4
THE IRISH PEOPLE AND THE TRIAL OF O’DONOVAN ROSSA
In 1863, the IRB began to publish its own newspaper called The Irish People. In quite an audacious move, the IRB had established the newspaper at No. 12 Parliament Street, within walking distance of Dublin Castle, the British Headquarters. The establishment of the newspaper was enthusiastically supported by James Stephens as a propaganda medium and to disseminate Fenian ambitions. The establishment of the newspaper was a calculated risk, however, considering it would bring attention to the IRB.1 At the time, O’Donovan Rossa recalled that there was much consultation over the newspaper’s establishment, with many leading figures fearing it could be ‘injurious rather than serviceable to the society’.2 He remembered how those who had supported the newspaper argued it was a practical necessity and apart from the desire to spread the Fenian ideal, the establishment of the newspaper was also grounded in an urgent need to raise funds so that the IRB would not be entirely reliant on the Fenian Brotherhood. He also recalled how others had suggested that a Fenian newspaper could become a means of offering an alternative perspective to the moderate nationalism of the dominant nationalist paper, The Nation, owned by A. M. O’Sullivan. O’Donovan Rossa agreed with the establishment of a newspaper, and while in America he received an invitation from Stephens to come to Dublin and act as the newspaper’s business manager. Eagerly accepting the invitation to return to Ireland, he left America in July and moved permanently to Dublin. His role as business manager meant that he was responsible for the circulation and dispatching of the newspaper at home and abroad, paying the staff and ensuring that the paper arrived at newsagents promptly. Later he would write articles under the pseudonym ‘Anthony the Jobbler’ and produce poetry, such as his famous ‘The Soldier of Fortune’. He wrote several leading articles for the newspaper including ‘Do-nothings’, ‘As good as any when the time comes’, ‘The first man to handle a pike’ and ‘The martyr nation’. The latter article, ‘The martyr nation’, gives a good example of O’Donovan Rossa’s beliefs at the time of writing:
The fact that the Irish people are being today destroyed – some of them in soul and body stares us in the face … instead of flying, we believe it to be our duty to remain in the old land, face the evil, and meet the destroyer with his own weapons … we do not contemplate Ireland Catholic or Protestant – we contemplate her free and independent; and we extend the love and fellowship, to everyman, of every class and creed who would endeavour to make it so.3
O’Donovan Rossa was joined at the newspaper by Thomas Clarke Luby, who functioned as the newspaper’s proprietor; John O’Leary and Charles Kickham who were editors; and James O’Connor as book-keeper. These men effectively formed a secret, central committee within the Fenian executive.4 Other members of the IRB working for the newspaper included Denis Dowling Mulcahy and John Haltigan.
Registering the newspaper on 31 May 1863, its first issue was published on 28 November of that year and consisted of sixteen pages and cost three pence stamped or two pence unstamped. In America, one reader was so enthralled by The Irish People that he sought to congratulate Irishmen for producing such a medium, and writing a letter to the newspaper, he commended its staff. Saluting the team behind The Irish People, but only O’Donovan Rossa was signalled out by its author, the American felt that by placing the management of the newspaper in O’Donovan Rossa’s hands, ‘we may judge that the tone of the paper will be one of uncompromising loyalty of the only kind that should pass current among true Irishmen’.5 As suggested by the American correspondent, the tone of the newspaper was uncompromisingly republican and mirrored Fenian political ambition and ideology, setting itself the task of becoming the organ of the IRB. It examined the American Civil War and detailed the activities of the Fenian Brotherhood in America. It was never reticent in its nationalist views, even declaring in one article the wish for ‘the liberation of Ireland from the yoke of England’.6 The newspaper was decidedly in favour of a democratic republic and advocated the principle of Irish independence. As to how this was to be achieved, in common with Fenian ideology, the newspaper rejected constitutionalism and carried an article noting ‘true national independence never was and never will be anywhere achieved save by the sword’.7 Representing British rule within Ireland as the alien, the newspaper claimed that ‘enslaved’ people had the right to achieve their national independence.8 In the same vain, the following year a further edition used more aggressive language, commenting how ‘another Patrick’s day has passed and Ireland is still in chains’.9
The newspaper was equally anti-clerical and decidedly secular; this was particularly noticeable with the writing of Charles Kickham. The newspaper argued that many within the Roman Catholic priesthood, and particularly amongst the hierarchy, were ‘West Britons’, contented with the established order.10 In April 1864, the newspaper had condemned the Catholic Church in the most vocal terms and had signalled out the influential Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Paul Cullen, who had earlier denounced Fenianism, describing the Archbishop as ‘an individual enemy of Irish liberty’.11 Later that year, The Irish People published a letter which commented on ‘the propensity of the priesthood to tyranny,’ and denounced the Catholic Clergy as ‘a serious obstacle’ to advanced nationalism.12 This marked anti-clericalism hurt the business strategy of the newspaper as the Clergy strenuously piled pressure on its agents within several of its dioceses, making it the case that retailers were forced to withdraw its sale for fear of clerical denunciation.
Within a year of the newspaper’s establishment, O’Donovan Rossa had married Mary Jane Irwin, who he had met at a wake. Mary was originally from Clonakilty in County Cork; her family, similar to the Buckleys, had earlier been opposed to the relationship which forced the couple to get engaged in secret. Her parents, Maxwell and Margaret, had felt that O’Donovan Rossa was too old for their daughter and was burdened by a large family and a continual police interest in his career. Her father, who was a veteran of the 1848 Rebellion, was also horrified to learn that O’Donovan Rossa was scheduled to make for England before his wedding on business of James Stephens and had insisted on bringing the wedding forward. Accompanied by James Hopper, Stephens’ brother-in-law, he had sought to get a licence for his marriage from his church in Skibbereen, but on account of his politics, the priest found he could not give him his license. The priest argued with O’Donovan Rossa, citing the fact that he would have to come to confession and as a member of a secret society, he could not give him absolution unless he renounced Fenianism. Eventually unable to secure a formal licence from the church, he announced that he had not been to confession and had not met the Church’s requirements for marriage. He