Fenian Brotherhood and Raids

The Fenian Brotherhood and the Irish Republican Brotherhood developed in the late 1850s as transatlantic revolutionary organisations committed to ending British rule in Ireland. Veterans of the American Civil War supplied military experience, weapons and an extensive North American network.

Fenian raids crossed from the United States into British North America between 1866 and 1871, while British authorities investigated suspected military infiltration, arms traffic and bombing plots. The movement influenced policing, intelligence and Irish nationalist politics on both sides of the Atlantic.