Stephens, James

Founder of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) and a key figure in the creation of the transatlantic Irish revolutionary republican movement, James Stephens (1824–1901) was born in Kilkenny in 1825. Early in his life, Stephens worked as a civil engineer on the Limerick and Waterford railway and later served as aide-de-camp to William Smith O'Brien in the 1848 insurrection, a brief and somewhat halfhearted attempt to secure Irish independence. After this unsuccessful rising Stephens escaped to Paris, where he lived with fellow '48 veteran John O'Mahony amid large numbers of exiles from other failed revolutions across Europe.

In 1856 and 1857 Stephens toured Ireland to gauge public opinion on a new uprising. Convinced that he could build a substantial following, in 1858 Stephens founded the IRB, a secret, oath-bound organization dedicated to establishing an independent Irish republic through armed force. Shortly thereafter, O'Mahony founded a sister organization in the United States, the Fenian Brotherhood, which eventually lent its name to the entire international movement. From its earliest days, Fenianism wanted more for money and arms than for recruits. The movement was strongest in urban areas, though it had members in every part of Ireland as well as within the British army.

In 1863 Stephens launched the Irish People, a popular newspaper that featured political writings and nationalistic ballads, in an effort to raise money for the movement and unite the U.S. and Irish organizations. The movement peaked in terms of manpower and morale in 1865, which Stephens promised would be the "Year of Irish Liberty." But before any rising could take place, the offices of the Irish People were raided and several leading Fenians, including Stephens, were arrested. Stephens was briefly imprisoned but escaped in a dramatic rescue operation and then made his way to the United States, where the movement was beginning to fracture. In the United States Stephens declared that 1866 would be the year of Ireland's freedom, but took few concrete steps to fulfill this promise. Irish-American Fenians, now led principally by veterans of the Civil War, became convinced that Stephens was no longer willing to risk open revolt and imprisonment. At a turbulent meeting in December 1866 the founder of the Fenians was removed as head of his own organization.

While Stephens continued to remain involved in Irish revolutionary circles, he no longer wielded any influence. After years of exile in Paris, he returned to Ireland in 1891 and died on 29 March 1901. Stephens is often remembered for reviving the tradition of Irish revolutionary republicanism, but his most important contribution was harnessing the resources and Anglophobia of postfamine Irish America.

Stephens, James

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