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JEREMIAH O’DONOVAN ROSSA
JEREMIAH O’DONOVAN ROSSA
Unrepentant Fenian
SHANE KENNA
First published in 2015
8 Chapel Lane
Sallins
Co. Kildare
© 2015 Shane Kenna
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
An entry can be found on request
978-1-78537-013-7 (Paper)
978-1-78537-014-4 (Cloth)
978-1-78537-015-1 (PDF)
978-1-78537-017-5 (Epub)
978-1-78537-016-8 (Kindle)
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
An entry can be found on request
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved alone, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
Printed in Ireland by Sprint-Print Ltd.
CONTENTS
Chapter 1The O’Donovans of West Cork
Chapter 2The Rise of the Phoenix
Chapter 3The Irish Republican Brotherhood
Chapter 4The Irish People and the Trial of O’Donovan Rossa
Chapter 5A Prisoner of the Queen
Chapter 8‘Dynamite’ O’Donovan Rossa
Chapter 9From Hubris to Nemesis
Chapter 10A Journey of Personal Discovery
Chapter 11‘They have left us our Fenian dead’: A Revolutionary’s Epitaph
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This book is the culmination of several years of research into the life and times of Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa. In the course of over a decade of studying Irish history I have always found him to be one of the most remarkable and defining characters in nineteenth-century Ireland. His funeral at Glasnevin Cemetery in the twentieth century is rightly seen as one of the most important political funerals in modern Ireland, setting the scene, as it did, for the Easter Rising of 1916. Indeed it was at this funeral that Pearse delivered his famous panegyric commenting on how revolution was inevitable and defining O’Donovan Rossa as an ‘unrepentant Fenian’. In this decade of commemorations, upon the 100th anniversary of his death, I feared that the life of O’Donovan Rossa could be lost as the centenary of his death focused more on the relevance of his funeral at the expense of the man. With this in mind I chose to write this biography of a figure who can only be described as an iconic revolutionary within the great pantheon of Irish Republicanism.
In the course of this biography I was incredibly fortunate to meet a number of people who were instrumental to this publication. Special thanks to my friends in Cork for their support of this initiative and without them it would have been impossible. One of these has been inspirational and is a remarkable individual. His love for O’Donovan Rossa and commitment to maintaining Irish history is truly exceptional and when time passes the work he has done will be remembered by those whom he touched. I am indebted to the family of O’Donovan Rossa, in particular Williams and Rossa Cole, their Cousin Eileen and the National Graves Association for introductions and support. I would like to pay special tribute to Robert Ballagh. Robert is an inspirational man who I am proud to know. His art is internationally acclaimed and he has kindly agreed to allow his new print, the Funeral of O’Donovan Rossa, to be reproduced in this book. For this I am greatly humbled. I would like to thank the staff of the National Library of Ireland, the New York Public Library, The Catholic University of America and the Irish-American Historical Association. I am exceedingly grateful to Irish Academic Press and Conor Graham for their support in this project and would also like to thank George McCullough, CEO of Glasnevin Cemetery, Paddy Gleeson, Head Guide Glasnevin Museum, Gabriel Doherty of UCC and Dan Breen of the Cork City Museum and Archive. As always I am greatly indebted to my family and sincerely thank my mother Olive, fiancée Edel, John, Lisa, Darcy and Lily.
LIST OF PLATES
1.Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa, photograph taken in America in 1864. (Image courtesy of the National Library of Ireland)
2.Mary Jane O’Donovan Rossa who married Jeremiah in 1864. (Image courtesy of the Cole/O’Donovan Rossa family)
3.The wedding certificate of Jeremiah and Mary Jane O’Donovan Rossa, dated 22 October 1864. (Image courtesy of the Cole/O’Donovan Rossa family)
4.The Fenian executive were the most senior staff of the Irish Republican Brotherhood. All men photographed belonged to the Irish People newspaper. O’Donovan Rossa is in the photograph in the bottom right of the image. (Image from author’s collection)
5.Dublin Metropolitan Police raid the offices of the Irish People newspaper on 14 September 1865. Following this raid widespread arrests were made including the arrest of O’Donovan Rossa. (Image courtesy of Aidan Lambert)
6.Mugshot of Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa taken at Mountjoy Gaol following his arrest. (Image courtesy of the Cole/O’Donovan Rossa family)
7.James Maxwell O’Donovan