Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa | |
---|---|
Birth name | Jeremiah O'Donovan |
Born |
10 September 1831 Rosscarbery, County Cork |
Died |
29 June 1915 (aged 83) Staten Island, New York, United States |
Allegiance | |
Years of service | 1858–1915 |
Battles/wars |
Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa (Irish: Diarmaid Ó Donnabháin Rosa; 10 September 1831 – 29 June 1915) 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 (Cork) 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.
Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa was born Jeremiah O'Donovan at Reenascreena, Rosscarbery, County Cork, to Denis O'Donovan and Nellie O'Driscoll, a family of tenant farmers. According to the eminent scholar John O'Donovan, with whom Rossa corresponded, Rossa's ancestors belonged to the obscure but ancient sliocht of the MacEnesles or Clan Aneslis O'Donovans. His ancestors had held letters patent in Kilmeen parish in the 17th century before the confiscations, with his agnomen "Rossa" coming from the townland of Rossmore in Kilmeen. So Jeremiah adopted the surname, Rossa.