The Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) was a secret Irish patriotic society which existed from 1858 to 1924, bearing the goal of creating an independent democratic republic in Ireland which was free of British rule. The brotherhood's supporters, known as Fenians, cooperated with the America-based Fenian Brotherhood to fight for Irish independence, engaging in a failed 1867 uprising and in a terrorist dynamite campaign during the 1880s. The Fenian movement was supported by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, and the Fenians served as the Irish representatives to the First International. In 1916, the IRB's largest revolt, the Easter Rising, was crushed by the British Army, and its leaders, including Patrick Pearse, were executed. In 1919, the IRB would start the Irish War of Independence, and it dissolved in 1924 after the establishment of the Irish Free State.
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