Fenianism was a nationalist republican movement and not a Catholic one

The broader truth, however, was that Fenianism went beyond the question of religious sectarianism:of the 58 Fenians captured on the Niagara Frontier in 1866 and confined to the Toronto gaol, a full third were Protestants (19 Protestants with one prisoner claiming no religious affiliation.) Fenianism was a nationalist republican movement and not a Catholic one.