Author: Christopher Klein 
Title: When the Irish Invaded Canada: The Incredible True Story of the Civil War Veterans Who Fought for Ireland’s Freedom
Publication Info: Doubleday (2019)
Summary/Review:
Several years back I first heard about how Irish revolutionaries attempted to invade Canada from the United States and thought to myself “That would make a good movie!” But I never knew the details until I read this history book.
The invasions, known as the Fenian Raids, occurred from 1866 to 1871 with attempts by Irish Republicans to cross the border from Maine to New Brunswick, Vermont and northern New York to Quebec, Buffalo to Ontario, and the Dakota Territory into Manitoba. The purpose of these raids was to capture territory of the United Kingdom in hopes of drawing supporters to the cause and perhaps even exchanging Canada for Ireland’s independence.
Klein sets the stage for the Fenian Raids by establishing the 19th-century perspective that Americans had on borders. The practice of filibustering, private military expeditions across borders, was well known at the time, especially with Mexico. The United States and Canada also had many border conflicts and Manifest Destiny looked north as well as west, with many Americans assuming that all or parts of Canada would one day become the United States. Finally, there was resentment against Great Britain for tacitly supporting the Confederacy during the Civil War which made it possible that some people within government might turn a blind eye to incursions across the Canadian border.
Ireland had suffered the potato blight and Great Hunger of the 1840s and 1850s which caused the death of over a million and the emigration of at least a million more. The survivors within Ireland used the cavalier indifference of the British to their starvation as impetus to revive the fight for independence. The Young Ireland movement of the 1840s was succeeded by the secret society of the Irish Republican Brotherhood. With so many Irish immigrants in the United States, it became a place where Irish Republicans could raise money and organize freely. The Fenian Brotherhood was founded in New York City in 1858 where they established headquarters and a government-in-exile.
Or I should say, two headquarters, because much like Irish Republican movements throughout history, the Fenian Brotherhood was divided by infighting. One of the contentious issues was whether to invade Canada or to focus solely and supporting an uprising in Ireland. Klein notes that both Fenian branches would succumb to popular pressure and support raids in to Canada at different times.
Irish-born soldiers made up a large proportion of the men who fought on the front lines on both sides of the Civil War. Some of them specifically enlisted in order to gain the military experience they could then use to fight for Ireland’s liberation, and in the early raids, the officers and troops were predominately Civil War veterans. The Irish invaders had success early on at the Battle of Ridgeway, across the Niagara River from Buffalo, on June 2, 1866 where they defeated reservists and militias from Toronto and Hamilton. This proved to be the only victory in the cause for Irish independence in-between the Irish Rebellion of 1798 and the Irish War of Independence in 1919.
The raids more typically were a comedy of errors. The Fenian Brotherhood faced as much trouble with the United States government enforcing the Neutrality Act as they did with British and Canadian military forces. But hubris and lack of organization were their biggest obstacles. Again and again, the Fenians gathered together a small band to strike into Canada with the optimistic belief that once they start fighting people would flock to their cause, and they’d even gain support from French Canadians and the American government. On one of the last raids with the supposed goal of linking up with the Métis in Manitoba, the Fenians not only failed to make any allies but they also didn’t even manage to cross the border.
One of the great ironies is that Fenian Raids did help bring independence to a country, but not for Ireland. There was division among the provinces of Canada before the raids, but the fear of invasion lead many people to support Canadian Confederation in 1867. The Fenian Raids also played their part in the longer struggle for Irish independence, especially the key role of Irish Americans as fundraisers and organizers which persists to this day. Klein’s book takes an historical curiosity and fleshes out a story of a campaign that consumed decades of the lives of many Irish Republicans. He demonstrates how invading Canada seemed a plausible and compelling idea as well as showing why it ultimately failed. And yes, this would still make a great movie.
Favorite Passages:
The Canadian plan offered several scenarios that could result in Ireland’s independence. An attack could divert British army troops from Ireland, increasing the chances of a successful IRB uprising. It could perhaps even trigger a war between Great Britain and the United States, which had cast its land-hungry eyes northward after having expanded west and south in the prior three decades. Under another scenario, the Fenians could seize Canada and trade the colony back to the British in return for Ireland. In essence, a geopolitical kidnapping of Canada, with its ransom being Ireland’s independence. Even the plan’s proponents understood that the chances of success weren’t in their favor. But the odds would be against the Irish no matter what they did. A slim chance is all Ireland ever faced when challenging the British over the past seven centuries. The likelihood of failure might have been high, but it was guaranteed if they did nothing at all.
Recommended books:
- The Great Dan: A Biography of Daniel O’Connell by Charles Chenevix Trench
- The Man Who Made Ireland: The Life and Death of Michael Collins by Tim Pat Coogan
- The Troubles: Ireland’s Ordeal 1966-1996 and the Search for Peace by Tim Pat Coogan
- Biting At the Grave: The Irish Hunger Strikes and the Politics of Despair by Padraig O’Malley
Rating: ****
Like this:
Like Loading...
