Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa – The unconquered and unconquerable man. AOH/LAOH celebrate his Life and Death of Irish Patriot

Posted by Jim on June 20, 2015

 

Born in Rosscarbery, Co. Cork, in 1831 Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa witnessed the devastation brought upon the Irish people during “An Gorta Mor” as a child in the 1840’s. Rossa became a fervent nationalist coming of age during the era of Daniel O’Connell and the Young Ireland Movement. In 1856 while living in Skibbereen, he founded the Phoenix National and Literary Society, an Irish nationalist group which aimed to remove the British from Ireland. In 1863 Rossa began working for The Irish People, an Irish Nationalist newspaper, and eventually became its business manager. Rossa was convicted of treason against Great Britain and sentenced to life in prison for his part in planning the “Fenian Uprising” of 1865. O’Donovan Rossa served eight years in English prisons, enduring brutal conditions he later chronicled in his 1874 book, “Prison Life.” In 1871, he and fellow Fenians like John Devoy were released on the condition of permanent exile. O’Donovan Rossa, Devoy and the others arrived in New York aboard the ship Cuba and received a hero’s welcome from local Irish nationalists. Rossa became editor of the New York edition of the United Irishman, an Irish Nationalist newspaper. He became an extremely active member of the American Fenian movement, and was also a member of Clan na Gael, the Irish Republican Brotherhood and the Corkmen’s Association. Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa died in Staten Island on June 29, 1915 – and the call came from Ireland to “send his body home”. O’Donovan Rossawas buried in Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin where Padraig Pearse gave his famous graveside oration: “The fools, the fools, they have left us our Fenian dead, and while Ireland holds these graves, Ireland unfree shall never be at peace.”