FENIANISM AND IRISH DISAFFECTION. 69 



Alarmists took this dearth of evidence as another 

 cause for fear, arguing that the organisation was so 

 perfect that no one could find out what was doing. 

 Tn truth there was no real organisation in the country 

 parts, and therefore nothing to find out. But every 

 chance advantage was taken to cause fear, and the 

 timidity of the peaceable part of the community, and 

 their credulity, made them swallow anything, how- 

 ever absurd. Each small town believed that the 

 next town, fifteen and twenty miles off, was " a hot- 

 bed of Fenianism" (that was the favourite expression), 

 though its own local knowledge obliged it to confess 

 that it was not bad itself. Amongst the over- 

 whelming majority of loyal and innocent, there was 

 thus great terror, and every ridiculous story was at 

 once believed and exaggerated. Cool-headed men, to 

 whom abundant opportunities of knowledge both 

 private and public were open, and who had the 

 strongest personal motives for forming a sound judg- 

 ment, since wives, children, and all that they had were 

 at stake, said from first to last that the movement 

 was unmixed imposture, and acted accordingly. 



It is a matter of history that an outbreak was 

 attempted near Dublin and in Tipperary, and that 

 an effort was made from Cork to join the "Tipperary 

 boys." The story of Fenianism at Cork and its 

 neighbourhood, is a good illustration of what the 

 movement really was. It had considerable hold 

 there, Cork being a city of 80,000 souls and a sink 



