Felipe Arraño’s Reviews > Age of Assassins > Status Update

The Fenians, Irish Republican Brotherhood (p. 156). Fenians and Nihilists could be seen as parallel cases (p. 164). Murders of Burke and Cavendish (secretaries) in Phoenix Park by hands of the Irish National Invincibles (p. 181). The shocking intimacy of the murders meant more than exposure of the weakness of British security; it brought the ruling class face to face with the mob that threatened it (p. 187). For some British, the killings showed the futility of reconciliation with Irish, the impossibility of compromise; there would either have to be direct, authoritarian rule, or the surrender of Ireland to the Irish (p. 188). Twenty men stood trial for the Phoenix Park killings, four turned to be informers, including James Carey, one of the principal leaders of the Invincibles and the one who had planned the murders (p. 191). Carey exchanged information for his own freedom; which caused him to be hated by Irish nationalists (p. 193). Carey and his family were escaping to South Africa in the summer of 1883, arranged with the government, in order to leave Ireland (p. 194). Carey was recognized and killed (p. 195).