Clan na Gael had been heavily involved with the Fenian Brotherhood that McGarrity had grown up hearing about, and by the latter half of the 19th century had become a sister organisation of the Irish Republican Brotherhood. In the decade just before McGarrity joined, Clan na Gael and the Fenian movement had waged the Fenian dynamite campaign, where they attempted to force the British state to make concessions on Ireland by bombing British Infrastructure.
Clan na Gael was closely connected to the Fenian Brotherhood, a group McGarrity had grown up hearing about. By the mid-19th century, Clan na Gael became aligned with the Irish Republican Brotherhood. In the decade before McGarrity joined, Clan na Gael and the Fenian movement carried out the Fenian dynamite campaign, aiming to force concessions from the British state by bombing its infrastructure.