

McManus’s funeral was propaganda coup for the IRB. This secret oath-bound organisation, pledged to establish an Irish Republic by force of arms, now gathered recruits at dizzying speed, particularly amongst working men in Dublin and shop assistants, tradesmen, labourers and farmers’ sons in the countryside.

It was particularly strong in west Cork where Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa had incorporated his Phoenix Society in Skibbereen into the national organisation. The movement had many adherents amongst the Irish in British cities. And a vigorous sister organisation led by John O’Mahony in America, the Fenian Brotherhood, led journalists to apply the word ‘Fenians’ to members of the IRB.

Stephens staked everything on Irish American support. But the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861 upset his plans. In this, the bloodiest conflict of the 19th century, Irishmen fought Irishmen. John Mitchel, who had escaped from captivity in Tasmania to settle in Knoxville, Tennessee, lost two sons fighting for the Confederates, for example.

General Ulysses Grant, who led the Union to victory, was – like Mitchel and many other Civil War officers – of Ulster Presbyterian stock. The right moment to act seemed to be in 1865, when the war came to an end. Great numbers of disbanded soldiers, particularly in the Union armies, were eager to play their part in helping the Irish back home to win their freedom.

At this crucial moment, Stephens faltered. He hesitated, and alienated others by his dictatorial, quarrelsome approach. Greatly assisted by informers, the government seized the initiative in September 1865. Most of the leaders were arrested and troops were put on high alert. The only encouraging news was the dramatic rescue of Stephens from prison on 24th November, with the aid of two prison warders and a rope ladder.

To make matters worse, the Fenian Brotherhood in America was rent in two. One wing, led by Colonel John Roberts, decided on an immediate attack on Canada, the nearest part of the British Empire.

In February 1866 Roberts issued this declaration: 'We promise that before the summer sun kisses the hill-tops of Ireland, a ray of hope will gladden every true Irish heart. The green flag will be flying independently to freedom’s breeze.'

On the night of 31st May 1866 800 American Fenians, calling themselves the ‘Irish Republican Army’, assembled at Buffalo, crossed the Niagara River and seized Fort Erie on the Canadian shore.

Deep in Canadian Woods we’ve met,
From one bright island flown,
Great is the land we tread, but yet
Our hearts are with our own…

They routed a Canadian force at Lime Ridge but the United States government, enforcing a neutrality agreement, cut them off and the invasion force withdrew and dispersed. About 60 Fenians were captured:

Ireland, boys, Hurrah!
Ireland, boys, Hurrah!
We’ll toast old Ireland, dear old Ireland,
Ireland Boys Hurrah!

Meanwhile, during a visit to New York, Stephens was effectively deposed, and replaced as ‘Head Centre’, or leader, by Colonel Thomas Kelly. Kelly crossed the Atlantic to rally the Fenians for an Irish rebellion.