The term "Fenian" was created by my g-g-granduncle Col John O'Mahony, founder of the IRB, taken from the Irish word "Fianna," to describe those in opposition to foreign rule and willing to fight it; your article suggests it was a term of mockery used by Republican opponents. You are mistaken. My direct ancestor was leader of the Cork Land League in its struggle in the "Kingston Estate Episode," which historians describe as the event that broke the back of landlordism in Ireland; his statue stands in The Square in Mitchelstown; the plinth has the names of the three men shot dead when they came to arrest John Mandeville; twenty-three others were wounded, in the crowd of over 15,000 there to oppose his arrest. Unfortunately, the British murdered him by starving him in his two-month stay in Tullamore Gaol. My ancestors are likely spinning in their graves seeing how this country is being destroyed by more foreign occupation. I was brought up as a physical-force Republican, and I know we can't rid ourselves of these cowards and traitors without a fight. God Save Ireland.
The term "Fenian" was created by my g-g-granduncle Col John O'Mahony, founder of the IRB, taken from the Irish word "Fianna," to describe those in opposition to foreign rule and willing to fight it; your article suggests it was a term of mockery used by Republican opponents. You are mistaken. My direct ancestor was leader of the Cork Land League in its struggle in the "Kingston Estate Episode," which historians describe as the event that broke the back of landlordism in Ireland; his statue stands in The Square in Mitchelstown; the plinth has the names of the three men shot dead when they came to arrest John Mandeville; twenty-three others were wounded, in the crowd of over 15,000 there to oppose his arrest. Unfortunately, the British murdered him by starving him in his two-month stay in Tullamore Gaol. My ancestors are likely spinning in their graves seeing how this country is being destroyed by more foreign occupation. I was brought up as a physical-force Republican, and I know we can't rid ourselves of these cowards and traitors without a fight. God Save Ireland.