War in the Shadows

The Irish-American Fenians who Bombed Victorian Britain

By: Shane Kenna

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Fenian bombers revolutionised the concept of political violence in the nineteenth century. Between 1881 and 1885, Irish-American Fenian bombers known popularly as Dynamitards, undertook a sustained bombing campaign in Victorian London. For the first time in British history, through an integrated use of explosives and timers and utilising modern technology, the Irish question was not confined to Ireland but now affected daily life in British cities through the unprecedented experience of political violence. To meet this challange the British state established a secret service reliant on a network of spies, agent-provocateurs and informers operating outside of law and removed from official transparency. This is the history of the Fenian dynamite campaign and also the story of how the British state responded to an adversary fighting a war in the shadows, It is the story of conspiracy and counter-conspiracy, and will greatly contribute to the existing knowledge on late Victorian Ireland.