My great-great grandfather Heffernan came from Ireland to upstate New York before the Civil War. When the war started he enlisted with the 55th Illinois Infantry because that was a regiment of Irishmen. He fought for the Union in the battle of Shiloh near Corinth, Mississippi and marched with Sherman toward the sea. (Sorry about that, Southerners.)

After the war he wanted to keep fighting somewhere, anywhere, so he and his Irish buddies in the Irish Republican Brotherhood (later the IRA) invaded Canada.

Here is a good article about it:



The Irish Invasion of Canada

Just reading it, I can feel the passion.

"As is usual with the Irish...especially Irish politicians, there was “a tendency to disunity and splits.” At the Convention, the I.R.B. split in two. One group under President O’Mahoney, wanted to launch a war against the English by landing on Ireland’s shores and attacking them on Irish soil. Obviously, such an invasion force would have to come from the American continent. It was felt it would be more politic if the Fenian forces used as an embarkation port an island in the Canadian Maritimes. At that time the Maritimes consisted of separate and independent British colonies which had not as yet joined the Canadian Confederation.

The other Irish faction, headed by former New York militia Colonel William Randall Roberts, called for an invasion of Canada to be launched from the northern U.S. border with the intent of taking over Canada and trading it back to England in exchange for the independence of Ireland. The two factions were so divided that Roberts, who had been elected Vice President under O’Mahoney, called a second Convention of his supporters at which he was elected President by his group of dissidents. Following that meeting, Roberts stated:
“The Irish Republic is yet ideal without a local habitation…. We must have some place for our government to raise a flag, build ships, issue letters of marque….England could surround Ireland with a cordon of ships of war, but if we had a country with sea ports, we could send our ships to prey on her commerce, run blockade runners to Ireland, and get nations to recognize our belligerency. If we haven’t a country our ships would be condemned as pirates…. With 50,000 men we can sweep John Bull into the sea. England has a lot of foes now. America is mad. What a chance!”
Roberts’ followers then endorsed his plan to invade and capture Canada the following year."

There was some support for the invasion from the United States government because they were angry at the British for not making war reparations, but this support cooled when the Brits forked over $15 million so the federal govt closed the border and effectively stifled the invasion.

Ismay Trading Post, my Uncle Robert Ismay. He's not really interested in genealogy, so don't drive down there and ask him about it.