The name Fenian was derived from Irish legend. It was the name given to the Irish Republican Brotherhood, a separatist secret society that emerged in the 1850s in the aftermath of the Famine. Founder James Stephens. There were any strands: Irish American exiles, agrarian secret society tradition, continental examples. Aimed at total separation from Britain.
A daring plan was staged for February 11: the capture of the large British arms and ammunitions stored at Chester Castle. Simultaneously, trains between Chester and Holyhead were to be seized and the arms rushed to Holyhead, to be shipped to Ireland on a captured mail boat
By early afternoon, there were well over 1000 Fenians in Chester, but they soon found that the authorities had been alerted. The operation was quickly called off and arms and ammunitions hastily dumped. Over the next few days police arrested Fenian suspects in Ireland.
On September 11 the Manchester police arrested Kelly and another Fenian, Captain Deasy. On September 18 Kelly and Deasy were conveyed in an unescorted prison van to Belle Vue gaol. As the van passed under a railway arch it was stopped and surrounded by thirty Fenians, some of them armed. In the confusion, a policeman, Sergeant Brett, was killed. Kelly and Deasy rescued and never recaptured.
Large numbers of Irishmen in Manchester were rounded up and five men eventually put on trial for the murder of Brett. All five - Allen, Larkin, O'Brien, Maguire and Condon - were found guilty (Maguire a case of mistaken identity). Defiant appeal of the four guilty men in the dock made a great impression in Ireland. All condemned to death but Maguire given a free pardon and Condon, an American citizen, reprieved.
November 24, Allen, Larkin and O'Brien (‘the Manchester martyrs') were executed in public.
On 13 December 1867 the Fenians attempted to rescue two of their number - Richard O'Sullivan-Burke, their armaments organiser, and Joseph Casey - from Clerkenwell gaol. Shortly before 4 pm they placed a barrel stuffed with gunpowder against the prison walls, intending to detonate the explosives while the two men exercised in the yard. The bombers were amateurs and had no idea of the damage they were going to cause. the explosion tore a 60 foot breach in the wall, which would probably have crushed the prisoners if they had been exercising there. The blast could be heard for miles around. The house immediately opposite collapsed and some 40 men, women and children were reported injured. Four people died, one on the spot, two overnight, and a fourth shortly afterwards. In response, special constables were sworn in. The solution of the Irish problem was to be an urgent priority of the incoming Liberal government.
This introduced a new element into British life. The government authorized the foundation of a Secret Service Department (SSD) that was intended to expand into England the anti-Fenian network already existing at Dublin Castle. Although it only lasted until April 1868 and achieved little it marked the beginning of codified domestic intelligence on the British mainland.
