Emmet Monument Association
The Emmet Monument Association (EMA) was a mid-nineteenth century New York group that had sponsored several New York militias with the objective of training men to attack England and free Ireland. In the mid 1850s, Michael Doheny, a refugee from the 1848 Young Ireland rising, was its chairman.
The EMA saw the Crimean War as an opportunity for Ireland while Britain was tied up fighting, but when the war ended with nothing accomplished, the EMA suspended its meetings to wait for another English difficulty to become another furnish another opportunity. EMA members Michael Doheny, John O'Mahony, Michael Corcoran, Owen Considine, Joseph Denieffe and others decided to send out feelers to Ireland to see if there was the chance a rebellion could be generated by the arrival of Irish American troops on Irish soil. They contacted James Stephens, who agreed to prepare Irishmen in Ireland for a rebellion. Although in concept it was to be a united organization, Irish-America supplying trained military officers, money and weapons and Ireland supplying the foot soldiers for a rebellion. In concept O'Mahony viewed the organization as a continuation of the Emmet Monument Association. But reality was that two distinct organizations grew out of the agreement: the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) in Ireland founded by James Stephens and the Fenian Brotherhood (FB) founded by John O'Mahony in the United States.
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