Take Home Exam:

The Dynamite Campaign:

Terror, Religion, and Redemption in the Victorian Age

Lennard Pater 4160959 Prof. dr. B. de Graaf Course 16 – 12 – 2018 1999 Words

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Introduction During the first years of the 1880s the city of was, in the words of Shane Kenna, ‘under siege by an invisible opponent’1. London had been confronted with a bombing campaign, launched from the United States by the Irish nationalist – or ‘Fenian’ – Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa.2 These bombings were not limited to London: the dynamite campaign also struck and other cities in and Schotland.3 What all these bombings had in common was that they targeted strategic goals. Therefore ‘the Fenian dynamite campaign was strategic terrorism. For four years targets included institutions of symbolic and public importance, public areas and transport infrastructure’4. The bombed those places which were of significance for England, including the and the government buildings at , which were bombed in 18835 and 18856. These bombings, spurred by the invention of dynamite in 1867, are seen by some, for instance Bruce Hoffman7, as belonging to the first acts of modern terrorism, given that ‘it was at this time that patterns and modus operandi first appeared that would become standard terrorist operating procedures decades later’8. Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa did indeed consider himself a terrorist and saw his method of attempting to blow up important places as a form of innovative terrorism.9 This essay will try to discover the role of religion within this innovative form of terrorism and aims at learning whether any striving for redemption was involved in the dynamite campaign. In order to fulfil this purpose it endeavours to answer the following question: to what extent was the Fenian dynamite campaign of 1881 – 1885 religiously inspired and was there any role for redemption in that campaign? Whilst trying to answer this question, the essay uses, apart from the concept of redemption, Louise Richardson’s three motives for terrorism, i.e. revenge, renown and reaction10, and David Rapoport’s four waves of terrorism.11

1 Shane Kenna, War in the Shadows: The Irish-American Fenians Who Bombed Victorian Britain (Newbridge: Merion Press, 2013), 86. 2 Niall Whelehan, The Dynamiters: Irish Nationalism and Political Violence in the Wider World, 1867 – 1900 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012), 61. 3 Kenna, War in the Shadows, 125 – 126. 4 Kenna, War in the Shadows, 24. 5 The New York Times, “The Dispensation of Dynamite: 16 March 1883”, https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1883/03/16/102805192.pdf, 15 – 12 - 2018. 6 Whelehan, The Dynamiters, 2. 7 Bruce Hoffman, “Chapter 1: Defining Terrorism,” in Inside Terrorism, revised and expanded edition (New York: Columbia University Press, 2006), 10. 8 Ibidem. 9 Patrick Freyne, “‘O’Dynamite’ Rossa: Was Fenian leader the first terrorist?”, https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/heritage/o-dynamite-rossa-was-fenian-leader-the- first-terrorist-1.2303447, 14 – 12 – 2018. 10 Louise Richardson, “What Terrorists Want”, (Vienna: Renner Institut, 2007), 1 – 5. 11 David C. Rapoport, “The Four Waves of Modern Terrorism,” in Attacking Terrorism. Elements of a Grand Strategy, edited by A.K. Cronin and J.M. Ludes (Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2004), 46 – 73. 2

Macro-level: Ireland, the Great Famine, and Desire for Independence We will start our enquiry into the Fenian dynamite campaign by looking at it from the macro-level, analysing the root causes. Here the position of Ireland is relevant. Ireland had become united with England and Scotland in the Act of Union of 1801.12 This Act of Union did not grant the Irish political independence from London. Quite the reverse: “The Irish were regarded as one section of the nation’s citizenry who could ill-afford to do without government intervention and control.”13 And when they did require the intervention of the British government, e.g. during the Great Famine of 1845 until 1850, the government let them down.14 This caused much ill-feeling among the Irish and increased their desire for independence from England. Further Irish anger occurred when Lord Russell, the British Prime Minister, proposed a bill in 1851 which was to prevent the pope from creating Catholic bishops in the United Kingdom.15 Given that ‘the United Kingdom’s Catholics were overwhelmingly located in Ireland’16, this led to opposition between Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom. Russell attacked the pope – and thus the Catholic Irish – in the House of Commons and said that ‘there is no country in Europe, however great or however small—no country which values its own independence—upon which the Pope would have attempted to pass this insult which he has offered to the kingdom of England’17. Note that the British Prime Minister here speaks of the kingdom of England. This illustrates the position of the Irish: they were excluded from the kingdom, despite the Act of Union of 1801. The Irish were not only grieved by this attack of Lord Russell on the Pope and their Catholic Church, but also by the inequality between the Anglican and Catholic Churches: the Anglican Church was wealthy, whereas the Catholic Church was ‘subsisting on the offerings of the poor’18. The Irish hence felt both politically and religiously maltreated by the English. These feelings of discontent strengthened opposition to the British rule in Ireland, leading eventually to O’Donovan Rossa’s dynamite campaign of the 1880s.

12 Encyclopedia Britannica, “Act of Union”, https://www.britannica.com/event/Act-of- Union-United-Kingdom-1801, 15 – 12 – 2018. 13 Brian Jenkins, The Fenian Problem Insurgency and Terrorism in a Liberal State, 1858-1874 (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2008), 7. 14 Peter Gray, “The Great Famine: 1845 – 1850,” in The Cambridge History of Ireland, edited by James Kelly (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018), 650 – 658. 15 Paul Bew, “The Fenian Impulse,” in Ireland: The Politics of Enmity (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), 236. 16 Colin Barr, “The Re-Energising of Catholicism: 1790 - 1880,” in The Cambridge History of Ireland, edited by James Kelly (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018), 298. 17 Lord John Russell, “Papal Aggression,” in Hansard: 7 February 1851, https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1851/feb/07/papal-aggression- ecclesiastical-titles#S3V0114P0_18510207_HOC_9, 15 – 12 – 2018. 18 Philip Magnus, Gladstone: A Biography (London: Penguin, 2001), 67. 3

Micro-level: O’Donovan Rossa’s Prison Life Who was this Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa and what made him launch a dynamite campaign? The Irishman O’Donovan Rossa had been involved in rebellious activities in the 1860s and had been imprisoned in 1865.19 After receiving amnesty as a result of being badly treated in an English prison, he decided to move to New York in 1871, not being allowed to live in Ireland.20 It was from there that he started the bombing campaign, the agents of which were called ‘skirmishers’.21 He explained his motives by arguing that ‘it is no use appealing to the English government for justice for an Irishman in any way but dynamite, or other scientific means’22. Violence was considered necessary in order to achieve Irish independence from England. That was a view O’Donovan Rossa held for a long time: he held it whilst composing his Prison Life in the 1860s and during the decades thereafter. According to him, ‘all tactics were permissible in the war against England’23. Here we perceive the desire for revenge, which Richardson deems the most common motive for a terrorist deed and which is often associated with ‘a wrong inflicted on the community with which they identify’24. Ireland had been wronged and O’Donovan Rossa wanted revenge. It is in his case, however, not solely revenge: he also considers the British rule over Ireland to be without legitimacy. He wrote in his prison diaries: “If the British flag floats in Ireland, and if the impress of British dominion is on the land, nevertheless it is not England nor England’s by right; it is Irish and belongs to the Irish.”25 That it belonged to the Irish should be established by violence. The desire for national self-determination was thus the dominant desire in O’Donovan Rossa’s breast. That desire is, in Rapoport’s waves theory, especially a feature of the second wave of terrorism, whereas the first wave, to which O’Donovan Rossa belongs historically, consists of anarchist targeting eminent people.26 However, Rapoport does claim that ‘nationalist organizations in various numbers appear in all waves’27. Nonetheless, O’Donovan Rossa already acted as a terrorist from the second wave: in the method of bombing symbolic places, rather than assassinating individuals.28

19 Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa, Prison Life: Six Years in Six English Prisons (New York: P.J. Kenedy, 1874), 72, https://archive.org/details/odonovanrossaspr00odon, 14 – 12 – 2018 20 Jonathan W. Gantt, “Irish-American Terrorism and Anglo-American Relations, 1881- 1885,” in The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, Vol. 5, No. 4 (2006), 330. 21 Shane Kenna, “The Revolutionary Life and Afterlife of Jeremiah O’ Donovan Rossa,” in History Ireland, Vol. 23, No. 4 (2015), 26 – 30. 22 Kenna, War in the Shadows, 93. 23 Whelehan, The Dynamiters, 154. 24 Richardson, “What Terrorists Want”, 4. 25 O’Donovan Rossa, Prison Life, 14. 26 Rapoport, “The Four Waves of Modern Terrorism”, 52 – 54. 27 Ibidem, 47. 28 Ibidem, 54. 4

Are there now also elements of the fourth wave to be perceived here, especially the religious component, being at the core of that fourth wave?29 That seems likely because of the religious differences between Ireland and England. O’Donovan Rossa himself concludes that ‘religion and politics are as yet in Ireland inseparable’30. Nevertheless, the religious element seems to have been conquered by the desire for Irish self-determination in O’Donovan Rossa’s case. An example is his attitude towards the Bible, the one book they allowed him to keep when he was punished in prison:

During these twenty-eight days on bread and water I got no books, but they were so liberal as to allow me to retain my Bible, and so little thankful was I to them for this, that it often came into my mind to tear the book in pieces, in order to show my contempt for their hypocritical regard for it, when they were treating me in all other ways in a wholly unchristian spirit.31 That religion plays a considerable role in a conflict, such as the conflict between the Irish and the English, need not entail that those people who become involved in terrorism in that conflict will refer to certain religious beliefs in order to justify their actions. O’Donovan Rossa simply wanted, as he already said twenty years before the dynamite campaign begun, ‘to strike terror into her [i.e. England]’32. The dynamite campaign was deemed appropriate because it brought O’Donovan Rossa renown and reaction. Shane Kenna ascertains: “The Fenian dynamitards […] targeted infrastructure in order to disrupt daily life and undermine the public’s confidence.”33 O’Donovan Rossa gained notoriety for his cause as a result of the bombings for which he was, albeit from America, responsible. And O’Donovan Rossa had more personal reasons as well. He ‘was deeply embittered by his treatment in British prisons’34. His Prison Life, which he composed some twenty years before the bombings, testifies to his feeling that he was maltreated.35 So religion was in his case only of minor importance. The desire for Irish independence and the will to obtain revenge for the way he had been treated were predominant. This micro-level conclusion confronts us with a question: is the terrorism, such as the bombing campaign, first and foremost about being Catholic (religious), or rather about being Irish (national self-determination)? For O’Donovan Rossa it is the latter: Irish first, Catholic second. The feeling of being different from the English or the British is not caused in O’Donovan Rossa’s case by religious differences, but is rather rooted in the feeling of being Irish.

29 Rapoport, “The Four Waves of Modern Terrorism”, 61. 30 O’Donovan Rossa, Prison Life, 4. 31 Ibidem, Page 296. 32 Ibidem, Page 318. 33 Kenna, War in the Shadows, 123. 34 Whelehan, The Dynamiters, 176. 35 O’Donovan Rossa, Prison Life, 1 – 440. 5

Meso-level: The Fenians and the Dynamite Campaign This is also the impression one acquires when seeing the Fenian dynamite campaign from the meso-level. The Fenians came together ‘in friendly brotherhood for the Irish cause’36, establishing the Irish Republican Brotherhood, which has inspired O’Donovan Rossa. This organisation sprang from the activities of James Stephens37 and ‘was committed to achieving an independent through insurrectionary means. When staged in 1867, their uprising quickly collapsed and the organisation was widely suppressed’38. This suppression led to a transformation in the methods of the group: they changed from regular warfare to terrorism. Niall Whelehan states that the failure of the uprising of 1867 ‘led some Fenians to rethink militant nationalism in ways that transgressed routines of action and recognised the tactical limitations of regular warfare’39. The decision to apply terrorism by bombing was made as a result of the outcome of earlier attempts of achieving by political goals through military violence: through terrorism by bombing they hoped to achieve the desired reaction from England.40 In O’Donovan Rossa’s case this caused the birth of a group called , which was later to cooperate with the Irish Republic Brotherhood.41 In order to pay for the bombings, O’Donovan Rossa established a skirmishing fund,42 which allowed him to set up a bombing academy, to train skirmishers: the Brooklyn Dynamite School.43 Did the actions of the organisation O’Donovan Rossa established here also involve redemption, being, in Dan MacAdams’ definition, ‘a deliverance from suffering to a better world’44? Redemption is certainly to be perceived in this example. O’Donovan Rossa declared, and his skirmishers practiced, that one should be willing to suffer for Ireland and to commit considerable violence for Ireland, so as to free the country from English rule, i.e. so as to ensure that Ireland was redeemed from the oppression and maltreatment by the English.45 So whereas the religious component of the conflict did not increase or motivate the violence between the bombing campaign, the desire for redemption did. This desire for redemption can hence be combined, within terrorist activity, with the striving for national self-determination.

36 Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa, Recollections: 1838 – 1898 (New York: Mariner’s Harbor, 1898), 205, https://archive.org/details/rossasrecollecti00odon/page/n7, 15 – 12 – 2018. 37 Bew, “The Fenian Impulse”, 245. 38 Whelehan, The Dynamiters, 1. 39 Ibidem, 71. 40 Richardson, “What Terrorists Want”, 4 – 5. 41 Hoffman, “Chapter 1: Defining Terrorism”, 8 – 10. 42 Kenna, War in the Shadows, 27 – 30. 43 Niall Whelehan, “Scientific Warfare or the Quickest Way to Liberate Ireland: The Brooklyn Dynamite School,” in in History Ireland, Vol. 23, No. 4 (2015), 42 – 45. 44 Dan MacAdams, The Redemptive Self: Stories Americans Live By (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), 7. 45 O’Donovan Rossa, Prison Life, 1 – 4. 6

Conclusion We asked in the introduction of this essay: to what extent was the Fenian dynamite campaign of 1881 – 1885 religiously inspired and was there any role for redemption in that campaign? This enquiry has taught us that ultimately religion was of relatively minor importance: O’Donovan Rossa and his men primarily desired independence for Ireland, regardless of the Catholic identity of the country, as opposed to the Protestant character of the English. Religion therefore did not intensify their willingness to commit violence, i.e. to launch a dynamite campaign in England and in Scotland. The religious differences between Ireland and England were subordinate to the strong desire of these Irish men to gain independence, in accordance with the second wave of terrorism. However, their actions did, apart from the desire for revenge, renown and action – described by Richardson as the three secondary motives of terrorists – contain the element of redemption, which in this case involved the willingness to relieve the Irish people from their suffering, to redeem the suffering of the Irish people under English rule.

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Bibliography Barr, “The Re-Energising of Catholicism: 1790 - 1880,” in The Cambridge History of Ireland, edited by James Kelly. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018. Pages 280 – 304. Bew, Paul. “The Fenian Impulse,” in Ireland: The Politics of Enmity. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007. Pages 231 – 301. Encyclopedia Britannica, “Act of Union”, https://www.britannica.com/event/Act-of-Union-United-Kingdom-1801, 15 – 12 – 2018. Freyne, Patrick. “‘O’Dynamite’ Rossa: Was Fenian leader the first terrorist?”, https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/heritage/o-dynamite-rossa-was- fenian-leader-the-first-terrorist-1.2303447, 14 – 12 – 2018. Gantt, Jonathan W. “Irish-American Terrorism and Anglo-American Relations, 1881-1885,” in The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, Vol. 5, No. 4 (2006), Pages 325 – 357. Gray, Peter. “The Great Famine: 1845 – 1850,” in The Cambridge History of Ireland, edited by James Kelly. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018. Pages 650 – 658. Hoffman, Bruce. “Chapter 1: Defining Terrorism,” in Inside Terrorism, revised and expanded edition. New York: Columbia University Press, 2006. Pages 1 – 41. Jenkins, The Fenian Problem Insurgency and Terrorism in a Liberal State, 1858-1874. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2008. Kenna, Shane. “The Revolutionary Life and Afterlife of Jeremiah O’ Donovan Rossa,” in History Ireland, Vol. 23, No. 4 (2015), 26 – 30. Kenna, Shane. War in the Shadows: The Irish-American Fenians Who Bombed Victorian Britain. Newbridge: Merion Press, 2013. MacAdams, Dan. The Redemptive Self: Stories Americans Live By. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006. Magnus, Philip. Gladstone: A Biography. London: Penguin, 2001. O’ Donovan Rossa, Jeremiah. Prison Life: Six Years in Six English Prisons (New York: P.J. Kenedy, 1874) https://archive.org/details/odonovanrossaspr00odon, 14 – 12 – 2018 O’ Donovan Rossa, Jeremiah. Recollections: 1838 – 1898 (New York: Mariner’s Harbor, 1898) https://archive.org/details/rossasrecollecti00odon/page/n7, 15 – 12 – 2018.

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Rapoport, David C. “The Four Waves of Modern Terrorism,” in Attacking Terrorism. Elements of a Grand Strategy, edited by A.K. Cronin and J.M. Ludes. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2004. Pages 46 – 73. Richardson, Louise. “What Terrorists Want”. Vienna: Renner Institut, 2007. Pages 1 – 5. Russell, Lord John. “Papal Aggression,” in Hansard: 7 February 1851, https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1851/feb/07/papal- aggression-ecclesiastical-titles#S3V0114P0_18510207_HOC_9, 15 – 12 – 2018. The New York Times, “The Dispensation of Dynamite: 16 March 1883”, https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1883/03/16/10280519 2.pdf, 15 – 12 -2018. Whelehan, Niall. “Scientific Warfare or the Quickest Way to Liberate Ireland: The Brooklyn Dynamite School,” in in History Ireland, Vol. 23, No. 4 (2015), 42 – 45. Whelehan, Niall. The Dynamiters: Irish Nationalism and Political Violence in the Wider World, 1867 – 1900. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012.

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