olitical organisation having for its object the
overthrow of English rule in Ireland and the establishment of a republic
there. The movement was initiated in the United States soon after the
great famine in Ireland of 1846-47, which, together with the harsh
exactions of the landlords, compelled many Irishmen to emigrate from
their island with a deeply-rooted sense of injustice and hatred of the
English. The Fenians organised themselves so far on the model of a
republic, having a senate at the head, with a virtual president called
the "head-centre," and various "circles" established in many parts of the
U.S. They collected funds and engaged in military drill, and sent agents
to Ireland and England. An invasion of Canada in 1866 and a rising at
home in 1867 proved abortive, as also the attack on Clerkenwell Prison in
the same year. Another attempt on Canada in 1871 and the formation of the
_Skirmishing Fund_ for the use of the _Dynamitards_ and the institution
of the _Clan-na-Gael_ leading to the "Invincibles," and the Phoenix Park
murders (1882) are later manifestations of this movement. The Home Rule
and Land League movements practically superseded the Fenian. The name is
taken from an ancient military organisation called the Fionna Eirinn,
said to have been instituted in Ireland in 300 B.C.

FERDINAND THE CATHOLIC, V. of Castile, II. of Aragon and Sicily, and
III. of Naples, born at Sos, in Aragon, married Isabella of Castile in
1849, a step by which these ancient kingdoms were united under one
sovereign power; their joint reign is one of the most glorious in the
annals of Spanish history, and in their hands Spain quickly took rank
amongst the chief European powers; in 1492 Columbus discovered America,
and the same year saw the Jews expelled from Spain and the Moorish power
crushed by the fall of Granada. In 1500-1 Ferdinand joined the French in
his conquest of Naples, and three years later managed to secure the
kingdom to himself, while by the conquest of Navarre in 1512 the entire
Spanish peninsula came under his sway. He was a shrewd and adroit ruler,
whose undoubted abilities, both as administrator and general, were,
however, somewhat marred by an unscrupulous cunning, which found a
characteristic expression in the institution of the notorious
Inquisition, which in 1480 was started by him, and became a powerful
engine for political as well as religious persecution for long years
after (1452-1516).

FERDINAND I