>    One sidelight.  In the story, the Fenians try to invade Canada to
> pressure the British.  Does anyone know if this is fact or fiction?

It's fact. In 1888, I think, a troup of them went over the border
somewhere near Potsdam and took control of a town for a day. With a
little more research I think I can dig up the details. They proclaimed
it some kind of symbolic victory, said the might of Britain had been
crushed, etc., and withdrew.

The present-day IRA are descended from the IRB, or Irish Republican
Brotherhood, Fenians as they called themselves, who were founded in
America in the 1870s, as part of a 'Celtic' Renaissance in Ireland,
Europe and America.

Jeff