A book launch will take place at The Tanyard Bar in Skibbereen on December 8th at 5pm, of a collection of 11 articles penned by Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa. The Fenian Movement: An Account of its Origin, Progress and Temporary Collapse is a collection of these articles, which were originally written in 1885 for the Brooklyn Eagle newspaper, and are collated here for the first time. The collection is edited by local historian William Casey.

The collection of articles primarily deal with O’Donovan Rossa’s involvement with the early Fenian Movement from its inception in 1858 to his arrest in 1865; he was living in Skibbereen for much of that time. The book also covers the time O’Donovan Rossa was employed by the Irish People newspaper in Dublin, when he travelled widely in Ireland and Britain promoting the Movement. 

It was in the early hours of December 8th 1858, 167 years ago, that the history of Skibbereen was forever changed when Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa was arrested alongside 11 other young men, including the local leaders of the society Mortimer Moynahan and Daniel McCartie. In time the society  would become known as the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), generally called the ‘Fenian Movement’, and O’Donovan Rossa subsequently became one of its most prominent figures. 

During his lifetime, 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 and the second, Rossa’s Recollections 1838 to 1898, was a general autobiography of his life. The collection of Brooklyn Eagle articles, collected in this new book, were written in the time between his two autobiographical books.

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. Some of this material he would later reuse in his Recollections, but the articles also contained information not published elsewhere, including poems he wrote while in jail. 

For the first time ever, this book brings those eleven articles together into one volume, collated and edited by William Casey. 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. An index was added as a search
aid. 

Copies of the book will be on sale at the launch, and all are welcome to attend.