“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.”
Pádraig Pearse’s melodramatic graveside oration at the funeral of Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa in Glasnevin in August 1915, indeed, the entire event, with its massive attendance and global press coverage, is widely credited as having been an important trigger for the Easter Rising and the bloody path to Irish independence.
In a photo of the committee that organized O’Donovan Rossa’s funeral, the cortège of which drew 8,000 participants, you will see the faces of many well-known figures from the Rising and beyond: Pearse, Arthur Griffith, James Connolly, Thomas Clarke.
But one figure is conspicuous by her absence, despite her pivotal role in arranging the funeral: Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa’s widow, Mary Jane.
She was keenly aware of the public relations potential of the event. As an author, touring speaker, and contributor to many news outlets, a woman with a high degree of awareness of what we would call PR today, she had purposely set about utilizing her husband’s burial to leverage higher Republican goals.
She even wrote a letter, published in the extensive funeral program pamphlet, reminding attendees that Jeremiah, despite rumors he had softened in his latter years, had remained a fervent nationalist intent on ending all British rule in Ireland up until the end of his life.
A poet and author who had for years helped her exiled husband to run a nationalist newspaper in New York, Mary Jane reportedly over-ride her husband’s wishes to be buried in his native Cork, opting instead for the pomp, ceremony, and publicity of a Glasnevin burial, where she purchased a plot for 20 pounds.
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By Treasa“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.”
Pádraig Pearse’s melodramatic graveside oration at the funeral of Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa in Glasnevin in August 1915, indeed, the entire event, with its massive attendance and global press coverage, is widely credited as having been an important trigger for the Easter Rising and the bloody path to Irish independence.
In a photo of the committee that organized O’Donovan Rossa’s funeral, the cortège of which drew 8,000 participants, you will see the faces of many well-known figures from the Rising and beyond: Pearse, Arthur Griffith, James Connolly, Thomas Clarke.
But one figure is conspicuous by her absence, despite her pivotal role in arranging the funeral: Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa’s widow, Mary Jane.
She was keenly aware of the public relations potential of the event. As an author, touring speaker, and contributor to many news outlets, a woman with a high degree of awareness of what we would call PR today, she had purposely set about utilizing her husband’s burial to leverage higher Republican goals.
She even wrote a letter, published in the extensive funeral program pamphlet, reminding attendees that Jeremiah, despite rumors he had softened in his latter years, had remained a fervent nationalist intent on ending all British rule in Ireland up until the end of his life.
A poet and author who had for years helped her exiled husband to run a nationalist newspaper in New York, Mary Jane reportedly over-ride her husband’s wishes to be buried in his native Cork, opting instead for the pomp, ceremony, and publicity of a Glasnevin burial, where she purchased a plot for 20 pounds.
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