Those who presented the idea of a plot claimed that the radicals intended to blow up Westminster Abbey, Queen Victoria and half the British Cabinet.

The story was closely connected to a set of forged letters by Richard Pigott, which attempted to implicate Charles Stuart Parnell with supporting physical force Irish republicanism.

However, he had reportedly been a spy for the British authorities for several years (from 1885 under Edward Jenkinson of the Home Office with the approval of the Prime Minister, Lord Salisbury),[1] and was allegedly encouraged by them to proceed with the attempt, to draw in more Fenians, who could then be captured.

[citation needed] Earlier in the year The Times had begun publishing a series of features called Parnellism and Crime.

The letters had been supplied by a Dublin journalist, Richard Pigott, purportedly showing that Parnell had approved of violent methods by extremist nationalist elements.