- THE BOLD FENIAN MEN
Original Airdate: December 18, 1960
Synopsis. The Irish Revolutionary Brotherhood, also known as the Fenians, are trained soldiers sworn to free Ireland from British rule. The Fenians have gathered in Dakota City (under the banner of the First Annual Convention of the Sons of the Shamrock Chowder and Marching Society) to plan a march into Canada—they want to hold a small part of that British property hostage in exchange for Ireland’s freedom. After England pressures the United States to intervene, a shrewd Army colonel “blackmails” Beau Maverick into infiltrating the Fenians’ ranks.
The Fenians really existed. “They came to the United States at the time of the Civil War,” Maverick producer Coles Trapnell said in an interview for Maverick: Legend of the West. “They fought on both sides—some for the Confederacy, some for the Union. After the war, they drifted up to the Northeast United States, and hatched their plot to take over Canada. The U.S. Secret Service nipped it in the bud, arrested all the Fenians, and deported them back to Ireland.”
