O’Donovan Rossa’s remains arrive in Dublin
Dublin, 29 July 1915 - The remains of the late Fenian leader Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa are lying in state for three days at City Hall in Dublin.
The remains had been brought by the American liner St Paul from New York to Liverpool, and then transferred to the steamer Carlow, which conveyed them to Dublin.
Prayers at the Catholic Pro-Cathedral on Marlborough Street saw great numbers of people visit the church and requiem mass yesterday morning also drew huge crowds.
A letter from Bulmer Hobson to Col. Moore expressing his gratitude that the National Volunteers will take part in O'Donovan Rossa's funeral procession. Click to see full document. (National Library of Ireland, MS 10563)
'The same unconquerable Irishman'
Mr. O’Donovan Rossa’s widow Mary earlier moved to dismiss claims made by a journalist from the Daily Telegraph who wrote: ‘The last time I saw Rossa he was tottering on the brink of the grave. ‘When I die’, he said to me, ‘you might tell the English people I have fought a good fight according to my views, and long ago lost all hatred, let alone prejudice, against the British government’. He hoped the Irish would stand united in helping to fight Germany, the common enemy of civilisation.’
Mary O’Donovan Rossa ridiculed these claims, saying her husband ‘was an Irishman since he was born, and I can testify that he was the same unconquerable Irishman, breathing the same unalterable desire for the absolute freedom of his country and its utter separation from England that he breathed in the dock’.
The funeral will take place next Sunday at 2.30pm. Special trains will run from all over Ireland.
[Editor's note: This is an article from Century Ireland, a fortnightly online newspaper, written from the perspective of a journalist 100 years ago, based on news reports of the time.]
