1.1.5.1 The Irish Republican Brotherhood

• James Stephens fled to France after the uprising's collapse, where he had learned to organise secret societies, involving small circles of members who did not know other members. Upon his return to Ireland in 1856, he wanted to use this method to oppose British rule
• In 1858, Stephens established the Irish Republican Brotherhood, which wanted to create an Irish Republic and secure complete independence rather than simply repeal the union. It was mainly formed of working-class men as Stephens had become familiar with socialism whilst in France
• The IRB was more decisively in favour of revolutionary methods than Young Ireland. It employed oath swearing to secure secrecy and used a system of cells so that members only knew those in their immediate group
• Stephens and the IRB wanted to take advantage of any foreign war that Britain was involved in so that troops in Ireland would be redeployed elsewhere, leaving Britain unguarded
• By 1864 Stephens claimed that the IRB had 80,000 members. This was partly because of the death of Terrence McManus in 1861, whose funeral generated interest in Ireland after 50,000 people followed his coffin through Dublin