There were seven
attempts to assassinate Queen Victoria during her long reign;
four of them were of Irish origin. The most serious of all
was the Jubilee Plot, a conspiracy apparently hatched in New
York by the Fenian Brotherhood to blow up the Queen, her family
and most of the British Cabinet with dynamite at the great
service of thanksgiving to commemorate the 50th anniversary
of her accession, held at Westminster Abbey in June 1887.
Fenian Fire, by journalist and author Christy Campbell,
uses declassified British government documents, hitherto secret
for a century and a quarter, to unravel a ruthless intrigue
set against the turbulent politics of the period. Ministers
knew the real truth. They let the conspiracy foment - and
manipulated subsequent parliamentary and judicial procedures
claims Campbell. The aim was to destroy Charles Stewart Parnell,
the Irish nationalist leader in the Westminster parliament,
by branding him and his supporters as fellow travelers of
terror.
Author: Christy
Campbell
HarperCollins
