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John O' Mahoney was leader of the Fenians in New York. He founded the organisation in 1858, along with James Stephens who founded the organisation in Ireland.

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During the Great Famine, a lot of people left the country in search of a better life. Many people ended up in New York, as there were a lot of ships from Ireland to New York at the time. This led to a large Irish community living in New York City.

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The Fenians in New York were split into two groups.
One group wanted to support the rising in Ireland, but the other group wanted to focus their efforts on bringing international attention to the situation in Ireland.
They wanted to invade Canada to the North which was at the time part of the British Empire. They thought that by doing this, everyone would have to pay attention to the injustice happening with British rule in Ireland.

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A Canadian invasion was attempted but they ultimately failed.

When the rising started in Ireland in March 1867 they sent over a small ship called "Erin's Hope" to help the men. It carried several thousand rifles, and 40 soldiers, but didn't arrive until May 1867 when the rising was long over and the men were defeated badly.

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The Fenians bought large amounts of weaponry, and planned a series of raids into Canada.

They wanted to disrupt the transport lines across Canada, so that the British would be forced to give Ireland its freedom in exchange for Canada.

In April 1866 700 Fenians arrived on the American/Canadian border. The British were quick however, and soon war ships arrived on the scene and the Fenians had to disperse.

Throughout the following weeks and months, raids were carried out along the Canadian border. However, the US army managed to seize many of their weapons and by June there were very few men left involved in the fighting.

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Many Irish Fenians who had been arrested by the British were shipped off to Australia to serve time in prison.

62 men were shipped to western Australia between 1865 and 1867.

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The imprisoned men served their time in the city of Fremantle.

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Fremantle Prison location

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IN 1874, many of the prisoners had been released, on the condition that they do not return to Ireland. However, there were still some men imprisoned. They came up with a plan to escape the prison. They wanted to do this by stealth, rather than by force.

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With the help of donations to the organisation, Fenians in New York purchased a ship and filled it with goods so that it would not seem suspicious. They sailed it to Australia. The men on board pretended to be Americans when they arrived in Australia so that no one would suspect them.

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Boats and boating--Equipment and supplies

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After a year of preparation, they finally put the plan into action. The men in the prison ran when they were out one morning doing jobs. They were picked up by the other Fenians in carriages, and they raced to the port. 

The Australian government had been alerted and had sent ships to the port, but the escaped prisoners managed to lay low in a small fishing boat until it was safe to row out to their large ship.

They managed to sail back to New York, and returned heroes in the eyes of the Irish population there. 

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The rescue crew and the escaped prisoners

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The raids in Canada lasted over 15 years but never got the reaction the Irish had been looking for.

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By the 1870's there were groups of Fenians in every major town in England. Things were more dangerous for Fenians in England than in Ireland, as they had obviously much less support.

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30 - 40 Fenians attacked a horse-drawn police van which was transporting two arrested leader of the group.

One police officer who was inside the van and carrying the keys was shot dead as the Fenians attempted to force their way inside.

The prisoners inside the van took the keys from the dead man's body and handed them out through the bars to the rescuers outside, and they escaped.

Modern day scene of the attack:

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The van was transporting six prisoners in total, one of whom was a 12 year old boy.

As the van passed under a bridge, a Fenian jumped into the middle of the road with a pistol and ordered the driver to stop.

At the same time, about 30-40 Fenians jumped over the bridge and surrounded the van and the officers. The officers were easily outnumbered as there was only 12 of them, and the Fenians won the fight and escaped.

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Commemoration Plaque for the police officer who was killed

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Commemoration Plaque for the police officer who was killed

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Five men were sentenced to death for the murder of the police officer.