James Stephens (Fenian)

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James Stephens (1824-1901)

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 known as the I.R.B. or Irish Republican Brotherhood.^[1][2].

[edit] Early life

James Stephens was born at Lilac Cottage, Blackmill Street, Kilkenny in 1824. No birth or baptismal records have ever been located. The son of John and Anne Stephens, he was known to have had at least one sibling, a sister named Anne. For many years his father was a clerk to auctioneer and bookseller William Douglas Jackson of Rose Inn Street. References to his early life, according to his biographer Desmond Ryan, are obscure and limited to Stephens' own vague autobiographical recollections. An omnivorous reader he was a silent and aloof student with a thirst for knowledge, which became a characteristic of him all his life. Aged 20, Stephens became a civil engineer and obtained a post in a Kilkenny office for the work then in progress on the Limerick and Waterford Railway.^[3]

[edit] Young Ireland

Stephens played an active part during the 1848 Rebellion and was present in Ballingarry at the Council of War held on 28 July 1848. During this time he became aide de camp to William Smith O'Brien leader of the Rebellion. Stephens was wounded during a clash at Thurles when the police closed in on him and his comrades. ^[4] Reports of his death were published in the Kilkenny Moderator on 19 August with the intention of tricking the authorities off his trail.^[5] Stephens fled Ireland and escaped to France were he remained for the next seven years.

[edit] Founding of the IRB

John O'Mahony (1816-1877)

After the collapse of the 48 rebellion James Stephens and John O'Mahony went to the Continent to avoid arrest. In Paris they supported themselves through teaching and translation work and planned the next stage of "the fight to overthrow British rule in Ireland."^[6] Stephen's in Paris, set himself three tasks, during his seven years of exile. They were, to keep alive, pursue knowledge, and master the technique of conspiracy. At this time Paris particularly, was interwoven with a network of secret political societies. They became members of one the most powerful of these societies and acquired the secrets of some of the ablest and "most profound masters of revolutionary science" which the nineteenth century had produced, as to the means of inviting and combining people for the purposes of successful revolution. ^[7]

In 1853 O'Mahony went to America and founded the Emmet Monument Association^[8][9] Stephens in early 1856 began making his way back to Ireland, stopping first in London. ^[10] On arriving in Dublin, Stephens began what he described as his three thousand mile walk through Ireland, meeting some of those who had taken part in the 1848 /49 revolutionary movements, including Philip Gray, Thomas Clarke Luby and Peter Langan. ^[11]

Joseph Denieffe

In the autumn of 1857, a messenger, Owen Considine arrived from New York with a message for Stephens from members ^[12] of the Emmet Monument Association, calling on him to get up an organization in Ireland. Considine also carried a private letter from O’Mahony to Stephen’s which was a warning as to the condition of the organisation in New York, which was overlook by Luby and Stephens at the time. Both had believed that there was a strong organisation behind the letter, only later to find it was a number of loosely linked groups. ^[13]

Thomas Clarke Luby

On the 23 December Stephen's dispatched Joseph Denieffe to America with his reply which was disguised as a business letter, and dated and addressed from Paris. In his reply Stephen’s outline his conditions and his requirements from the organisation in America. ^[14] Stephens demanded uncontrolled power and £100 a month for the first three months.^[15] Denieffe returned on the 17 March 1858 with the acceptance of Stephens terms and £80. Denieffe also reported that there was no actual organized body of sympathizers in New York but merely a loose knot of associates. This disturbed Stephens but he went ahead regardlessand and that evening, St. Patrick's Day, the Irish Republican Brotherhood commenced. ^[16][17]

The original oath, with its clauses of secrecy was drawn up by Luby under Stephens direction in Stephens room in Donnelly’s which was situated behind Lombard Street. Luby then swore Stephens in and he did likewise. The oat read:^[18]

Those present in Langan's, lathe-maker and timber merchant, 16 Lombard Street for that first meeting apart from Stephens and Luby were Peter Langan, Charles Kickham, Joseph Denieffe^[19] and Garrett O'Shaughnessy. ^[20][21] Later it would include members of the Phoenix National and Literary Society, which was formed in 1856 by Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa in Skibbereen.^[22]

[edit] Irish People

Denis Dowling Mulcahy, Thomas Clarke Luby and John O'Leary

In mid 1863 Stephens informed his colleagues he wished to start a newspaper, with finical aid from O’Mahony and the Fenian Brotherhood in America. The offices were established at 12 Parliament Street, almost at the gates of Dublin Castle.^[23] The first number of the Irish people appeared on 28 November, 1863. ^[24] The staff of the paper along with Kickham were Luby and Denis Dowling Mulcahy as the editorial staff. O’Donovan Rossa and James O’Connor had charge of the business office, with John Haltigan being the printer. John O'Leary was brought from London to take charge in the role of Editor. ^[25] Shortly after the establishment of the paper, Stephens departed on an America tour, and to attend to organizational matters. ^[26]Before leaving, he entrusted to Luby a document containing secret resolutions on the Committee of Organization or Executive of the IRB. Though Luby intimated its existence to O’Leary, he did not inform Kickham as there seemed no necessity. This document would later form the basis of the prosecution against the staff of the Irish People. The document read: ^[27]

On the 15 July 1865 American made plans for a rising in Ireland were discovered when the emissary lost them at Kingstown railway station. They found their way to Dublin Castle and to Superintendent Daniel Ryan head of G Division. Ryan had an informer within the offices of the Irish People named Pierce Nagle, he supplied Ryan with an “action this year” message on its way to the IRB unit in Tipperary. With this information, Ryan raided the offices of the Irish People on Thursday 15 September, followed by the arrests of O’Leary, Luby and O’Donovan Rossa. Kickham was caught after a month on the run. ^[28] Stephens would also be caught but with the support of Fenian prison warders, John J. Breslin^[29] and Daniel Byrne was less than a fortnight in Richmond Bridewell when he vanished and escaped to France.^[30] The last number of the paper is dated 16 September, 1865. ^[31].

[edit] Conclusion

His house in Kilkenny, situated near the Church of Ireland Cathedral, is marked by a plaque.

Stephens and O'Leary buried side by side. A Panel on the Celtic cross reads: "A day, an hour of virtuous liberty is worth a whole eternity in bondage."

[edit] References

[edit] Sources

• Cronin, Sean. The McGarrity Papers, Anvil Books, Ireland, 1972
• O'Sullivan, T. F. Young Ireland, The Kerryman Ltd. 1945
• Rossa, O'Donovan. Rossa's Recollections, 1838 to 1898, Mariner's Harbor, NY, 1898
• Ryan, Desmond. The Fenian Chief: A Biography of James Stephens, Hely Thom LTD, Dublin, 1967
• Leon Ó Broin, Fenian Fever: An Anglo-American Delemma, Chatto & Windus, London, 1971, ISBN 0 7011 1749 4.
• John O'Leary, Recollections of Fenians and Fenianism, Downey & Co., Ltd, London, 1896 (Vol. I & II)
• Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa, Rossa's Recollections, 1838 to 1898 Mariner"s Harbor, NY, 1898
• Dr. Mark F. Ryan,Fenian Memories, Edited by T.F. O'Sullivan, M. H. Gill & Son, LTD, Dublin, 1945
• Kathleen Clarke, Revolutionary Woman: My Fight for Ireland's Freedom, O'Brien Press, Dublin, 1997, ISBN 0 86278 245 7
• Christy Campbell, Fenian Fire: The British Government Plot to Assassinate Queen Victoria, HarperCollins, London, 2002, ISBN 0 00 710483 9