For the Celtic Rock band formerly known as Clan na Gael, see Seven Nations. Seven Nations is a Celtic rock band that formed in New York City, New York, in 1993.
| Irish Political History series |
| Republicanism
|
| Republicanism |
|
– in Ireland |
| Key documents |
|
Proclamation of the Republic |
| Parties & Organisations |
|
Aontacht Éireann |
| Publications |
|
An Phoblacht · Daily Ireland |
| Strategies |
|
Abstentionism |
| Symbols |
| Other movements |
|
Loyalism {{IrishL}} |
The Clan na Gael (sic; the correct modern Irish spelling would be Clann na nGael "family of the Gaels") was an Irish republican organization in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Proclamation of the Republic, also known as the 1916 Proclamation or Easter Proclamation, was a document issued by the Irish Volunteers and Irish The Declaration of Independence (Forógra na Saoirse Déclaration d'Indépendance was a document adopted by Dáil Éireann, the revolutionary parliament of the self-proclaimed In 1919 the First Dáil of the Irish Republic issued a Message to the Free Nations of the World (Scéal Ó Dháil Éireann Chum Saor-Náisiún an Domhain Appel aux The Democratic Programme was a declaration of economic and social principles adopted by the First Dáil at its first meeting on 21 January 1919 The Constitution of Dáil Éireann (Bunreacht Dála Éireann was the constitution of the 1919–22 Irish Republic. The Anglo-Irish Treaty (An Conradh Angla-Éireannach officially called the Articles of Agreement for a Treaty Between Great Britain and Ireland, was a Treaty The Executive Authority (External Relations Act 1936 was an enactment of the Oireachtas (Irish parliament in 1936. The Constitution of Ireland (Bunreacht na hÉireann came into force on 29 December 1937 after having been passed by a national plebiscite the previous July The Republic of Ireland Act 1948 is an Act of the Oireachtas whose primary provisions were to declare that the state Ireland, is a Republic and that the President The IRA Green Book is a training and induction manual issued by the Irish Republican Army to new volunteers The New Ireland Forum was established in Ireland in May 1983 by then Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald to discuss ways of bringing peace and stability to the The Anglo-Irish Agreement was an agreement between the United Kingdom and Ireland which aimed to bring an end to The Troubles in Northern Ireland The Agreement, most often referred to as the Belfast Agreement (Comhaontú Bhéal Feirste Belfast Greeance or the Good Friday Agreement (Comhaontú Aoine an Article 2 and Article 3 of the Constitution of Ireland ( Bunreacht na hÉireann) were adopted with the constitution as a whole on 29 December 1937 but completely Clann na Poblachta n̪ˠə pʷɔbʷłəxt̪ˠə (Family of the Republic was an Irish republican political party founded by former Irish Republican Army Chief of The Communist Party of Ireland ( CPI; Irish: Páirtí Cumannach na hÉireann) is a small all-Ireland Marxist party founded in 1933 Cumann na mBan (ˈkumˠən̪ˠ n̪ˠə mˠɒn̪ˠ Women's League is an Irish republican women's paramilitary organisation formed in Dublin on April 1914 as an auxiliary Cumann na Poblachta n̪ˠə pʷɔbʷłəxt̪ˠə ( League of the Republic in English) was an Irish republican political party Cumann Poblachta na hÉireann pʷɔbʷłəxt̪ˠə n̪ˠə heːɼən̪ˠ Society of Ireland" was a political party established by the Irish Republican Army in 1936 Córas na Poblachta n̪ˠə pʷɔbʷłəxt̪ˠə ( Republican Plan in English) was a minor Irish republican political party founded in 1940 The name Fianna Éireann (ˈfʲiənə ˈeːɾʲən) also rendered as Fianna na hÉireann and Na Fianna Éireann ( Irish: " Soldiery of Fianna Fáil – The Republican Party (Fianna Fáil – An Páirtí Poblachtánach shortened to Fianna Fáil ( is currently the largest Political party in the Independent Fianna Fáil (Fianna Fáil Neamhspleách was a splinter republican party created by Neil Blaney after his expulsion from Fianna Fáil following the Irish The Irish Citizen Army ( Irish name: Arm Cathartha na hÉireann) or ICA was a small group of trained Trade union volunteers established in Dublin The Irish National Invincibles (Dosháraithe Náisiúnta na hÉireann usually known as "the Invincibles" were a radical IRB splinter group active in Dublin The Irish National Liberation Army ( INLA; Arm Saoirse Náisiúnta na hÉireann in Irish is an Irish Republican, Left-wing paramilitary organisation The Irish Republican Army ( IRA) (Óglaigh na hÉireann was a military organisation descended from the Irish Volunteers, established 25 November 1913 and who This article deals with the Irish republican organisation opposed to the Anglo-Irish Treaty styling itself "Irish Republican Army" as it existed from the time of the Treaty The Continuity Irish Republican Army ( CIRA) is an Irish republican Paramilitary organisation that emerged from a split in the Provisional IRA The term Official Irish Republican Army or Official IRA (informally the Officials) refers to one of the two organisations&mdashthe other being the Provisional The Provisional Irish Republican Army (Óglaigh na hÉireann ( IRA; also referred to as the PIRA, the Provos, or by some of its supporters as the The Real Irish Republican Army, otherwise known as the Real IRA (RIRA or True IRA and styling itself as Óglaigh na hÉireann (Volunteers The Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB was a secret oath-bound fraternal organisation dedicated to the establishment of an "independent democratic Republic" in the mid nineteenth The Irish Socialist Republican Party was a pivotal Irish political party founded in 1896 by James Connolly. The Irish Republican Socialist Party ( IRSP) is an republican Socialist party meaning that it is both Marxist and republican Official Sinn Féin (later renamed "Sinn Féin the Workers Party" was a Marxist Irish republican Political party which evolved from the split The Red Republican Party was a small Socialist organisation in Ireland. The Republican Congress was an Irish Republican political organisation founded in 1934 when left wing republicans left the Irish Republican Army. Republican Sinn Féin ( RSF; Irish: Sinn Féin Poblachtach) is a Political party operating in Ireland. For the paramilitary group of the 1960s and 1970s see Saor Éire (1967-1975. Sinn Féin () is a political party in Ireland. The current party led by Gerry Adams was formed following a split in January 1970 The Society of United Irishmen was founded as a Liberal political organisation in eighteenth century Ireland that sought Parliamentary reform The Workers Party of Ireland (in Irish Páirtí na nOibrithe, though its logo translates it erroneously as Páirtí na nOibri) is a left wing Irish Young Ireland ( Irish: Éire Óg) was a political cultural and social movement which was to revolutionise the way that Irish nationalism was perceived History The organisation was founded on 7 December 1997 at a meeting in Fingal in Dublin by republican activists who were opposed to the direction An Phoblacht ( Irish for "The Republic" is the official Newspaper of Sinn Féin Daily Ireland was an Irish daily newspaper which existed from January 2005 to September 2006 to cover news stories from an Irish republican viewpoint The Irish Press was an Irish Newspaper published by Irish Press plc between September 5 1931, on the eve of the 1931 Kilkenny v Cork The Sunday Press was a weekly newspaper published in Ireland from 1949 until 1995. Republican News was a longstanding newspaper/magazine published by Sinn Féin. SAOIRSE Irish Freedom is the monthly organ of Republican Sinn Féin. The Nation was an Irish nationalist weekly Newspaper, published in the 19th century The United Irishman title has been a very popular newspaper title in Ireland and a number of newspapers have been published under the title Abstentionism is standing for Election to a Deliberative assembly while refusing to take up any seats won or otherwise participate in the assembly's business Éire Nua, or "New Ireland" was a political strategy of the Provisional IRA and Sinn Féin during the 1970s and early 1980s Physical force Irish republicanism is a term used to describe the recurring appearance of non-parliamentary violent insurrection in Ireland between 1798 and the present The Armalite and the ballot box strategy was a strategy pursued by the Irish republican movement in the 1980s and early 1990s in which elections in Northern Ireland Tuas is largely an industrial zone located in the western part of Singapore. The Easter Lily is a Badge worn at Easter by Irish republicans as symbol of remembrance for Irish combatants who died during or were executed after the Ulster loyalism is a militant unionist ideology held mostly by Protestants in Northern Ireland. The King was the Head of state of the 1922–1937 Irish Free State. Irish nationalism (Náisiúnachas Éireannach refers to political and sociological movements and sentiment that embodies a love for Irish ancestry, culture and language and Unionism in Ireland, is a belief in the desirability of a full constitutional and institutional relationship between Ireland and Great Britain based on the terms and Irish (ga ''Gaeilge'' is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish. Irish republicanism (Poblachtánachas is an ideology based on the Irish nationalist belief that all of Ireland should be a single independent Republic The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Successor to the Fenian Brotherhood and a sister organization to the Irish Republican Brotherhood. The Fenian Brotherhood was an Irish Republican organization founded in the United States in 1850s by John O'Mahony and Michael Doheny. The Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB was a secret oath-bound fraternal organisation dedicated to the establishment of an "independent democratic Republic" in the mid nineteenth
Contents |
As Irish immigration to the United States of America began to increase in the 18th century many Irish organizations were formed. Ireland (pronounced /ˈaɾlənd/ Éire) is the third largest island in Europe, and the twentieth-largest island in the world One of the earliest was formed under the name of the Irish Charitable Society and was founded in Boston, Massachusetts in 1737. These new organisations went by varying names, most notably the Ancient and Most Benevolent Order of the Friendly Brothers of Saint Patrick, founded in New York in 1767, the Society of the Friendly Sons of Saint Patrick for the Relief of Emigrants in Philadelphia in 1771, and the Friendly Sons of Saint Patrick also formed in New York in 1784. The City of New York Philadelphia (ˌfɪləˈdɛlfiə
In the later part of the 1780s, a strong nationalist rather than Catholic character began to grow in these organisations and amongst recently arrived Irish immigrants. Irish nationalism (Náisiúnachas Éireannach refers to political and sociological movements and sentiment that embodies a love for Irish ancestry, culture and language and Catholic is an Adjective derived from the Greek adjective '' / 'katholikos' meaning "whole" or "complete". The usage of Celtic symbolism helped solidify this sense of nationalism and was most noticeably found in the use of the name "Hibernian. Celts (ˈkɛlts or /ˈsɛlts/, see Names of the Celts " (Hibernia is the Latin name for Ireland. Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. )
In 1858, the Irish Republican Brotherhood had been founded in Dublin by James Stephens. The Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB was a secret oath-bound fraternal organisation dedicated to the establishment of an "independent democratic Republic" in the mid nineteenth Dublin (ˈdʌblɨn/ /ˈdʊblɨn or /ˈdʊbəlɪn/, bˠalʲə aːha klʲiəh or cliə(ɸ is both the largest city and capital of Ireland. James Stephens (1824 - 28 April 1901) was an Irish Republican and the founding member of the Fenian movement in Dublin in 1858 later to become The initial decision to create this organisation came about after Stephens consulted, through special emissary Joseph Denieffe, with John O'Mahony and Michael Doheny, members of a precursor group called the Emmet Monument Association. For other people called John O'Mahony see John O'Mahony (disambiguation. Michael Doheny ( May 22 1805 - April 1 1863) was an Irish writer and member of the Young Ireland movement The Emmet Monument Association (EMA was a mid-nineteenth century secret military organization with the special purpose of training men to attack England and free Ireland
In response to the establishment of the IRB in Dublin, a sister organization was founded in New York, the Fenian Brotherhood, led by O'Mahony. New York ( is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous The Fenian Brotherhood was an Irish Republican organization founded in the United States in 1850s by John O'Mahony and Michael Doheny. This arm of Fenian activity in America produced a surge in radicalism among groups of Irish immigrants, many of whom had recently been forced from Ireland by the Great Hunger. Fianna Éireann The Fenians, both the Fenian Brotherhood and Irish Republican Brotherhood, were fraternal organisations dedicated to the establishment of an independent In October, 1865, the Fenian Philadelphia Congress met and appointed the Irish Republican Government in the U. Philadelphia (ˌfɪləˈdɛlfiə S. But in 1865, in Ireland, the IRB newspaper The Irish People had been raided by the British and the IRB leadership imprisoned. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located Another abortive uprising would occur in 1867, but the British remained in control.
After the 1865 crackdown in Ireland, the American organization began to fracture over what to do next. Made up of veterans of the American Civil War, a Fenian army had been formed. Causes of the war See also Origins of the American Civil War, Timeline of events leading to the American Civil War The coexistence of a slave-owning South While O'Mahony and his supporters wanted to remain focused on supporting rebellions in Ireland a competing faction, called the Roberts, or senate wing, wanted this Fenian Army to attack British bases in Canada. Ireland (pronounced /ˈaɾlənd/ Éire) is the third largest island in Europe, and the twentieth-largest island in the world Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page The resulting Fenian Raids strained U. The Fenian raids were attacks by members of the Fenian Brotherhood based in the United States, on British army forts customs posts and other targets in S. -British relations. The level of American support for the Fenian cause began to diminish as the Fenians were seen as a threat to stability in the region.
The Irish were still seen as a foreign people within the borders of the American state by anti-Catholic Americans such as members of the Know-Nothing Party; their existence within America was seen primarily as temporary camps of immigrants who planned to stay in America only as long as the British stayed in Ireland. The Know Nothing movement was a Nativist American political movement of the 1850s Upon the British withdrawal from Irish soil, it was believed, the Irish immigrants would return to their native land. The Fenian Raids were seen as an astonishing example of immigrant activity in U. Immigration refers to the movement of people among countries While the movement of people has existed throughout human history at various levels modern immigration implies long-term S. history and Irish nationalism has itself become something of an exception among the American melting pot. Very few U. S. immigrants concerned themselves with their mother country as did the Irish; in March of 1868, 100,000 Fenian supporters held an anti-English demonstration in New York.
After 1867, the Irish Republican Brotherhood headquarters in Manchester chose to support neither of the existing feuding factions, but instead promoted a renewed Irish republican organization in America, to be named Clan na Gael.
According to John Devoy in 1924, Jerome James Collins founded what was then called the Napper Tandy Club in New York on June 20, 1867, Wolfe Tone's birthday, this club expanded into others and at one point at a picnic in 1870 was named the Clan na Gael by Sam Cavanagh. John Devoy (1842-1928 was an Irish Rebel leader and exile Early life Devoy was born near Kill County Kildare. This was the same Cavanagh who killed the informer George Clark (Gaelic American January 7, 1905) who had exposed a Fenian pike making operation in Dublin to the police.
Collins, who died in 1881 on the disastrous Jeannette Expedition to the North Pole, was a science editor on the New York Herald, who had left England in 1866 when a plot he was involved in to free the Fenian prisoners at Pentonville prison was uncovered by the police. Detailing and Fitting In March Congress authorized the detailing of naval officers on the voyage and Lt Collins believed at the time of the founding in 1867 that the two feuding Fenians branches should patch things up. (Much of the preceding is found in the Gaelic American, 29 Dec 1906, in an article entitled "The Inside Story of the Jeanette Horror". Both John O'Mahony and William R Roberts, opposing leaders of fighting branches of the Fenians, belonged to the Napper Tandy Club, according to Devoy in the aforementioned article. )
After arriving in America in 1871 John Devoy indicated he joined the Clan na Gael early on and attempted several times at Clan conventions to get the Clan to adopt a plan to free the military prisoners held by the British in Fremantle Australia. In 1874 John Devoy, with some oratorical help from Thomas Francis Bourke, was elected Chairman of the Executive Board of the Clan and was also chosen to execute the rescue of the prisoners. Bourke warned Devoy that there would be "kickers" and he would have to have a heavy hand to control the Clan na Gael and succeed in the project(Proceedings of the United Brotherhood Convention, Cleveland Ohio September 1874 held at the Fenian archives at the Catholic University of America). John Devoy devoted all his time to this project and oversaw the purchase of the bark Catalpa and the outfitting of this ship as a whaler. For the historical incident involving a ship of this name see Catalpa rescue. The Clan engaged an American Captain George S Anthony as its Captain with New Bedford whaling crew. John received considerable help in running the Clan from Dr. William Carroll who was elected Executive Board Chairman in 1875 and between them they controlled Clan activity until 1882. Carroll was of Ulster Protestant stock and brought in others to the Clan from the upper middle class such as Simon Barclay Conover, Senator from Florida. Florida ( is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States, bordering Alabama to the northwest and Georgia to the Devoy's nemesis during the fund raising for the enterprise was John Goff, an aspiring Clan member who later became a New York Supreme Court Judge and who, perhaps, resented the influence of Bourke and Devoy in the Clan. Devoy did in fact take a strong hand and began tossing out Clan members for malfeasance in office and violation of Clan rules as is shown in "General Circular No. 2" dated January 15, 1875 [NLI MS. 18,015(1): John Devoy Papers. For more on the Catalpa rescue see Sean O'Lung "Fremantle Mission", Philip Fennell and Marie King (Eds. ) "John Devoy's Catalpa Expedition", a transcription of John Devoy's Catalpa Story in the Gaelic American, and ZW Pease's "The Catalpa Expedition" the latter published by George Anthony the Captain aboard the ship. The success of the rescue in 1876 resulted in the Clan na Gael replacing for all practical purposes the Fenian Brotherhood as the spokesman of Irish-American nationalism.
Under the leadership of John Devoy, Clan na Gael would eventually be successful in educating Americans about the movement. John Devoy (1842-1928 was an Irish Rebel leader and exile Early life Devoy was born near Kill County Kildare.
In 1879, Devoy promoted a "New Departure" in Irish republican thinking, by which the "physical force party" allied itself with the "constitutional movement" under the political leadership of Charles Stewart Parnell, MP; the political plans of the Fenians were thus combined with the agrarian revolution inaugurated by the Irish National Land League. The term New Departure has been used to describe several initiatives in the late 19th century where Irish republicans, who were committed to independence from Britain through Charles Stewart Parnell ( 27 June 1846 &ndash 6 October 1891) was an Irish Protestant landowner nationalist The Irish Land League was an Irish political organization of the late 19th century which sought to help poor Tenant farmers Its primary aim was to abolish
By 1880 more aggressive men within the Clan na Gael were chaffing at the slow pace of Devoy and Carroll and these men were able to take control of the organization in 1882 when two "action men", Alexander Sullivan and Michael Boland took over the reins and ran the clan as a dictatorship along with a inactive fellow name Feeley. The new leadership ignored the Revolutionary Council set up by Carroll to coordinate between the IRB and the Clan and began to operate in total secrecy from even the membership of the Clan. These three men called themselves the "Triangle" and began making bombing runs into England in what was called the "Dynamite War". This infuriated the IRB in Ireland which cut ties with the Irish-Americans. Michael Boland was later pointed out as a British spy which might have explained why the majority of the bombers were caught and jailed before they could strike. [1][2]
The 1880s saw the solidification, at least within America, of Irish ideological orientations with most nationalist sentiment finding its home within Clan na Gael, rather than sectarian anti-Protestant organisations. Sectarianism is Bigotry, Discrimination, Prejudice or Hatred arising from attaching importance to perceived differences between subdivisions The more agrarian-minded found their ideological brethren within the Irish Federation of America. The third ideological strand was connected to the union and socialist movement and found support with the Knights of Labor. Socialism refers to a broad set of economic theories of social organization advocating state or collective ownership and administration of the Means of production and distribution The Knights of Labor, also known as Noble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labor, was one of the most important American labor organizations of In the late 1880's a financial scandal in the Chicago branch of the Clan led to a successful conspiracy to murder whistle-blower Philip Patrick Henry Cronin. John Devoy, who worked with Cronin, also began carrying a gun and expected to be assassinated by Alexander Sullivan's henchmen. The Cronin case, prosecuted by State's Attorney Joel Minnick Longenecker achieved international attention. Joel Minnick Longenecker (January 12 1847-September 19 1906 American farmer soldier lawyer State's Attorney, Judge gubernatorial candidate and Department Commander of Neither the prosecution or the defense were concerned with the Clan's ties to the Fenians, trying the case simply as a conspiracy to commit murder. [3] The Clan na Gael had split into pro and anti Sullivan/Boland branches, but was re-united by John Devoy around 1900.
In 1891, a moderate offshoot of the Clan na Gael broke away and formed an organization under the name of Irish National Federation of America with T. Emmet as president. The federation supported the National Party in Ireland, a splinter group of Parnell's Home Rule Party. The Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP (commonly called the Irish Party was formed in 1882 by Charles Stewart Parnell, the leader of the Nationalist Party, replacing Home rule refers to a demand that constituent parts of a state be given greater self-government within the greater administrative purview of the central government
The objective of Clan na Gael was to secure an independent Ireland and to assist the Irish Republican Brotherhood in achieving this aim. To this end, the Clan was prepared to enter into alliances with any nation allied against the British; with the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, the Clan found its greatest ally in Imperial Germany and it was with their help the Easter Rising would succeed. World War I (abbreviated WWI; also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All The German Empire is the name commonly used in English to describe Germany from 1871 to 1918 when it was a semi- Constitutional monarchy: beginning with the Unification The Easter Rising (Éirí Amach na Cásca was a rebellion staged in Ireland in Easter Week, 1916 Devoy, along with Roger Casement and Joseph McGarrity, was able to bring together both the American and German support in the years prior to the Easter Rising. Roger David Casement (Ruairí Mac Easmainn 1 September 1864 &ndash 3 August 1916 ( Sir Roger Casement CMG between 1911 and until his execution for treason in August Joseph McGarrity (1874-1940 was born in Carrickmore, County Tyrone. Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. The Easter Rising (Éirí Amach na Cásca was a rebellion staged in Ireland in Easter Week, 1916 However the German munitions never reached Ireland as the ship carrying them was scuttled. Clan na Gael became the largest single financier of both the Easter Rising and the Irish War of Independence. The Irish War of Independence (or Tan War, or Anglo-Irish War, Irish: Cogadh na Saoirse) from January 1919 to July 1921 was a guerrilla Imperial Germany aided Clan na Gael by selling those guns and munitions to be used in the uprising of 1916. Germany had hoped that by distracting Britain with an Irish uprising they would be able to garner the upper hand in the war and affect a German victory on the Western Front. See Western Front (disambiguation for other meanings Western Front was a term used during the First and Second World However, they failed to follow through with more support. Clan na Gael was also involved via McGarrity and Casement in the abortive attempt to raise an "Irish Brigade" to fight against the British. The " Irish Brigade " was an attempt by Sir Roger Casement to form an Irish nationalist military unit during World War I, among Irishmen The Clan Na Gael is also accepted to have been a major supporter of the Ghadarite Indian Nationalism, and is thought to have played a key role in the Hindu German Conspiracy in the United States during World War I. The Ghadar Party was an organization founded by Indians of the United States and Canada in June 1913 with the aim to liberate India from The United States of America —commonly referred to as the World War I (abbreviated WWI; also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All [4]
The Clan-na-Gael still exists today, much changed from the days of the Catalpa rescue and as recently as 1997 another internal split occurred as a result of the IRA shift away from using physical force as a result of the Good Friday peace accords. [5]
From its founding in 1869, although heavily influenced by founder John Devoy over the years, the organiaztion was nominally under the control of an executive committee. At a conference held in Chicago during 1881, the committee was reduced to five members. However, within a short time, the committee would come under the domination of Michael Boland, D. S. Freely and national chairman Alexander Sullivan who together were known as "the Triangle".