Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa

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Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa.

Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa (September 10, 1831-June 29, 1915), an Irish Fenian leader, was born at Rosscarbery, County Cork. In 1858 Rossa established the Phoenix Society which would later evolve into the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB). He was jailed numerous times for connections with the Fenian movement, and was finally exiled in 1871, sailing to the United States on board the Cuba with his friend John Devoy and three other exiles. Together they were dubbed The Cuba Five.

From New York City Rossa organised the first ever bombings by Irish republicans of English cities in what was called the "dynamite campaign". The campaign lasted through the 1880's and made him infamous in Great Britain. The British government demanded his extradition, to no effect. But it did cause a rift in the Irish independence movement itself, as many disavowed his tactics.

In 1885, Rossa was shot outside his office near Broadway by an Englishwoman, Yseult Dudley, but his wounds were not life-threatening. The British government claimed she was mentally unstable, and not acting on their behalf, although Rossa's supporters and even many of his detractors found this hard to believe. More likely, she was incensed at the fund he organised (the so-called "Skirmishing Fund") which was intended to support the arming of those who would fight the British (see[1]).

Rossa was allowed to visit Ireland in 1894, and again in 1904. On the latter visit, he was made a "Freeman of the City of Cork". Rossa was seriously ill in his later years, and was finally confined to a hospital bed in St. Vincent's Hospital, Staten Island, where he died at the age of 84.

The new Republican Movement in Ireland was quick to realize the propaganda value of the old Fenian's death, and the Irish Republican Thomas Clarke cabled to John Devoy: SEND HIS BODY HOME AT ONCE.

His body was returned to Ireland for burial and a hero's welcome. He was survived by his wife, Mary (aka Molly). His descendants still live in Staten Island, including a local politician named Jerome X. O'Donovan, who served on the New York City Council.

O'Donovan Rossa's grave.

The funeral at Glasnevin Cemetery on August 1 was a huge affair, garnering substantial publicity for the Irish Volunteers and the IRB at the time when a rebellion (later to emerge as the Easter Rising) was being planned. The graveside oration, given by Patrick Pearse, remains one of the most famous speeches of the Irish independence movement. It ended with the lines: "They think that they have pacified Ireland. They think that they have purchased half of us and intimidated the other half. They think that they have foreseen everything, think that they have provided against everything; but, the fools, the fools, the fools! — They have left us our Fenian dead, and while Ireland holds these graves, Ireland unfree shall never be at peace."

A memorial to O'Donovan Rossa stands in St. Stephen's Green, and a bridge over the River Liffey was renamed in his honour. A park in Skibbereen is also named for him.

[edit] See also

[edit] Sources

Rossa's Recollections 1838 to 1898: Memoirs of an Irish Revolutionary by O'Donovan Rossa. Published by Globe Pequot, 2004. ISBN 1-59228-362-4
Papers relating to O'Donovan Rossa and the Fenians are housed in the Archives of The Catholic University of America, American Catholic History Research Center and University Archives, Washington, D. C.