From Ribbonism to Hibernianism in the Post-Famine Diaspora

The chapter explores the Ribbon-style charitable associations across the Atlantic, which the exiled Confederate leaders from Ireland sought to co-opt into nationalist cause. Discussion then moves on to the Ribbon networks of 1850s Britain, where the Irish could not call on such unencumbered radical leadership. This chapter also examines some of the differences between what we might term Ribbon–Hibernians in America and in other parts of diaspora. It also considers the trend towards public Hibernian forms. In the 1860s, from Canada to New Zealand, hundreds of branches of many organisations bearing somewhere in their names the word ‘Hibernian’ became the main expression of communal Irishness.

Ribbonism, O’Connellism, and Catholicism in the 1820s and 1830s

This chapter explores the development of Ribbonism in those two turbulent decades, and considers key aspects of social, religious, and political turmoil that provided a fitting setting for the development of Ribbonism. It shows how Ribbonmen expressed at times a Catholic pro-O’Connellism, even though both the Church and ‘the Liberator’ were hostile to them. The chapter also observes the inability of O’Connell to control Ribbonism in the northern province of Ulster demonstrated in hardening Orange–Green tensions. Finally, the chapter examines canal-based proto-trade union Ribbonism and the organisation’s role as a ‘kind of proletarian underground’: a primitive form of organized labour, controlling the portering and carrying trades around docks and inland waterways

Ribbonmen, Fenians, and Hibernians: Clashes and Convergences from the 1870s

This chapter consider Ribbonism within the context of developing and competing Irish nationalisms in Ireland and in Britain from the early 1870s. In particular it explores two key themes that offer additional layers of detail to the complex and evolving nature of Irish nationalist allegiances during the period. First, it presents a case study examining intra-Catholic conflict in south Ulster between Ribbonmen and Fenians during the late 1860s and early 1870s; and secondly, it considers the origins of ‘public Ribbonism’ from around 1872 and particularly the rise to prominence of the ‘neo-Ribbon’ ancient Order of Hibernians in Ireland from the early 1890s.

Out of Defenderism: Ribbonism in the Early Nineteenth Century

This chapter assesses the earliest history of Ribbonism within the context of its origins in the aftermath of the 1798 Rising. The chapter shows that the spread of new forms of political protest from the late eighteenth century was not exclusively the result of negative factors like population pressures but is also be attributed to positive ones including greater prosperity and developing social literacy. It demonstrates that the act of Union fundamentally altered Ireland’s constitutional status. yet the union of itself did little to alter the dramatic political, cultural, economic, and social forces—some parochial, others universal—that generated popular political protest in modern Ireland.

Introduction: Defining and Refining Ribbonism

The introduction provides an overview of the phenomenon that was Ribbonism, teasing out its roots in the 1798 Rising and charting its progress from clandestine Catholic self-defence association to open political association. It does this within the framework of an assessment of the slippery meaning and varied historiography of Ribbonism and its associated organisations.

The Transnational World of Richard Jones, 1835–1842

This chapter uses the capture and imprisonment of Richard Jones, a key Ribbon society leader, to frame the increasing cross-Irish Sea connections of Ribbonism. By the 1830s Ribbonmen in Ireland frequently corresponded with Ribbonmen in Liverpool, Manchester, Edinburgh, and various other British towns and cities and members criss-crossed the Irish Sea on a regular basis. Some simply sought employment in Britain; others required sanctuary whilst in flight from the authorities in Ireland. Ribbon leaders—including Jones—travelled to Liverpool to meet with fellow Ribbonmen and Scottish- and English-based delegates made regular trips back home to attend national meetings. Britain was an integral component of the Ribbon system.

Conclusion: Ribbonism, ‘An Accretion of Mythical Subject-Matter’

The conclusion assesses the legacy of Ribbonism’s journey from clandestine secret society to muscular public arm of the Irish Parliamentary Party in the north, as well as assessing its global connections and deep historical roots.

Catholic Collectivism at Home and Abroad during the Famine Period

This chapter explores the emergence of new forms of Ribbonism in the 1840s and early 1850s, assessing their originality as well as their strong continuities with previous forms of both organized Ribbonism and generalized, scaremongering anti-Ribbonism. In the 1850s, the state retained its emphasis on the clandestine dimension. The state continued to expend considerable financial sums trying to break open rackets, rings, and networks that policemen, spies, and administrators dubbed Ribbonism. As the chapter shows, Donegal as much as Britain, and the well-trodden ground of Dublin and Belfast, would provide examples of this.

Ribbonmen in their Urban Communities during the 1850s

This chapter explores the evolution of Ribbonism from at first fairly primitive friendly societies in towns and cities in Ireland and Britain into more sophisticated Hibernian mutual aid societies which provided for injury, sickness, and death: the inevitable by-products of industrial work. It also, however, demonstrates the limits of this evolution for Ribbonmen were unable or unwilling fully to jettison their illicit activities. Proof of secret signs, oaths, and passwords was enough for a court to convict a Ribbonman, but as successive prosecution attorneys made clear such precautions would only have been necessary if there was some illegal activity to hide. As this chapter shows, concealing illegal activity under a cloak of respectable mutualism was a common Ribbon tactic, and one later borrowed by others.

Ribbon Networks in the 1820s: A Revolutionary Moment

This chapter considers Dublin Ribbonism in the age of radicalism. It frames the conspiratorial aspects of Ribbonism and the larger context of spies, informers and their collusion with the state. It introduces, through the agency of men such as Major Sirr, Dublin’s chief police official, the men who were in his pay, and the Ribbonmen whom they together put on trial. The chapter identifies the 1820s as a crucial decade in the development of Ribbon collectivism.