3
THE IRISH REPUBLICAN BROTHERHOOD
When O’Donovan Rossa was released from Cork Jail in July 1859, the work of organising the Irish Republican Brotherhood had been momentarily suspended. James Stephens, the enigmatic leader of the Fenians, had1 disappeared and for all means and purposes was on the run from the British state. As O’Donovan Rossa was settling into normality after his wife’s death, it seemed that the political side of his life, apart from his personal beliefs and desire to annoy and harass the local authorities, was coming to an end. Being a single father in Victorian Ireland was incredibly difficult, and O’Donovan Rossa now began a relationship with Eileen Buckley, aged 17. Eileen was a native of Gortbrack, Castlehaven, County Cork and was the only daughter of Cornelius Buckley, a butter merchant and wealthy farmer. Eileen was well travelled and had been educated in Europe; she was regarded as a warm, jovial and attractive woman who was much sought after by the bachelors of Castlehaven. Irish was her first language and she regularly embraced the rural Gaelic tradition of dancing at the crossroads and could be seen on Sundays dancing at Crois na Cora Boige (Curraghbeg Cross, Castlehaven). It was here that she met O’Donovan Rossa, and the two developed a relationship. Their relationship, however, got off to a difficult start as the Buckleys wanted nothing to do with O’Donovan Rossa considering his politics, his age and his four children from a previous marriage.
When the couple became engaged, Cornelius Buckley forbade the marriage – he perceived that O’Donovan Rossa was more trouble than he was worth and was only after Eileen’s sizable dowry. Eileen and O’Donovan Rossa realised that they were going to have to elope, which they did in 1861. The couple would have one child to add to O’Donovan Rossa’s already sizable family, whom they named Florence Stephens in honour of the Fenian chief, James Stephens. Having married Eileen, O’Donovan Rossa now looked for a new job – he was determined to do right by Eileen and his family and prove Cornelius wrong. Eventually he secured a position as a temporary relieving officer, through McCarthy Dowling, his solicitor, who sat on the Board of Guardians of the Skibbereen Poor Law Union.
Off the south-west coast of Cork are two islands named Sherkin and Cape Clear. In 1862, just as O’Donovan Rossa had been made a temporary relief officer, the islands had been affected by a near famine, and there was a growing crisis as the people starved due to a shortage of food. The situation was far worse for those living on Cape Clear than Sherkin, considering its distance from the mainland. The Skibbereen Board of Guardians pressed for immediate relief, and O’Donovan Rossa, with his friend and neighbour, Michael O’Driscoll, and the permission of the Board of Guardians, undertook a mission to deliver a ton of meal to the islands to alleviate the hunger of the inhabitants. Seeing the poverty and destitution of the Cape horrified O’Donovan Rossa and brought back memories of the Great Famine. Arriving at Sherkin, O’Donovan Rossa saw a man lying on the grass, almost as if he were basking in the sunshine. Asking for his help unloading sacks, the man looked up but did not make any move to help. O’Donovan Rossa chose to confront him and ask why he would not help the relief effort. As he approached the man lying in the grass, he saw he was starving and in tremendous pain:
I leaped ashore and found the man was unable to stand on his own legs; he was dying of hunger – a man named O’Driscoll, over six feet, and about twenty-six years of age. My wife had thought I would be out on the islands for a few days, and she had sandwiched up as much food for me as would feed me for a week; Michael O’Driscoll’s wife had done the same for him; we took our lunch baskets from the boat, laid them before the hungry man, and left him to help himself while we were landing the meal.2
Arriving back the following day at Sherkin, O’Donovan Rossa found the once hungry man dead. The food that they had left him prior to their departure had been too much.
At Cape Clear, the relief party were met by a local Catholic priest, Fr Collins. The relief team stored the meal at the priest’s home and distributed food to the starving masses. By order of the Board of Guardians, the distribution of the food was under a strict ration of no more than three and a half pounds of meal per person. Distributing the food and having stayed loyal to the Board of Guardians’ ration instruction, the relief effort was left with 100 lbs of meal. This was again stored in Fr Collins’ house, for the next event of food distribution. The priest was determined to show the relief team the horror and destitution of Cape Island. Taking them on a tour of the locality, they were evidently moved by what they saw. Collins took O’Donovan Rossa to one of his parishioners, a young woman who lived inside the cleft of a large rock. To his horror, O’Donovan Rossa, after following Collins inside on his hands and knees, found the woman lying on flagstones and covered in light heather, making a makeshift blanket to keep her warm. This woman was too cold and hungry to move. An equally poor ‘neighbour’ of hers had collected meal for her from the relief team, but she was unable to cook it. Fr Collins pleaded with O’Donovan Rossa to give her some more food, and he was inclined to agree with the priest, issuing her with an unauthorised stock of meal. Leaving the island he recalled:
Father Collins accompanied us to the other end of the island to take the boat for Sherkin. The walk was about three miles. We entered many houses on the way. Some of them had flags for doors – the wooden doors having been burnt for firing. In one house were five or six children; one of them was dead – evidently died from starvation. I reported that case of death to the first coroner I could communicate with when I reached the mainland; and inquest was held and the coroner’s jury brought in a verdict of: ‘Death from starvation.’3
Returning to Skibbereen, O’Donovan Rossa found himself in trouble with the Board of Guardians. The largest owner of land on Cape Clear, John Wrixon Beecher, had complained that in giving extra meal to the starving, O’Donovan Rossa had exceeded his brief, had violated the trust of the Poor Law System and had been in breach of its rules and regulations. Beecher insisted that O’Donovan Rossa was not fit to be a temporary relief officer, that he should be discharged from his position and should not be paid for the weeks of service he provided. Beecher also proposed that O’Donovan Rossa should pay for the extra meal, which he had distributed beyond the ration set, from his own pocket. Without O’Donovan Rossa’s consent or knowledge, he was relieved of his duties and replaced. Furious with his treatment, he defended his actions to the Board of Guardians and the Poor Law Commissioners in Dublin, citing how he was not prepared to allow the people to starve. He further suggested that the real reason why he lost his job was not because he distributed greater levels of food than he was allowed to do, but because he reported the death of a child due to starvation rather than keeping it a secret.
At the end of 1860, John O’Mahony, the founder of the Fenian Brotherhood, arrived in Ireland. O’Mahony’s visit was organised clandestinely for fear of arrest. O’Mahony was born near Mitchelstown, County Cork and was eager to revisit the province of his birth. It was decided by what remained of the local organisation of the Phoenix Society/IRB in Skibbereen that O’Mahony would be welcomed to the community. It had been arranged that the Fenian leader would be picked up at Roscarbery and then taken to Skibbereen where he would meet the local IRB and discuss the state of West Cork and Fenianism in the aftermath of the crushing Phoenix arrests. Before arriving in Ireland in 1860, O’Mahony had called upon Stephens in Paris, where the IRB chief was hiding since the Phoenix arrests in 1858, and it was on his initiative that Stephens returned home to Dublin to begin to reorganise the revolutionary movement in the spring of 1861. There was an understanding between Stephens and O’Mahony that the Fenians would supply the IRB with 5,000 soldiers and 50,000 rifles and muskets. Stephens agreed to this on an understanding that no insurrection would be attempted against the British Administration without this Irish-American support. Touring the country and visiting his sister in County Tipperary, O’Mahony eventually arrived in Rosscarbery. The Fenian leader entered the town on an early form of public transport, known as Bianconi’s Long Car. Greeted by O’Donovan Rossa, Dan McCarthy and Morty Moynahan, he was then taken to Skibbereen where he was received as a returning hero by the local IRB. Listening to O’Mahony speak of the