In the Catholic Church, Fenianism found its most dangerous foe As regards secret societies, that Church has always been uncompromising She condemns them both on moral and on social grounds. Fenianism was denounced from the altars, and individuals were refused Absolution if they declined to withdraw from the Brotherhood. The Fenians retorted by condemnation of clerical interference in political questions or by sneers at the timidity of the ecclesiastical authorities. Undoubtedly the attitude of the bishops and priests deterred great numbers of Catholics from joining the organisation. The hostility of the Constitutional Nationalist party in Ireland, though much resented by the Fenians, had less influence. The failure of the Tenant Right movement had discredited it with the country, and the new ” National League ” did not find much favour.

In 1863, a weekly paper called The Irish People was established in Dublin, for the purpose of propagating the principles of Fenianism. Its literary quality was by no means so high as that of earlier publications of a similar kind. The men who conducted it had amongst them no writer to compare with Davis or Mitchel; but its circulation was con¬siderable.In April, 1865, the American Civil War ended. The Transatlantic Irish of the North and of the South, victors and vanquished, shook hands at the end of their long strife, and many of them, turning their thoughts to their motherland far across the ocean, resolved on striking a blow to wrest the old country from the power of England.
Soon the British Government learnt, through its spies, that almost every ship that crossed the Atlantic brought to Ireland men of military experience, the motive of whose coming was scarcely concealed. In Ireland itself there was said to be a force of some 75,000 men, well drilled and fairly well armed. It was evident that the intended rising would not long be delayed.