The basis for the Catholic Church not supporting the Fenian’s was, because the bishops and priests did not agree with the violence of the tactics used and they did not want to change the status quo if there was a revolution. Without this support the Fenian Movement would be ineffective as the church could influence people to believe that the Fenian Uprising was futile. This will have made the Fenian’s less threatening towards British Rule. Extract B is taken from an article in ‘The Irish People’, an Irish Fenian newspaper on 16th September 1865. This extract confirms that the Catholic Church did not support the Fenian’s, stating that ‘most of the bishops and many of the clergy are opposed to revolution.’ However it was written for the Fenian newspaper; therefore it will have wanted to alter people’s views and make them riot against the Catholic Church. They will have achieved this, by saying ‘Our only hope is in Revolution’, which is a threat as it is implying that there is no other solution to the Irish problems. It also says that ‘the bishops and priests are doing the work of the enemy,’ because it was believed that the church caused people to suppose that the movement was inferior; therefore in a sense were fulfilling what the British Government wanted. Extract C is from the Archbishop Paul Cullen’s letter to the Roman Catholic Clergy of Dublin, October 1865. The Archbishop may have a biased view because he will have approved the views of the Catholic Church. For that reason he will have tried to disgrace the Fenian movement, by using emotive language, i.e. ‘inducing its dupes to engage in breaches of the law, to disturb the minds of other and to bring public vengeance on themselves’. The extract states that the movement ‘had great influence in bringing about mischief’, meaning that the Fenian’s created trouble and did not produce any significant changes in Ireland. However it does imply that they did threaten British Rule to a certain extent, in view of the fact that the Catholic Church was actively trying to prevent the Fenian Uprising from occurring. This was due to the fact that they did not agree with the violent methods used by the Fenian’s and so they influenced people to oppose it by making it seem unfavourable and appointed informants to notify the government of all of the Fenian’s plans. This is confirmed when the Archbishop pronounces that the job of the bishops is ‘to prevent the spread of secret societies and to check everything revolutionary’.
The middle class did not support the Fenian’s because there was a strong belief of Laissez-faire or ‘Leave it alone’, which meant that they did not want to be involved as they did not have any interest in the matter and did not want to finance the organisation and buy weapons. Extract A gives support for this, because it is a list of the occupations of Irish Fenians and their supporters, 1866-67. It illustrates that only 6.0% of the supporters were gentlemen and professionals in 1866 and this declined in 1867 to 0.2%. This clearly indicates that many of the middle classes did not take any interest in the Fenian uprising. Extract D is from a speech in the House of Commons by the Earl of Mayo, the Conservative Chief Secretary for Ireland 10 March 1868. It also shows that middle classes didn’t support the movement, because it says that, ‘the movement [the Fenians] has not produced a single man of mark.’ The majority of supporters were the Army, because the American war of Independence had just finished and the soldiers wanted to continue fighting. The extract makes the movement seem unfavorable in order to persuade the middle class not to support it, by saying, ‘Not a merchant of any importance or influence has ever expressed the slightest sympathy with the Fenian movement.’ This lack of support from the middle class meant that finance was a problem; therefore weapons could not be supplied and communication was difficult. This is demonstrated when it says ‘but they are without leaders, money or arms’; therefore the chances of the Fenian’s been a success will have been greatly reduced. However the extract also indicates that despite lack of middle class support they still were a slight threat to British Rule, because the extract is a speech in the House of Commons, which shows that the British Government was at least discussing the Fenian uprising. It may be biased because it will have been the Earl of Mayo’s job to protect British Rule in Ireland; therefore he will have wanted the movement to appear inferior. In spite of this the extract is supported by extracts A and C so the arguments portrayed are believable. Extract A shows a small percentage of middle class supporters and C suggests that the movement just caused trouble and did not produce any vital changes in Ireland, whereby it says that the Fenian’s ‘had great influence in bringing about mischief’.
There have been different views of the impact of the Fenian Movement and how successful it was in bringing about change in Ireland. Some people believe that the Fenian movement was a farce as it did not achieve its aims by the planned uprising failing and did not create significant change in Ireland. Extract E is from ‘Ireland: A History’ by Robert Kee, published in 1995. Robert Kee says that ‘Fenianism was always more effective as tradition than as reality’. This signifies that he agrees with the other extracts by saying that the Fenian movement did not improve the state of affairs within Ireland. However in spite of this he also says that the Fenian’s were a legendary movement. This was because after the Fenian Uprising had failed “national heroic myths” were told and these inspired other Irish groups to fight for freedom of British Rule. An example of one of these groups was the Irish Republican Army, which became responsible for the violent bombings of the city of Manchester and the Grand Hotel in Brighton. The main impact the movement had was that it still managed to get William Gladstone and the British Government to recognise the problems within Ireland. Whereas before it was a natural and acceptable state of affairs to ignore problems in Ireland, after the Fenian movement they had no choice to give the Irish justice in order to be at peace with each other.
To conclude it can be seen that the Fenian movement did not pose a major threat to British Rule between the years 1865-1868. This is because it failed considerably in achieving the aims, mainly due to the lack of support from the middle classes and the Catholic Church. Extracts A, B, C and D provide evidence to support this view, but the extracts would have to be compared with other sources of evidence in order to ensure that the views given are not biased. Extract E says that despite their failure they did become legendary, as they managed to get William Gladstone and the British Government to recognize the problems within Ireland and inspired other groups, such as, the I.R.A to campaign further.
