A man I recently met is a 3rd or 4th generation Irish-American from South Boston. He said he was a member of the Feinians, which he described as a non-political, non-militant version of Sinn Fein. I’ve looked up “feinians” in google, but didn’t find anything relating to a modern group by that name, only references to what seems to be a pre-cursor to the IRA.
Do any of you know about this group?
How non-militant/non-political are they? If they aren’t either of those things, what exactly do they do?
Do they officially, through donations, etc., support militant/terrorist activities in Ireland/UK?
I’m interested in getting a better handle on this guy. He joined a local organization I belong to and his membership in the Feinians seemed very important to him. I just wanted some objective information so I could get a better idea of what he’s about.
I’ve never heard of this as an actual modern-day organisation, so it must be US-based, and pretty small. It is frequently used as sort of a generic term for Irish republicans (or by unionists as an epithet for all Irish Catholics), but it doesn’t sound as though that’s what he’s talking about.
I’ve never heard of such a group existing after the 19th century. There is history supporting the “Feinian” spelling, for Irish Republicans prior to the founding of the IRA, but in the U.S. the Fenians are the Fenian Brotherhood, a notably political and militant group of fugitive (as opposed to merely immigrant) Irish Republicans who engaged in armed insurrection and attempted to invade Canada back in the 1850s and '60s.
There is a Yahoo group for Fenians, who support a unified, Socialist Ireland; I suppose that these people may be members of an organization that does not directly engage in political or paramilitary activities. I wouldn’t call them nonpilitical, though, as their reason for being is quite political.
There may also be some Irish-Americans who call themselves Fenians out of admiration for the legendary Finn Macumhail (I think I spelled that right), a sort of Irish King Arthur; they may not have the slightest idea what the actual programme of the IRA is, but they probably hold a woolly-headed sympathy for them.
Ah. Thanks, that definitely made the google search more productive. Still haven’t found anything yet that pertains to the modern group, if it exists (except that yahoo group - I’ll have to read more of that).
Any more information anyone else might have would be great.