"It will, therefore, be understood that
when the Leprechauns of Gort na
Cloca Mora acted in the manner about
to be recorded, they were not prompt
ed by any lewd passion for revenge,
but were merely striving to reconstruct
a rhythm which was their very exist
ence, and which must have been of
direct importance to the Earth."
—The Crock of Gold by James Stephens
ABOUT THE AUTHOR . . .
GEORGE TILDEN ORICK writes: “The feeling of being Irish (my
mother's foret>ears were Leonards and Kenefics) is difficult to explain
to the more stolid 99 percent of the world’s people. Even so, I hope
I have done justice to the Fenian brotherhood. Either you believe in
Leprechauns or you don’t. Of more pedestrian interest in establishing
my qualifications to interpret the Fenians, it might be told that I
have worked as a newspaperman, magazine writer, and editor, public
relations operative, planner of political campaigns and meddler in
the internal affairs of wayward trade unions.”
A talent for successful rebellion cannot be said to be one of the
notable characteristics of the Irish. Romantic by nature, delighted
by the concept of secrecy but incapable of sustaining it, self-infecting
to the point of being self-delusory, the Irish have been shown by
history to be among the world’s less dangerous revolutionists.
There has been no lack of opportunity for effective revolt in
the nearly eight hundred years during which Ireland was subjected,
with varying degrees of harshness, to English rule.
The ingredients of a successful revolt are motivation, timing,
broad support, availability of weapons, and grim execution of a
good plan. During the Civil War in the United States and for a
decade afterward, the Irish, both in this country and in their home
land, were favored by an almost ideal conjunction of these ingre
dients. Only one was lacking: grim execution of a good plan.
There was motivation in abundance: Relentless English oppres
sion and the potato famine had reduced Ireland to unbearable poverty
and degradation. The timing was perfect: Tens of thousands of
Irish-Americans, trained and toughened in the Civil War, were
pledged to the liberation of their native sod, and relations between
England and the United States were cold as a result of England’s
sympathy with the Confederacy. Support was general, and it was
intense: The Trish in America, who between 1848 and 1864 had sent
their former countrymen $65 million to relieve starvation and pov
erty, were willing to support an armed revolt against England with
still more millions. Weapons to supplement the pikes and reaping
hooks of Ireland’s peasantry were available in this country through
military surplus channels and from the commercial armorers of
the Northern forces.
There was a plan, yes, and there was execution of it. Whether
or not the plan was good is arguable; at the time it must certainly
have appeared sound, if only in terms of its ambitiousness and the
hard-cash support tt attracted. But execution of the plan was neither
grim nor sustained.
The plan simply was the invasion and occupation of Canada
by the Irish in the United States, and the subsequent use of Canada
either as a lever in negotiations with England to free Ireland, or
as a base from which to seize Ireland by force.
This scheme was devised by the Fenian Brotherhood, organized
in the United States just before the Civil War under the leader
ship of John O'Mahony, a youthful Irish immigrant who in 1848 had
induced fifteen hundred Irish peasants to cluster in sullen and pur
poseless revolt on a hilltop on his family’s ancestral land in Tip
perary. After three weeks all were driven off by the British, and
O’Mahony left for America. His inspirational guide in establishing
the Fenian Brotherhood was a dedicated revolutionary, James
Stephens, leader of the Irish Republican Brotherhood. Stephens came
to America from time to time to act as sort of consultant to the
Fenians, and to assist them in channeling their revolutionary zeal
toward the support of his IRB.
At first O’Mahony and Stephens agreed that the most direct,
and therefore the most obvious, course of action was the seizure of
Ireland by an Irish army from America. The invasion was to
be accompanied by furious guerilla activity in Ireland.
Immediately after the Civil War the Fenians, now several thou
sand in number, sent a ship Erin’s Hope to Ireland laden with rifles
and ammunition to be used during the civil insurrection accomp
anying the Fenian invasion. The Hope was blanketed just short of
the Irish coast by the British Navy. Re-examination of the direct,
obvious plan for the invasion of Ireland began in the Fenian
councils.
The Fenian Brotherhood was a strange contrivance, wondrous
in its paradoxes. It was both democratic and totalitarian. The
former because it was a government, with its capital on Union
Square in New York until it could be installed in Dublin, the
latter because it was a revolutionary organization whose prin
cipal impulse was martial. It was the most public secret in
Its time: The members of its circles (cells) across the nation
were protected from the possibility of betraying their brotherhood
by being given only fragments of information, but the Fenians’
master plans, 'argued and amended with public passion in meet
ings of the brotherhood’s senate, were reported in detail in the
American press. The Fenians were, in a way, a vast social club
with an army which was supported and equipped through the
sale of war bonds of denomination exceeding small and through
contributions obtained in return for cheap whiskey and conviviali
ty at giant picnics and balls in nearly every city and big town
in the country.
There was a distinctly unreal quality about the Fenian Bro
therhood. A government with no country to govern, with a trained
and experienced army, it was committed to making war on a
•world power from within a country of which most of the brother
hood were citizens and wdiich had just concluded a bloody civil war.
Existence of such an organization had to be entirely a matter of
belief in the minds of its members, and die Irish in America gave
it such belief.
The very name of the brotherhood was a tribute to the Irish
ability to sustain romantic legend. Discouraged by the Catholic
church from learning to read and write for more than a hundred
years the Irish peasantry had kept their history alive by story
telling. and the legend of the Fenians seemed appropriate when
the brotherhood was searching tor a name.
The Fenians, sons or nonn, an miucm —
militia who guarded the coast of Ireland a thousand years ago.
Thev were gentlemen in the truest sense, and they were superior
fighters To qualify for service, the Fenian of old was required to
swear that he would seek a wife for her virtue and good manners
and not for her fortune, that he would never do violence to a wo
man and that he would never avoid a fight unless the enemy odds
against him were greater than nine to one. The candidate was then
subjected to a spear attack by nine Fenians and if he survived
J? he was made to demonstrate that he could evade capture m
the woods pursued by a large number of Fenians. And he mustbe
able to take a thorn from his foot while running at top speed
through the forest, without slowing his pace.
Re-examination of the plan for a direct invasion oflreland
dunged Fenian leaders into their first power struggle. O Mahony
was defeated and was deposed as president by the senate m favor
of William R. Roberts, a wealthy New York dry-goods dealer.
Robert’s plan was infinitely more appealing to the senate: he thought
™ invasion of Canada would make the best use of the Fenian forces
2nd would be the surest method of freeing Ireland. He was sup
plied by his Secretary of War, General Tom Sweeny, an old In
£ fighter who had lost an arm in the Mexican War and who had
served the North in the Civil War.
By George Tilden Orick j
An Intimate Look at Gen. John O'Neill and his Fenian followers prior to and during their invasio
Irish Republican Army reprinted on this day to remind us of our Irish forebears, Fenian or othe
in this campaign prior to settling in O'Neill.
i
“Let us march on the frontiers,” Roberts proclaimed. “The
government of Canada is imbecile. The capital can easily be taken
by a handful of Fenians, who can throw up works and hold it
against any force the Canadian government is prepared to send
against them until reinforced. What a thrilling effect such an
achievement would have throughout Europe. We must go to Can
ada and fight it out there.”
This sort of thinking by Roberts, however stimulating, was rud
imentary. No Irishmen, plotting aggression, could let such modest
aims go unembellished.
And so the plans grew. The rationale was airtight: "Canada
is a province of Great Britain; the English flag floats over it and
English soldiers protect it, and. . . wherever the English flag and
English soldiers are found, Irishmen have a right to attack ”
Roberts and Sweeny went on the road to inflame the Fenians.
In the Great Lakes cities there was wild enthusiasm, in Philadel
phia, St. Louis, San Francisco, and other cities not on the Cana
dian frontier there was hearty support, and above all there was
money. Subscriptions were rolling in at the rate of $15,000 a day,
three regiments were drilling nightly in Buffalo, and arms and am
unition were being accumulated to equip tens of thousands of
troops.
The Fenians’ capacity for believing their fantasies sippeared
infinite. America was Indeed the land of opportunity: A revolt plot
ted in the old country had to be conceived in terms of small
groups, rudimentary weapons. Here the Irish could think big.
There was money, time, and a congenial environment. The green
and gold uniforms of the Irish Republican Army were worn on
the streets of New York, and the green flag of the Republic bil
lowed over Union Square. And weapons could be acquired and
stockpiled. In fact at least one of the Fenian leaders, P. J. Mee
han, editor of the magazine New Ireland (which was to be the
name given to Canada), was a major stockholder in a firm which
transformed tens of thousands of Civil War muzzle-loading Spring
field rifles to breech-loaders.
It might be conjectured that the perquisites and glory avail
able to those who rose to power among the Fenians had become
goals in themselves, or that money to be made in equipping an
army was sufficient motivation to effect the creation of an army.
But there appeared to have been few doubters among the rank
and file of the brotherhood.
In March, 1866, the full plan for the invasion of Canada was
released from Fenian headquarters. It was awesome.
t ■. J
In Canada there was alarm. Ten thousand militiamen of the
volunteer force were called out to defend Canada’s border. Four
teen thousand responded. The Fenian attack was erpected to be
gin on March 17, St. Patrick’s day. This proved to be a misesti
mate of Irish intentions, and when no attack occurred, the volun
teers were released from duty.
Again the Irish capacity for self-delusion warped the vision of
Fenian leaders. The rapid and effective response of Canadian
volunteers — 40 per cent more than were requested — might have
been interpreted as a serious warning by more realistic war mak
ers. But the Irish preoccupation for nearly a thousand years
had been more with the plotting of revolt than with its inexorable
execution, and the Fenians, however much grander the scale on
which they plotted, were fully predisposed as their forebears to
dissipate their rebellious urge in mischief. The Irish are not a
vengeful people.
The United States government seemed strangely permissive
toward the Fenians. This did not surprise the Fenians. They had
powerful friends in Congress; the Irish had ascended to get great
political power in America’s cities, and a grateful federal govern
ment remembered the valiant contribution of Irish troops in the
Civil War. There was talk among the Fenian leadership of turn
ing both Canada and Ireland over to the United States once they
were occupied by the Irish Republican Army.
The Fenian Brotherhood, in its war councfls, irrevocably set
the first week of June, 1866, for the execution of its invasion plan.
Rifles and ammunition were moved in great volume to Buffalo
and Malone, New York, and to St. Albans, Vermont. Recruiting was
intensifield, and during the last week of May thousands of Fen
ians, some of them carrying rifles, began to move by railroad to
ward the Canadian border from Eastern and Midwestern cities.
They explained to anyone who asked them that they were going
to California to look for work in the mines.
Buffalo was the most logical point for the Fenians to concen
trate their troops: Several thousand young men could be accomo
dated with some secrecy by a large city — so reasoned the galaxy
of self-appointed generals in their New York headquarters —
whereas the smaller communities and open country side along the
border would invite public disclosure of such force as was contem
plated for the invasion. Of course, everyone, including the New
York press knew what the Irish army was up to anyway. There
is no one so obvious as an Irishman with a secret. Still, there was
no effort by American government officials to prevent violation
of the neutrality at the Canadian border.
The nights of May 30 and 31 were wild ones in Buffalo. Thou
sands of Fenians rallied at the brotherhood’s headquarters hotel,
and those who could crowd inside were invited to select their farms
from large maps of acreas of Canada. The youthful troops chant
ed their song: “We are a Fenian Brotherhood, skilled in the arts
of war. And we’re going to fight for Ireland, the land that we
adore. Many battles we have won, along with the boys in blue.
And we’ll go and capture Canada, for we've nothing else to do.”
In ordinary armies, general officers achieve their rank by
one of three courses: They move slowly upward through the ranks
until generals above them are removed by death’s shadow or by
its penumbra retirement; they are needed in comparative profu
sion to bring direction and proper perspective to an army vastly
swollen by the requirements of, say, war; or they manifest trul;
astounding ability that in rare instances cannot be denied.
But the Fenians were not an onlinary army. It is under
standahle that its first generals, like Tom Sweeny, simply ap
pointed themselves; after all it was fitting that a brand-new arm)
be filled from the top down.
One general, John O’Neill, attaint'd his grade in a mannei
typical of Fenian military practice. He rose by default Wher
he reached Buffalo from Nashville with his 116 men on the morn
ing of May 30, he was a colonel. By nightfall of the thirty-first
with the invasion of Canada just a few hours away, he still hati
been unable to find any of the Fenian generals who in past
months had been so noisily determined to lead their troops across
the border. In fact, O’Neill turned out to be the senior officer ir
Buffalo. He took command of the forces of liberation and in div
ing so became a general. This once, the Fenian promotion-by
vacuum system found a good man.
John O’Neill was the kind of revolutionary leader who tin*
been both the Inspiration and the despair of the Irish for cent
uries. He was the best of a type — a military man of consider
able intelligence, quiet courage, and courteous manner. And he
was a persuasive leader. A strange mutant among the mass of
Irish rebels, O’Neill believed that the language of outrage spok
en by his oppressed race could be translated Into sustained and
purposeful action. And he believed that war bonds bought meant
war to be made. Had he been in Ireland In 1X66, John O’Neill
would have whispered treason with the bett of them in a Dub
lin pub and then, while the others were having another and yet
another drink to their oath of revolt, he would have gone out Into
the dark either to attempt alone the mission of a group or to go
to bed feeling that this somehow wasn’t the night for It after all.
O’Neill had been ordered from Nashville to take part in the
invasion of Canada. Of course, he had heard that the leaders ol
the brotherhood in New York and Chicago used their position tf
advance their business and political careers; he had heard tha
less then one tenth of $1.5 million contributed by Irish-Americar
laborers to support an insurrection in the homeland had evei
reached Ireland. But he did not. then, know much about sucl
matters as high overhead and the elusive economics of fund
raising. His leaders cursed the English and publicly pledged then
very lives to the cause of Irish Independence, and that vva^
enough for him, for that was exactly what he was doing, if mon
quietly. Since the end of the Civil War, Colonel O’Neill had t>eer
operating a pension agency in Nashville, keeping in regular com
munication with the veterans he would lead to Canada. During
the war he had commanded a specially trained group of Unior
guerillas and had later commanded a regiment of Negroes, th<
17th United States Colored Infantry.
Now, at thirty-two, John O’Neill was a general (later to lx
officially confirmed as such), preparing without comprehensible
orders and without maps to lead an invasion force into Canada
Of the generals he was probably most like the ancient Feniai
prototype, and his assault on Canada was certainly the only mili
tary action in a dozen years of Fenian uproar that conformed ir
any way to the ancient ideals of courage and honor.
Toward midnight of May 31 some 1,000 Fenian troops, of th<
several thousand in Buffalo, assembled at headquarters. Rough
ly 200 proved to be too drunk to go farther. The more dedicated 80(
dispersed and straggled in small groups by separate but paralle
routes to Black Rock, just north of Buffalo. On the way, about 20<
more had become drunk and could not continue, but they wish
ed their comrades well. At Pratt’s Furnace, the remaining 60(
embarked, with nine wagons of rifles and ammunition, on twe
barges. These were pulled across the Niagara River by a tow
boat owned by a Buffalo Fenian. When they crossed the center
line of the river, Canada had been invaded.
The Fenian force made its landing cheering, at about 3 o’
clock in the morning of June 1 in the yard of a farmhouse occupied
by a Mrs. Anderson, who was mighty perplexed. Arms were dis
tributed and pickets were thrown out to guard the beachhead.
Then General O’Neill and a sizable detachment of Fenians march
ed to the village of Fort Erie, about one mile south of the beach
head. They awakened the village and sought out Dr. Kempson,
the reeve. A dawn meeting of the municipal council was called,
at which O’Neill demanded food for his men and as many horses
as could be obtained from the immediate countryside. Ample
food and a dozen or so horses were provided.
Then, his men having breakfasted, O’Neill sent a small force
west along the Grand Trunk Railroad to destroy bridges and, pre
sumably, to seize whatever rolling stock could be found. These
men barely missed an opportunity to capture nearly all of the
rolling stock in that section of the Grand Trunk, for a long train
had been made up during the early morning hours by frightened
railroaders and was hauled toward safety, as the Fenians watch
ed. The train never reached its haven, nor were its four locomo
tives and half a hundred cars of use to the Fenians. A few miles
west of Fort Erie a derailment spilled most of the cars along
the right of way.
The main body of Fenians withdrew toward the north from
Fort Erie and encamped on Mr. Newbigging’s farm at French
man’s Creek. It was a bright warm day, this first one on Canadian
soil, and the invaders, in soldierly reflex, used it well. While small
parties poked through the countryside in all directions, seizing
horses for later scouting purposes, other Fenians dismantled Mr.
Newbigging’s rail fences and reassembled the components into
neat breastworks. Nearly all of O'Neill’s troops were veterans
of many World War battles and were thoroughly experienced in
the transformation of farmland into battleground.
But also, they were members of the Irish Republican Army,
and by early afternoon most of them were drunk and asleep.
General O'Neill and his small staff of officers, wearing their blue
Union uniforms, spent their afternoon answering a number of
r questions: Where were they, why were they here, ant w
would they do next?
The Fenian Invasion hat! been accomplished M a ,0**
cal place on the border. Within twenty mile* of the sleeping Irtsl
troops was the Welland Canal, undefended anti Inviting either
capture or destruction. The wrecking of Its locks would havi
closed Canada's water route from lavke Erie to l-itke Ontarii
anil would have forced the diversion of a grout deni of shlpplnf
to the Erie Canal, to the eeonoinlr disadvantage of Caiuula
O’Neill could have accomplished lids mission — for which a#
elahorute Fcnhui rationale could probably have been devises! —
on the first day of his invasion simply by marching north along
the Nbtgara River west along the Welland River until ho re at-hot'
the canal. At all time* his right fLink would have bt'en pro
tccted by the two rivers.
Or it Is possible that O’Neill’s force was mpani lo establl*
a beachhead thrttugh which a vast army of Feniana would flow In
Canada, accomplishing a major penetration which could htr
ied to Fenian occupation of all of upper Canada. After all, mu
was the avowed aim of the brotherhood. Again, the Niagara fit*
tier was ideally chosen, for in addition to the movement whit
could have resulted in the seizure of the Welland Cnnal, u simv
tnneous march westward from Fort Erie, along tin* Grand Tntr
Railroad, could have given the Fenians control of strategical!
useful square of Cnnadiun land enclosed by the Niagara III’
er, Lake Erie, the Welland Cnnal, and the Welland River. Ar
the Fenian rear would huve been protected by the Niagara lUvi
and Lake Erie. Clearly, O’Neill had too few troops to accompli!
this latter purpose. In order to hold his Iteachhead he needt
reinforcements, and in order to carry out it major occupation «
Canada he needed several divisions.
He got neither. For one thing most of tin* Fenian soldiers iff
ferred to remain roistering in Buffalo. For another, the Unit
States government had taken a stand. While Mr. Ncwbigglng wi
marvelling at the minuscule army in his woodlot, the Irish r
cruits in Buffalo were lieing informed that under federal fiat tiff
should not, must not violate the neutrality of the Canadian 1<,
der. And Revenue cutters patrolled the Niagara River to enfort
the order.
Meanwhile, Canada was taking swift, orderly slops to \1
tect its lands. Dr. Kempson had notified Toronto of the invask
just tx?fore the Fenians pulled down the telegraph wires frq)
Fort Erie. Four hundred men of the Queen’s Own Rifles, readf*
the night before at Toronto in response to reports of the sec»
Fenian doings in Buffalo, moved by steamer and by the Wellnr
Railway to Port Colborne to await reinforcements The great
portion of the Volunteer Force of Western Canada was ordered
active service by mid-morning of the day of invasion, and by ruf
a number of units were moving toward the trouble spot.
Colonel George Peacock was given command of the fore,
assigned to the Niagara frontier. He had a battery of Royal Art
lery, seven assorted companies of Volunteers, the Queen’s Ow
by now in Port Colborne, and the 13th Battalion of the Hamilt*
Volunteers. The battalion was commanded by Lieutenant Colon
A. Booker, who was directed to join, and command the Queer
Own at Port Colborne. Booker was also given a couple of platoos
of the York and Caledonia Rifles. In all Booker had about 8
men at Port Colborne. Peacock was moving toward Chippew
alxiut ten miles north of the Fenian encampment, with a force
about 1.200 men. From reports from farmers, Peacock estimat
the Fenian force at about, 1.600 men, and tie anticipated that th»
would be heavily reinforced by the time lie reached Chippewa. A
cordingly, he ordered Booker to hold at Port Colborne, a bout twel
miles west of the Fenians, until a suitable plan for joining fore
could be devised. Colonel Peacock was a British regular, ai
Lieutenant Colonel Booker was a clerical officer of the Cnnadi;
home guard. Neither had seen active service, hut both were we
trained and were, moreover, reliable men of reasonable judf
ment.
m. cuwvn o »»uo vm,ui ■ < * * mu u ' / n. v, l ui>; VY Cll<|
Canal and either destroy the Fenians or drive them out of Can;id
His intention to join forces with Booker was sensible, for by dgf
so at some point between Chippewa and Port Colbome he c4
interpose his strength between the Irish and the canal and cot
confine O’Neill’s troops in the locality of Fort Erie, a positi
from which O’Neill must either fight or retreat. Or surrender.
But there were problems, and these equalized the odds again
O'Neill. Peacock, too, was on unfamiliar ground, and he h.
worse than no map. He had only a postal map, which was prec
cupied with the location of dwellings and their interconnection 1 ^
postal routes. It showed him neither topography nor the true e
tent of roads. And he had no cavalry and consequently no mou
ed scouts. His intelligence was poor, for he had to rely on «
flicting information from excited civilians. In addition, his m
had never been in combat.
Peacock decided that he and Booker would join forces the f
lowing day, June 2, at Stevensville, a crossroads community abo
midway between Chippewa and Port Colbome.
In order to so instruct Booker, Peacock briefed one of his (
ficers, Captain Charles S. Akers, in some detail and sent hir
mounted, off to Port Colbome. The plan was explicit: Both fore
would begin marching toward each other in the morning, after
dawn breakfast, and would meet at Stevensville shortly befo
noon. By averaging out the reports of his civilian scouts p*
cock had concluded, correctly, that the Fenians were at Front
man's Creek. Anticipating that they might move during the nigl
and knowing not where, he directed Akers to guide Booker to t/
rendezvous by a route designed to keep him clear of O’Neill Akei
as things turned out, was the wrong man for the job.
Put two armed forces, who have been described to each rth
as enemies, on an uncharted patch of the planet, and they' l
somehow find each other and fight. As Akers was lopine t "
O'Neill, Nebr.
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