The Irish Republican Brotherhood

One of the most controversial, influential, and well-known revolutionary organizations in the world was the Irish Republican Army (the IRA) considered to be both patriotic and terrorists.

The Fenians

It is of extreme debate the question of its real origin but it is mostly accepted the standpoint that the origins of the IRA are in the Irish Republican Brotherhood (the IRB) or popularly known as the Fenians as it grew out of the Fenian movement.[1] The name is coming from the Irish armed forces in legendary times. The Fenian movement was founded as both the Fenian Brotherhood in the USA by John O’Mahony and as the Irish Republican Brotherhood by James Stephens in Ireland in the same year of 1858. The name Fenian was later applied to all supporters of Irish republicanism. Some of its early members have been actively involved in the movement of Young Ireland. Its military wing became later known as the Irish Republican Army.

The Fenians succeeded in drawing British attention to the Irish Question and to convince the UK’s PM William Ewart Gladstone to seek to find a proper political solution to the problem of Ireland. Some Fenians have been MPs in at Westminster in London at the time of the Home Rule. After 1867, the Fenian Brotherhood became split into three parts, each of them declaratively has been supporting the IRB but practically very divided by policies and leaderships.

The Irish Republican Brotherhood

Since the very beginning of the 19^th century, Ireland’s struggle for independence from the UK oscillated between two political concepts of the fight and their groups’ representatives and leaders: 1) constitutional, mass movements, and 2) mostly small, conspiratorial, revolutionary groups. It was the specific contribution of the IRB to the Irish struggle for independence by its possibility to communicate its radical conception of Irish independence and national unity beyond its own narrow confines to a mass national movement that became oriented towards the realization of the IRB’s political and national program.[2]

The IRB as a secret organization was established in Dublin in 1858 by James Stephens (1824−1901)[3] to fight for the independent state of Ireland. The organization had close ties with the Fenian Brotherhood in the USA and it is why its members have been called the Fenians. By the official Governments, authorities and international organizations, the IRB is considered to be a terrorist organization as using illegal and violent means to achieve its ultimate political goal – the ending of the political union of the Northern Ireland (Ulster) with the UK followed by its unification with the Irish republic into the united or Greater Ireland.

The focal political aim of the IRB was to organize a national uprising in Ireland against the British authorities. The IRB was getting full support by the Fenian Brotherhood in men, funds, logistics, and secure base. However, the British Government arrested the main leaders of the IRB including James Stephens. In 1867 Fenian Revolt, led by Thomas Kelly, was abortive.

After the abortive revolt of 1867, the Fenian movement/IRB became confused as it faced a lack of opportunity for an effective rising followed with internal divisions. The focal question became about the leadership of James Stephens, who did not appear in Ireland in 1867 and, therefore, produced additional problems concerning the organizational reconstruction of the movement. Nevertheless, an internal division within the IRB existed as well as over the question where to hit the UK as the best: in Ireland, in England or Canada? This dispute was finally resolved only after abortive interventions in Canada in 1866−1867 and 1871. The reorganization of the Irish Republican Brotherhood started slowly since 1871, with the release from prison of several effective leaders.

The IRB acquired a formal constitution in 1873 which laid foundations for an elaborate and secret society to be organized on a democratic basis and governed by a partially elected Supreme Council. With the real prospects for revolutionary activities as poor, the right organization’s wing became involved into terrorist actions bombing outrages in England in the 1880s. As a consequence, many members of the IRB became either expelled from the organization or left it while in the USA occurred splits at the leadership level. Only at the very beginning of the 20^th century, with a new generation and new Irish organizations like Sinn Féin, the revolutionary tradition became to be revived. Further impetus for the patriotic activities of the Irish republicans arrived in 1910 with the launching of Irish Freedom – a military separatist newspaper.

All Irish republicans became confused in 1914 when the Irish Volunteers have been formed with John Redmond’s commitment of this body to the British war efforts and, subsequently, they split into two groups. It was from the ranks of the dissident group which rejected the leadership of John Redmond that the forces which organized and carried out the 1916 Dublin Easter Revolt would largely be recruited.

Even though the rising in power and popularity of the IRB was stopped in 1867, the organization, nevertheless, became reborn by taking active participation in the 1916 Dublin Easter Revolt.

The 1916 Dublin Easter Revolt

The revolt was organized, in fact, by the Supreme Council of the Irish Republican Brotherhood which, led by Patrick (Pádraic) Pearse and joined by James Connolly[4] and his small Irish Citizen Army,[5] decided that UK’s engagement in the Great War offered them the best opportunity for the realization of their political and national aims.

The revolt was between April 24^th and May 1^st when a violent rebellion against the British rule took place in Ireland. It was the secret Military Council of the IRB which intended it to be a national rebellion on Easter Sunday on April 23^rd, 1916. However, it appeared that a series of organizational and planning mistakes in the activities of the rebels resulted that necessary supporting arms organized by Roger Casement[6], in fact, did not arrive.

Roger Casement was politically active in the Gaelic League and other Irish patriotic movements. He joined in 1913 the Irish Volunteers. In October 1914, he went to Berlin in order to enlist the Irish prisoners of war in the Irish uprising against London. However, he failed to create a brigade, but, however, succeeded to persuade the German authorities to send some 20.000 guns to the rebels in Ireland on the ship Aud in April 1916 who were preparing the Easter Revolt. He was worried that the supply was inadequate for the rebels. Roger Casement followed the ship in a U-boat and landed on the Irish sea coast on April 20^th and immediately tried to send a message to the rebels’ leaders in Dublin to halt the revolt. He was arrested and taken to London for interrogation. Nevertheless, while he was in London, the 1916 Dublin Easter Revolt broke out.

Due to Roger Casement’s unsuccessful mission with the guns supplying, the uprising was officially called off, but Patrick Pearse[7] with his closest followers, nevertheless, made the decision to continue on Easter Monday. However, as a pure result of the organizational confusion, the general Irish national uprising failed, while the Dublin one proceeded. The Irish volunteers lead by Patrick Pearse together with the members of the Irish Citizen Army under the command of James Connolly succeeded to take the General Post Office in Dublin which immediately was transformed into the HQ of the revolt.

A rebels’ leader, Patrick Pearse, officially announced the act of the Proclamation of an Irish Republic by reading down the document and posting it around the post system. At the same time, there were numerous official buildings of public administration in Dublin to be attacked by the rebels and many of them occupied like City Hall, Liberty Hall, the Four Courts, etc. The same happened as well as with some strategic factories and main hospitals in the city.

The British army acted on April 25^th by reoccupying some of the important buildings in Dublin and cutting off many of the rebels’ communication spots. The British army became reinforced by the units coming from Belfast and other postings, and on April 27^th they started to bomb the HQ of the rebels and the building of the Four Courts. The rebels with their leader left the burning HQ on April 28^th and on the next day they surrendered being captured, imprisoned, and investigated. The occupation British authorities imposed Martial Law and the rebels’ leaders court-martialled. As a consequence, Patrick Pears with other fourteen leaders have been executed between May 3^rd and May 12^th, 1916.

Regardless of the historical fact that the 1916 Dublin Easter Revolt was a big failure, its leaders, but in particular Patrick Pearse, soon entered Irish popular mythology as national freedom-fighters martyrs fighting for the Irish nationhood and independence from the British occupation authorities. Nevertheless, the brutal British reaction to the revolt speeded up common Irish anti-British sentiments which made impossible continuation of the British rule in the biggest part of Ireland which finally ended in 1921 by the founding of de facto independent Irish Free State (without Ulster) when it gained the status of dominion on the partition of the island of Ireland, until 1937. In the year of 1937, the Irish Free State became the sovereign state of Eire and finally in 1949 the Republic of Ireland.

After the 1916 Dublin Revolt, the Irish Republican Brotherhood was superseded by the Irish Republican Army (the IRA).[8]

Dr. Vladislav B. Sotirović

www.global-politics.eu/sotirovic

sotirovic@global-politics.eu

Endnotes:

[1] About the Fenian Movement, see in [Mabel G. Walker, The Fenian Movement, Ralph Myles Pub, 1969; James Stephens, The Birth of the Fenian Movement: American Diary, Brooklyn, 1859, Dublin: Dublin University College Press, 2009].

[2] About Irish history, see in [Richard Killeen, A Short History of Ireland, Gill Books, 2005; P. W. Joyce, A Concise History of Ireland, Bottega Books, 2017.

[3] About James Stephens, see in [Marta Ramón, A Provisional Dictator: James Stephens and the Fenian Movement, Dublin: Dublin University College Press, 2007].

[4] About James Connolly, see in [Kieren Allen, The Politics of James Connolly, Pluto Irish Library, 1990; Donal Nevin, James Connolly: A Full Life, Gill Books, 2005].

[5] About the Irish Citizen Army, see in [Richard Michael Fox, The History of the Irish Citizen Army, Dublin: James Duffy and Co, 1943; Ann Matthews, The Irish Citizen Army, Blackrock, Cork, Ireland: Mercier Press, 2014].

[6] Roger Casement (1864−1916) was the Irish patriot who went to Africa in 1884 where he joined the British colonial service in 1892. He earned an international reputation as a humanitarian due to his reports about the inhuman treatment of local workers in the Belgian Congo in 1904 and the rubber plantations of Peru in 1912 [Roger Sawyer (ed.), Roger Casement’s Diaries. 1910: The Black and the White, London: Pimlico, 1997; Seament O Siochain (ed.), The Eyes of Another Race: Roger Casement’s Congo Report and 1903 Diary, Dublin: Dublin University College Press, 2004]. In 1916, after his arresting in Ireland, he was charged by the British authorities in London with high treason, convinced, and sentenced to death. It was organized a large campaign to have the sentence revoked, but the copies of his diaries discredited him [Jeffrey Dudgeon (ed.), Roger Casement’s German Diary 1914−1916, Belfast: Belfast Press, 2016]. Roger Casement was finally hung and his remains were returned to Ireland in 1965 where he was reburied after a state funeral. See his biography in [Geoffrey De Clinton Parmiter, Roger Casement, Barker, 1936].

[7] Patrick Henry Pearse (1879−1916) was the Irish revolutionary. His early career was as an educationalist and lecturer, especially in the Irish Gaelic. He joined the Gaelic League in 1895 and soon edited its newspaper. He became convinced that the Irish national identity can survive only if the Irish language followed by traditional Irish culture is going to be revived. Patrick Henry Pearse joined in 1913 the Irish Republican Brotherhood and became elected to the Provisional Committee of the Irish Volunteers. He was, however, a founder member of it in November 1913. He was well remembered after his famous oration over the grave of the Irish patriot Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa in 1915, with its final words “Ireland unfree shall never be at peace”. Those words became soon, in fact, the focal slogan of all Irish freedom-fighters against the UK. After unsuccessful the 1916 Dublin Easter Revolt he became imprisoned, investigated, condemned to death, and executed by the British authorities in 1916 in Dublin. In addition to his patriotic work, he considered his work for the Irish language to be of extreme importance to his life, and he was writing stories, poetry, and essays in both Irish and English [Patrick Pearse, The Coming Revolution: Political Writings and Speeches, Mercier Press, 2013; Ruán O’Donnell, Patrick Pearse: 16 Lives, The O’Brien Press, 2016].

[8] About the IRA, see in [Tim Pat Coogan, The IRA, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002].

Originally published at OrientalReview.org website.

Origins of images: Facebook, Twitter, Wikimedia, Wikipedia, Flickr, Google, Imageinjection, Public Domain & Pinterest.

Read our Disclaimer/Legal Statement!

Donate to Support Us

We would like to ask you to consider a small donation to help our team keep working. We accept no advertising and rely only on you, our readers, to keep us digging the truth on history, global politics, and international relations.

[wpedon id=”4696″ align=”left”]

READ MORE!

Politics is Above Common Sense in Latvia

The painful issue of using Russian language in Latvia appears on the agenda once again. Ethnic Russians “knock at the doors” of international organisation trying to defend their rights to speak and get education in their native language. Their hope for understanding in Latvia is melting every day. It has become known that Russian Community in Latvia sent a letter to Council of Europe about violation of human rights. The message addressed to Secretary General Thorbjorn Jagland also calls for a request from the Venice Commission to amend the two Latvian language laws which were adopted by the Saeima in spring. The ...

Contribution of US Capitalism to Nazi Germany’s War Economy

This past weekend saw Russians parading in celebration of the anniversary of their costly victory over Nazi Germany. Millions marched throughout Russia, holding photographs of their fallen family members in bittersweet remembrance. To this archival research peoples historian’s knowledge there was no public reminder that Hitler’s armed forces were built up by the West in open violation of the Versailles Treaty’s prohibitions in expectation of Hitler fulfilling his threats to invade the Soviet Union. There is simply no way impoverished Nazi Germany could have on its own built its Armed Forces up to number one military in the world during the ...

Kosovo and Crimea: What’s the Difference?

The only discussion of principle emerging from the debates over Kosovar and Crimean independence is that initiated by Woodrow Wilson towards the end of World War One, about whether national minorities have the right to self-determination. Can a smaller group be compelled to be part of a larger state, or should they be permitted to secede? To what extent do minority rights amount to a freedom to determine one’s own sovereignty? In June 1999 an international military force led by the United States annexed Kosovo, then a province in southern Serbia with a population of perhaps 1.6 million people. Virtually all ...

The Complete History of Monsanto, “The World’s Most Evil Corporation”

First published by Waking Times, posted by Global Research in May 2014, this article provides a historical viewpoint. It is of particular relevance in relation to the Monsanto-Bayer merger. Of all the mega-corps running amok, Monsanto has consistently outperformed its rivals, earning the crown as “most evil corporation on Earth!” Not content to simply rest upon its throne of destruction, it remains focused on newer, more scientifically innovative ways to harm the planet and its people. 1901: The company is founded by John Francis Queeny, a member of the Knights of Malta, a thirty year pharmaceutical veteran married to Olga Mendez Monsanto, for which Monsanto Chemical Works ...

Russia or the Neocons: Who Endangers American Democracy?

Political discourse of American mass media is inundated with another wave of Russophobia and fear mongering. Besides the obvious military threat (Russia’s nuclear arsenal), or the challenges to the US foreign policy (the conflicts in Ukraine or Syria), a new fear has been introduced into the news: the US political system is endangered by Russia’s computer hacking, informational warfare, and its support of Donald Trump. The newspaper titles sound like a commercial for the upcoming Invasion of the Body Snatchers sequel. The Washingon Post announces: “Russia Is Now a Threat. The US Should Treat It Like One.” Time magazine raises the ...

Trump, Empire and Our Long Retreat to Tyranny

There has been a lot of worry about the Constitution and basic democratic rights since Trump’s election. And worry we should. But, Trump did not fall from the sky, he is a product of our history. Over the long course of human history, there has been nothing more hostile to democracies and constitutional republics than empire. Empires destroys republics from the inside out.[1] And, empires demand and create enemies. In the opening act of our empire we fought our race enemy: the natives we tried to assimilate or eliminate. In the climactic scene of empire building after WWII we fought another “red ...

Trump, Netanyahu and Israel’s Capital

When considering United States President Donald Trump’s decision to officially recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, we learn many things about him:+ He is desperate to hold onto his base, which includes so-called Christian fundamentalists, who unquestioningly support Israel;+ His interest in ‘the ultimate deal’ between Palestine and Israel is non-existent;+ He has no regard for the opinions of the U.S.’s closest allies;+ His knowledge of international law is limited, at best;+ He holds the safety of U.S. personnel abroad in disdain;+ His understanding of the complexities of the Middle East are far beyond his interest or ability to ...

How Kosovo’s Albanians Destroyed ex-Yugoslavia

Autism as the political driving forceAs a matter of very historical fact, Kosovo-Metochia’s ethnic Albanians never accepted the state of Yugoslavia as their own state, nor did they ever recognize the country of Serbia as their homeland. Nevertheless, two important points have to be noticed in regard to this phenomenon. As it is quite known, it is the common feature of the highlanders in general. The Yugoslav and Albanian Dinaric highlanders, in fact, never historically accepted fully any kind of state as their own, for which they would feel any sincere responsibility. It concerns, for instance, the Montenegrins regarding the ...

How Many People have been Killed in US Wars?

How many people have been killed in the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Somalia? On Nov. 18, a UN press briefing on the war in Yemen declared authoritatively that it had so far killed 5,700 people, including 830 women and children. But how precise are these figures, what are they based on, and what relation are they likely to bear to the true numbers of people killed?Throughout the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan, the media has cited UN updates comparing numbers of Afghans killed by “coalition forces” and the “Taliban.” Following the U.S. escalation of the war in 2009 and 2010, a report by McClatchy in ...

Human Rights Day: Sobering Truths About America’s Imperialist Crimes Against Humanity

Today, December 10, 2016 is Human Rights Day. We bring to the attention of our readers the powerful message of the late Harold Pinter regarding US Imperial Crimes against Humanity, with an introduction by Gary Kohls. First published in December 2014. “We have brought torture, cluster bombs, depleted uranium, innumerable acts of random murder, misery, degradation and death to the Iraqi people and call it ‘bringing freedom and democracy to the Middle East’. – Harold Pinter British playwright Harold Pinter won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2005. His powerful acceptance speech exposed the United States for its fascist, imperialist policies since World ...

US Helping Ukrainian Putschists Wage War on Donbass

Since putschists usurping power in Ukraine launched war without mercy in April 2014 against freedom fighters in Donbass rejecting fascist rule, Washington provided political and military support.Under Obama, National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) funding included hundreds of millions of dollars to Kiev for weapons and other material support, along with training by US special forces.Trump may increase support for escalated aggression. A Pentagon and State Department proposal calls for supplying Javelin missiles, possibly along with anti-aircraft weapons.Claiming these and other US-supplied weapons are only for defense, not offense, ignores where they’ll be deployed – along the contact line, separating armed ...

The U.S. Documentary Movie: “The Origin Of Islamic State”

Truth in Media, THE ORIGIN OF ISIS Ben Swann explores the origin of ISIS that has already been long forgotten by American media. Swann takes on the central issue of whether or not ISIS was created by “inaction” by the United States government or by “direct” action. Link to the movie: THE ORIGIN OF ISIS Originally posted by Posted by Ben Swann on Thursday, 19 March 2015. Read our Disclaimer/Legal Statement! Donate to Support Us We would like to ask you to consider a small donation to help our team keep working. We accept no advertising and rely only on you, our readers, to keep us digging ...

Creating Sunnistan: Foreign Affairs Calls for Syria and Iraq to be Balkanized

On the 29th of November, 2015, Foreign Affairs – the publication of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) – published an article titled: Divide and Conquer in Syria and Iraq; Why the West Should Plan for a Partition. It was written by Barak Mendelsohn, an Associate Professor of Political Science at Haverford College and a Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. In the article, he argues that the “solution” to the current crisis in Syria and Iraq is the creation of an “independent Sunni state” (or Sunnistan), in addition to separating “the warring sides:” “The only way to elicit ...

Globalism’s First Victim: NATO’s War on Yugoslavia

In March [1999], the most powerful military force in history attacked tiny Yugoslavia (one fifth the size of Saskatchewan), and after seventy-nine days of flagrantly illegal bombing forced an occupation of Kosovo. Admitting its intention was to break Yugoslavia’s spirit, NATO targeted civilian structures, dropping over 23,000 bombs (500 Canadian) and cruise missiles in a campaign of terror bombing, described recently by Alexander Solzhenitsyn as follows:“I don’t see any difference in the behaviour of NATO and of Hitler. NATO wants to erect its own order in the world and it needs Yugoslavia simply as an example: We’ll punish Yugoslavia and ...

The Obama Legacy: Genocide, Destruction, Chaos, Color Revolutions and Subservience to World Zionism

As of this moment, from the gentrified hipster hellholes in Brooklyn to the pedophile-infested devil-den of Hollywood to Satan-occupied Washington DC, liberals nationwide are wailing, howling, shrieking and blubbering over Barack Obama getting out of the White House. Their tears are gushing like rushing rivers breaking through weak dams in pusillanimous sadness, their little Judaized hearts are breaking into pieces of Gefilte fish because an end has come to the presidency of this man they repetitiously and affectionately refer to as “American’s First ‘Black’ President” who brought “hope and change” not only to the USA but the world at large. ...

NATO’s Illegal War Against Serbia

Facts And Truth @ YouTube: “Remember why NATO spent 78-days bombing Yugoslavia in the spring of 1999? There was the ethnic cleansing. The atrocities. The refugees chased out of Kosovo by the Serb army. The mass graves. The heaps of bodies tossed into vats of sulphuric acid at the Trepca mines. NATO spokesman Jamie Shea said there were 100,000 Kosovo Albanian Muslims unaccounted for. Problem is, none of it happened.” Forensic report throws doubt on US/NATO claims of Racak “massacre” By Richard Tyler wsws.org, 12 February 2001 A forthcoming article by three Finnish pathologists throws further doubts upon official descriptions of a “massacre” in ...

War On Identity – The Abuse Of Kosovo Toponym

Every now and then we are being bombed by some terms in order to get used to them and accept them as something regular, accurate and correct. Such a thing happened with the toponym of Kosovo.The same method was applied in Bosnia and Herzegovina, i.e with the toponym of Bosnia, which once was an Orthodox Christian medieval kingdom, meanwhile global media portrays it as it’s exclusively Bosnian Muslim land regardless the fact that history, old books speak differently. In that sense here are the facts easy to check:Encyclopedia Britannica, Edition 1971Reference: EB, Edition 1971, Volume 3, page 983, Entry: Bosnia, ...

How the Bosnian War paved the way for ISIS in Europe

ISIS has new turf, this time in Europe. The German magazine Der Spiegel reports that there are now remote villages in the mountains of northern Bosnia where where the ISIS flag flies, and residents live under Sharia law. Roughly half of Bosnians are Muslim, and the radical ultra-devout make up a very small percentage. But it appears that percentage is growing — and growing violent — as extremists are gaining a foothold in rural Bosnian society.There are between 200 and 300 Bosnians fighting with ISIS in Syria and Iraq, more than from any other European nation besides Belgium. The Der ...

The Demonization of Islam

Much is being written regarding the Charlie Hebdo issue in Paris, France. I do not condone any killing but at the same time I do not support issues that violate human rights, religious freedom or freedom of speech and thoughts. Using cartoons to condemn Divine thoughts and beliefs is utterly wrong because they fall under hate crimes and not under freedom of speech as we are lied about. The perpetrators of hate continue to be protected. Islam is under attack and its adherents, the Muslims, are being targeted through provocation. In a recent article Charlie Hebdo and Tsarnaev’s trial: Cui ...

How Britain stole $45 trillion from India (And lied about it)

There is a story that is commonly told in Britain that the colonisation of India - as horrible as it may have been - was not of any major economic benefit to Britain itself. If anything, the administration of India was a cost to Britain. So the fact that the empire was sustained for so long - the story goes - was a gesture of Britain's benevolence.New research by the renowned economist Utsa Patnaik - just published by Columbia University Press - deals a crushing blow to this narrative. Drawing on nearly two centuries of detailed data on tax and trade, Patnaik ...