James Stephens (Fenier)

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James Stephens

James Stephens , Irish Séamas Mac Stiofáin (born January 26, 1825 in Kilkenny , † March 29, 1901 in Dublin ) was an Irish railway employee and founder of the Irish Republican Brotherhood , a secret organization that fought for Ireland's independence into the 20th century .

Life

Childhood and youth

James Stephens was born in Kilkenny, where his father worked as an employee of an auctioneer and bookseller. Little is known about his childhood and youth, only that he received the local St. Kieran's College and then a technical education. In 1844 he was employed in Kilkenny in the office of the Limerick and Waterford Railway .

1848 uprising

Impressed by the potato blight caused by the famine in Ireland (1845-1852), was James Stephens of Thomas Davis influenced and by the revolutionary ideas of John Mitchel, a journalist who for the newspapers The Nation and later The United Irishman on vivid Posts the suffering of the population wrote. He came into contact with the ideas of the Young Irelanders through the articles by Mitchel and James Fintan Lalor . In July 1848 he took part in the unsuccessful uprising of the Young Irelanders led by William Smith O'Brien and was wounded in the leg in a barricade fight with the police in Ballingarry, Co. Tipperary.

Stephens then fled to Paris with his comrade-in-arms John O'Mahony, where he spent the next seven years and earned his living as a teacher, journalist and translator. Stephens and O'Mahony, however, continued to make contact with political secret societies and forged plans for a revolution in Ireland.

John O'Mahony and Michael Doheny founded the Emmet Monument Association in America in 1853 , a secret paramilitary organization named after the turn of the century Irish revolutionary Robert Emmet , which aimed to attack England and ultimately the freedom of Ireland.

Establishment of the Irish Republican Brotherhood

James Stephens himself returned to Ireland in 1856, where he again sought contact with other participants in the 1848 uprising. On March 17, 1858, James Stephens and Thomas Luby Clarke founded a secret society in Dublin, sometimes called "The Society", sometimes called "The Brotherhood". From 1873 the name Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) became common. Shortly afterwards he traveled to New York, where he met O'Mahony and Doheny again. As the American counterpart to the IRB in Ireland, they founded the Fenian Brotherhood , the brotherhood of the Fenians . At that time, Fenier became a term for Irish revolutionary circles who were striving for the freedom and independence of Ireland, derived from the Fianna , the warband of the Irish legendary hero Fionn mac Cumhaill .

In 1863, with financial support from the Fenian Brotherhood, Stephens founded the Irish People newspaper in Dublin , whose editorial staff consisted almost entirely of IRB members. After the end of the American Civil War , the Fenian Brotherhood received a significant influx of experienced American officers with Irish roots who were ready to fight for the Irish home organization. There were plans for an uprising in Ireland to take place on September 20, 1865, the 62nd anniversary of the execution of Robert Emmet . However, the authorities learned of the project in advance. In a raid on the Irish People's offices, several senior IRB members were arrested in addition to James Stephens. Stephens was imprisoned in Richmond Bridewell Prison until November 1865, but escaped because two of his guards were Fenians. He fled to France again.

When it finally came to an attempted uprising by the Fenians in Ireland in 1867, which was unsuccessful in the beginning, Stephens was still in Paris. He was not allowed to return to Ireland until 1891, where he lived in Blackrock, Co. Dublin until his death in 1901 . He was buried in the Glasnevin Cemetery .

literature

  • Francis Stewart Leland Lyons: Ireland since the famine . Fontana Press, London, 10th ed. 1987, ISBN 0-00-686005-2 , pp. 123-129 and 133-136.
  • Theodore W. Moody: Fenianism, Home Rule, and the Land War (1850-91) . In: Theodore W. Moody, Francis Xavier Martin (eds.): The course of Irish history . Mercier Press, Cork, 17th ed. 1987, ISBN 0-85342-715-1 , pp. 275-294.
  • Marta Ramón: A Provisional Dictator. James Stephens and the Fenian Movement . University College Dublin Press, Dublin 2007, ISBN 978-1-904558-64-4 .
  • Desmond Ryan: The Fenian chief. A biography of James Stephens . Gill & Son, Dublin 1967.
  • Martin Wallace: Famous Irish Lives . The Applepress, Belfast 1991, ISBN 0-86281-275-5 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Francis Stewart Leland Lyons: Ireland since the famine . Fontana Press, London, 10th ed. 1987, p. 123.
  2. ↑ Desmond Ryan: The Fenian chief. A biography of James Stephens . Gill & Son, Dublin 1967, pp. 1-2.
  3. ^ Francis Stewart Leland Lyons: Ireland since the famine . Fontana Press, London, 10th ed. 1987, p. 124.
  4. ^ Francis Stewart Leland Lyons: Ireland since the famine . Fontana Press, London, 10th ed. 1987, p. 126.
  5. ^ A b Francis Stewart Leland Lyons: Ireland since the famine . Fontana Press, London, 10th ed. 1987, p. 125.
  6. ^ Theodore W. Moody: Fenianism, Home Rule, and the Land War (1850-91) . In: Theodore W. Moody, Francis Xavier Martin (eds.): The Course of Irish history . Mercier Press, Cork, 17th ed. 1987, pp. 275-294, here p. 278.
  7. ^ Francis Stewart Leland Lyons: Ireland since the famine . Fontana Press, London, 10th ed. 1987, p. 128.
  8. ^ Francis Stewart Leland Lyons: Ireland since the famine . Fontana Press, London, 10th ed. 1987, p. 134.
personal data
SURNAME Stephens, James
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mac Stiofáin, Séamas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Irish railroad worker and founder of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, a secret organization
DATE OF BIRTH January 26, 1825
PLACE OF BIRTH Kilkenny
DATE OF DEATH March 29, 1901
Place of death Dublin