Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa (1831-1915)

Born Roscarbery, Co. Cork. First arrested for nationalist activity in December 1858 he spent four years in the United States before returning to Ireland in 1863. Believe by John Devoy to have sworn in more members of the IrishRepublicanBrotherhood^? than any other ten men in the land, he was arrested and sentence to life imprisonment in 1865. Reputed to have been inhumanely treated in prison he was released in 1871 after having been elected MP for Tipperary in 1869 while still in prison. Became Head Centre of the American FenianBrotherhood^?, inaugurated the SkirmishingFund^? and was an early advocate of ClanNaGael. He was to break with the Clan in 1880 over dynamite tactics and founded his own organization and newspaper, the United Irishman. The majority of dynamite attackers in the DynamiteWar were launched by Rossa’s organization. He died on 29 June 1915 at Staten Island, New York.

• Short, K.R.M. “Biographical Notes.” The Dynamite War: Irish-American Bombers in Victorian Britain. 261-66. __Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press, 1979.

-- ChrisLehrich^? - 22 Jan 2005