O’Donovan Rossa’s was the third trial to take place with Thomas Clarke Luby and John O’Leary preceding him. He was tried from 9 to 11 December 1865. In the case of O’Leary, it had been put to the court that O’Donovan Rossa had travelled to America in 1863 and this was ostensibly on Fenian business under the alias of Anthony O’Donnell. In O’Leary’s trial the Crown Prosecution had argued that when O’Donovan Rossa had returned to Ireland he had arrived with two Americans under the name of Dunne and Meehan. The prosecution had also alluded to the dispatches which Meehan had earlier lost, and the shipping magnate and a police detective confirmed that O’Donovan Rossa had boarded the SS Cuba at Queenstown. Nagle, in his evidence against O’Leary, had confirmed the handwriting of O’Donovan Rossa in several letters, and claimed that Rossa had asked him about swearing in other Fenians. Nagle also hinted at the existence of a secret central committee within the Fenian executive, claiming that James Stephens, O’Donovan Rossa,
John O’Leary, Charles Kickham and James O’Connor regularly held meetings in a private room in the offices of The Irish People that ordinary members of staff were not allowed to attend.39
O’Donovan Rossa had no respect for the Court and believed the Commission to be a ‘legal farce’, which was intent on securing convictions by means of packed juries.40 Brought before the Court, he was charged with being engaged in a treasonable conspiracy, which sought foreign intervention into Ireland. As a means of showing his disrespect for the Court, he had determined that he would extend his case for as long as possible, and recognising that he was going to be convicted, he had decided to make his trial, as one contemporary noted, ‘a defiance of the British Government, a merciless exposure of its utterly unfair methods in conducting political trials and of the rottenness of his judicial system in Ireland’.41 On the eve of his trial he had written to Mary Jane where he explained the course he was going to follow. O’Donovan Rossa lamented that he would probably be punished by the Court and this would result in the State taking its frustrations out on Mary Jane by blocking her from attending the Commission. O’Donovan Rossa feared his resolve would crumble without his wife and he would be ‘deprived of the happiness of [Mary Jane] sitting beside me during my conviction’.42 He also feared for the welfare of his children and implored Mary Jane to take care of them in his absence, holding: ‘I have only to say to you what I said to you before. You are Father and Mother to them while you are alive and while I am dead to the world and you will do for them what you consider best…’43
Opening his trial, the Crown Prosecution argued that O’Donovan Rossa was on intimate terms with Clarke Luby, O’Leary, John O’Mahony, and most notoriously, James Stephens, the leader of Irish conspiracy. He held that articles would be produced indicating that the Irish People newspaper was seditious and constituted a distinct act of treason felony. O’Donovan Rossa, as the business manager, he argued, must be held accountable for the newspaper. O’Donovan Rossa commented how there was no criminal act with which he could be charged with. He was also determined to bring up allegations made against him in the case of John O’Leary. While not addressing the fact that he had travelled to America under an alias, he had claimed that his American visit was on business. He next addressed the fact that Governor Price had seized a number of papers relating to his defence and he was fearful that there was a possibility that they could be given to the prosecution. Keogh addressed the prosecution, who told him that they had not seen the papers, and summoning Price to court, the Governor argued that he had seized the papers under the rules of the prison. Ordering Price to hand over the documents to O’Donovan Rossa, the prisoner next asked Keogh if he had the right to speak to his fellow prisoners. This offer was declined, despite the fact that his name had been used in their trials and allegations were made against him. Postponing the case, O’Donovan Rossa was taken back to Kilmainham on remand. Returning back to Green Street Courthouse, he announced he would defend himself and did not require a legal team. He grounded this in the fact that he believed the court remained a charade and the jury had been packed to secure a conviction. Despite continued calls from Keogh that he was out of order, he announced that: ‘I believe that this trial is a legal farce and I won’t be a party to it by being represented by counsel.’44
O’Donovan Rossa, true to his earlier intention of making his trial a political theatre, began cross-examining witnesses, including Pierce Nagle. Throughout the course of the Irish People trials, Nagle had kept his back to the defendants – his former comrades. This had angered O’Donovan Rossa, who insisted that Nagle should face him as he questioned the erstwhile Fenian. Nagle and the prosecution had objected to this, and as a compromise, he was placed sitting with only the left side of his face directed at O’Donovan Rossa. From the dock, O’Donovan Rossa incessantly goaded Nagle. He had asked him if he had ever seen him administering oaths to anyone – Nagle could not confirm. He had asked him if he had seen anything in The Irish People offices which he believed constituted a threat to British rule in Ireland. Nagle responded as to how he had not seen anything but believed that they were engaged in dangerous conspiracy.45 The prisoner next questioned Nagle as to handwriting and sought clarification as to entries allegedly sighed by O’Donovan Rossa that he had earlier confirmed. Questioning the character and attitude of Nagle, O’Donovan Rossa next asked the informer if he had any guilt as to his role in the imprisonment of men he had known. Nagle refused to answer. O’Donovan Rossa took this as a sign of guilt and asked him about Dowling Mulcahy, whom had got him the job at The Irish People, and Thomas Clarke Luby who fought to have him reinstated in his position when he had been discharged by James O’Connor. Judge Keogh interrupted O’Donovan Rossa and called his line of questioning out of order and asserted he was ‘wasting the public’s time’.46 Sparring with Judge Keogh, O’Donovan Rossa retorted how ‘twenty years is a long time and I want to use these few days as best I can’.47 Keogh would increasingly become a figure of odium for O’Donovan Rossa throughout the duration of his trial. Levying accusations at Keogh, O’Donovan Rossa compared him to Lord Norbury, the infamous Hanging Judge of the early nineteenth century who had sentenced the Irish rebel, Robert Emmet, to death in 1803.
O’Donovan Rossa next demanded to be allowed to look through all documents and publications that had been put against him. Initially, he examined a pamphlet produced by the Chicago Convention of the Fenian Brotherhood. In total the pamphlet consisted of eighty pages of small print, including the constitution of the Fenian Brotherhood. He did so to prove that it was irrelevant to his trial and it did not concern him. Judge Keogh was becoming more irritated with Rossa and accused him of wasting time, and that he would not tolerate much more. The Jury had equally pleaded with O’Donovan Rossa to allow them to deliberate on the pamphlet in private. To much laughter in the Court, one juror, breaking ranks, shouted up ‘occupying so much time in reading what does not concern this case is enough to stir up an armed insurrection among the persons in court’.48
Having laboriously finished reading the Fenian pamphlet to the Jury, O’Donovan Rossa, as business manager of The Irish People, charged with publishing the newspaper, noted he had a right to read the newspaper to the Jury. This involved a file including every edition of The Irish People ever published between 1863-65. One contemporary recalled ‘horror set upon the faces of the Judges, Jurymen, Sheriffs, Lawyers [and] turnkeys’.49 As a compromise he agreed that he would not read the advertisements. Shifting through the Irish People, O’Donovan Rossa had sought to obstruct the court case. Judge Keogh continuously intervened in his readings of articles, many of which he forbade from being read to the Court as he believed it was a dissemination of treasonable ideals. He also directed any reporters in the Courtroom not to transcribe or paraphrase any of the articles which O’Donovan Rossa had read. With the trial continuing until six o’clock in the evening, O’Donovan Rossa, having spoken for eight hours at length, asked Judge Keogh to postpone the case until the following day. Keogh, knowing that O’Donovan Rossa was growing tired, refused to postpone, and directed that the trial continue throughout the evening. Nearing the end of his appeal to the Jury, O’Donovan Rossa closed the file containing the editions of The Irish People, and holding it in his hands; he animatedly made a final appeal to the Jury:
And now, gentlemen, a few words. I say that indictment has been brought against me; and that man [pointing to Judge Keogh]