O’Donovan Rossa was a prominent member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood dedicated to the establishment of an “independent democratic republic” in Ireland, and which also aimed to liberate Ireland from British rule “by force of arms” in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was exiled to America where he and his group carried out the “dynamite campaign†which were the first ever bombings of English cities by the Irish nationalists. In America he was one of the leaders of the Fenian Brotherhood which was named after the “Fianna†– small, semi-independent warrior bands in early Ireland who lived apart from society in the forests as mercenaries, bandits and hunters, but could be called upon by kings in times of war. After the English bombings, Great Britain tried to extradite O’Donovan back to England for punishment to no avail (America had granted political amnesty to these Irish bad boys). A mentally unstable Englishwoman tried to assassinate O’Donovan in New York, but he survived the gunshot wounds. He would die at the age of 83 in Staten Island, but his body was sent back to his motherland. His graveside oration, given by Pádraig Pearse, remains one of the most famous speeches of the Irish independence movement. It ended with the lines: “They think that they have pacified Ireland. They think that they have purchased half of us and intimidated the other half. They think that they have foreseen everything, think that they have provided against everything; but, the fools, the fools, the fools! — They have left us our Fenian dead, and while Ireland holds these graves, Ireland unfree shall never be at peace.”
