A British spy had kept the authorities informed, and the war vessel was at the designated point of landing to gather in the "forlorn hope" of the invaders.

Other Irish-Americans who were constantly arriving as passengers by the ocean steamships to take part in the conflict were promptly arrested as they landed on the quays, and the rebellion of 1865 was nipped in the bud.

Much dissension and dissatisfaction then arose within the Fenian Councils.

A great deal of money had been spent and the attempt had proved a failure.

The vigilance of the British authorities was so keen, and arrests so numerous, that the available prisons were soon filled, and the hopeful warriors who so valiantly boasted that they would quickly unfurl the "Sunburst of Erin" on the walls of Dublin Castle were obliged to retire into strict seclusion until an opportunity occurred to be smuggled out of Ireland by their friends and stowed away on ships bound back for America.
The failure of the rising in 1865 caused a serious division among the adherents of the cause in both America and Ireland, and the Fenian Brotherhood was split into two hostile camps thereby.