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Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa is one of the best known leaders of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), better known as the Fenian Movement. This organisation emerged both in Ireland and America in the late 1850s, with the goal of gaining Ireland’s freedom from British rule. His reputation as a revolutionary was enhanced by his imprisonment and ill-treatment in British jails, which was followed by decades of exile in the USA. His death in 1915 cemented his place in the lexicon of Irish revolutionary leaders. The oration at his graveside, by Padraig Pearse, was written to be a rallying call to renew the struggle for Irish independence and, within months, the Easter Rebellion of 1916 would light a spark that would eventually lead to the Irish War of Independence.
During his life, O’Donovan Rossa’s reputation was enhanced by his ability to promote both himself and the causes he espoused. A prolific writer, he wrote numerous articles promoting his views and he wrote two autobiographical works. The first, Prison Life: Six years in English Prisons, was published in 1874. It chiefly dealt with the period he spent in British jails from 1865 to 1870. The second, Rossa’s Recollections 1838 to 1898, published in 1898 was a general autobiography of his life.
Between his two autobiographical books, in 1885, O’Donovan Rossa wrote a series of eleven articles for the Brooklyn Eagle newspaper in New York entitled ‘The Fenian Movement: An Account of its Origin, Progress and Temporary Collapse’. The appearance of these articles coincided with his attempts to revive the Fenian Brotherhood organisation in America and were prompted by a wish to promote this idea. The articles primarily dealt with the author’s involvement with the early years of the IRB in Ireland, from its inception in 1858 to his arrest in 1865. For much of this period he was resident in Skibbereen. It also covers the time he was employed as commercial manager of the Irish People newspaper in Dublin, when he travelled widely in Ireland and Britain promoting the Fenian Movement. Some of this material he would later reuse in his Recollections, but they also contained information not published elsewhere, including poems he wrote while in jail. For the first time ever, this volume brings the eleven articles, originally published between June and August 1885, together into one book. A modern Irish language version of O’Donovan’s Rossa prison poem, Eire trasna ’n tSáile, is included, as are a small number of footnotes to explain certain events and individuals to the reader. Also, an index was added as a search aid.
