''The Fenians Were Terrible Men'' describes:

The foundation of the Irish Republican Brotherhood and the background to the Rising

The British response: the arrests of the leaders with special emphasis on those who came from Kerry

The work of Talbot and Corydon, the police spies, the latter also a Kerryman

The Rising in detail in Counties Kerry and Limerick

The Erin's Hope: the Fenian Ship which sailed to Ireland and back to America

The Clerkenwell Explosion, a Fenian rescue attempt which, in an effort to free prisoners, blew out the wall of the local jail and a great deal of the surrounding neighbourhood, killing many innocent people