| This dissertation proposes an investigation of the Fenian Brotherhood in New York City from its inception in 1858 until its ultimate dissolution in 1886. The Fenian Brotherhood was an Irish nationalist organization that advocated the creation of an independent, republican Ireland through the forced removal of Great Britain from that island. Active in both Europe and the United States, the Brotherhood was among the first political exile groups in America's history. It was particularly vocal and visible in New York City, which by 1860 counted one in every four residents as a native of Ireland. The city was home to a burgeoning immigrant population, a vibrant ethnic press, and the scene of some of the most vituperative battles in the tumultuous history of the movement. As such, a history of the Fenian Brotherhood in New York City will tell much of the movement and of the city that it called home.;To best gauge the historical importance of the Fenian Brotherhood in New York, I will trace the trajectory of the movement, analyzing why the Brotherhood was successful at the times it was, and why its influence waxed and waned over the quarter century under discussion. An analysis of the "rise and fall of New York's Fenian Brotherhood" will enable me to reconstruct the internal history of the movement in New York, showing how those in the immigrant, Irish American, and native-born communities perceived the Brotherhood. In addition to depicting the strategies and tactics of the Brotherhood, I will correlate its successes and failures to its fluctuating levels of popularity and gauge the level of support it enjoyed over its nearly three decades of existence. |
