Fenianism was the name, sometimes celebrated sometimes excoriated, given to the Irish revolutionary and republican movement active in Ireland and Britain from the late 1850s through to the First World War. It had sister organisations in the U.S.A. and elsewhere, the most important being the Irish-American Clan na Gael which bankrolled the organisation. Fenianism was organised through the Irish Republican Brotherhood (I.R.B.), under the leadership of the Supreme Council, and hierarchically structured around circles under the direction of a series of county centres. The Supreme Council consisted of a representative of each of the four provinces of Ireland, as well as one each from England, Wales, and Scotland. At various points in its history, provision was made for further nominees to join its highest deliberations. The membership was bound by an oath, committing it to secrecy and a readiness to fight to achieve an Irish republic when so instructed. Fenian orthodoxy demanded that Irish independence be achieved before attempts were made to address other Irish problems because only an independent Irish government could do so legitimately. The I.R.B. was also a secular organisation, strongly opposed to ‘priests in politics’, believing the clergy's role should be confined to the spiritual realm. The catholic hierarchy in Ireland responded in kind, condemning Fenianism and threatening known members with excommunication. From the mid-1860s Cardinal Cullen sought a papal denunciation of the movement by name, which he got in 1870.