So who were some of the major leaders of this movement?

This movement is undertaken by a group that's called the Fenian Brotherhood, and it's founded in the United States in 1858.

And it's a sister organization to a group called the Irish Republican Brotherhood that was founded in Dublin in 1858 as well.

And the IRB is actually, you can draw a through line from the IRB to the IRA that we know in modern times, and certainly the IRA that was fighting in the War of Irish Independence.

The leaders of the organization were Irish immigrants.

A lot of them were involved in the failed Young Ireland Rebellion in 1848.

And originally the idea was they were going to form this organization in the United States, the Fenian Brotherhood, where they're going to raise money by weapons and they were going to ship them to the IRB to launch another revolution in Ireland.

So I can't imagine that the federal government was very happy about this.