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Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa Quotes

Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa was an Irish Fenian leader and prominent member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood. His life as an Irish Fenian is well documented but he is perhaps known best in death for the graveside oration given at his funeral by Patrick Pearse.

Growing up in the South of Ireland during the Great Irish Famine, O'Donovan founded the Phoenix National and Literary Society and dedicated his life to working towards the establishment of an independent Irish Republic. He joined the Irish Republican Brotherhood and after fleeing in exile to the United States as part of the Cuba Five, he joined Irish revolutionary organisations there, beyond the reach of the British Empire. He was a pioneer in physical force Irish republicanism utilising dynamite in a campaign of asymmetrical warfare, hitting the British Empire on its home soil, primarily London.

✵ 10. September 1831 – 29. June 1915
Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa photo
Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa: 7 quotes0 likes

Famous Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa Quotes

“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.”

Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa

References

“This rooting out of the Irish people; this transplanting of them from their native home into a foreign land, may be all very well, so far as the young people are concerned; but for the fathers and mothers who have reared families in Ireland, it is immediate decay and death.”

Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa

"Rossa's Recollections 1838 to 1898: Memoirs of an Irish Revolutionary", p. 143

“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”

Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa

References

“It is in that English Parliament the chains for Ireland are forged, and any Irish patriot who goes into that forge to free Ireland will soon find himself welded into the agency of his country’s subjection to England.”

Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa

"Rossa's Recollections 1838 to 1898: Memoirs of an Irish Revolutionary", p. 145-6

“The one enemy in the world that America has is England. But then, England is the great land of Christian civilization, and it may not be a thing to be much wondered at that our Americans whom we send to represent us in London become in a short time somewhat civilized, and learn to love those who hate them, bless those that curse them, and do good to those that persecute and calumniate them.”

Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa

"Rossa's Recollections 1838 to 1898: Memoirs of an Irish Revolutionary", p. 232

“I proposed that it be called the "Phoenix National Literary Society" – the word Phoenix signifying that the Irish cause was again to rise from the ashes of our martyred nationality.”

Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa

Shane MacThomais, "90th Anniversary Commemoration Booklet 1831-1915" (Parnell Publications, Parnell Sq, Dublin), p. 2

“We are the most cosmopolitan race in the whole universe; but Irishmen should have a country; they have a right to the country of their birth. By the use and aid of one steel – the pen – our committee have taken possession of that right, and as their title one day may be disputed, I trust they will be able and willing to prove it by the aid of another steel – the sword.”

Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa

Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa, "Rossa's Recollections 1838 to 1898: Memoirs of an Irish Revolutionary" (Globe Pequot, 2004) ISBN 1 59228 362 4, p. 189
This statement was greeted with loud cheers.

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