'Donovan Rossa.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IX, Issue 69, 23 February 1885, Page 4

'Donovan Rossa.

The following particulars re- : lating to O'Donovan Jtossa are; given by a Northern contemporary : — Originally the'arch agitator of dy. namite was simply Jeremiah O'Dono- ■ van, but as v Q'JL^onovans , abounded m the region's' of Kerry, lie took the additipnai-and distinctive , name of . Rossa, from his birthplace, Itosscar- . bey. Hq began, life as a poor friendless lad, but, possessing industry and.'business aptitude, he was, by tlj.e ; ,time.. he was eight-and-twenty (some quarter of a century ago), a prosperous shopkeeper .m Skibibereen, sellinfg. any thing.,. that his I neighbours, needed m the, way of ■food and clothing. He was, converited to Feniauism as r far .back as ; 1853, and his; qualities were speedily appreciated by the shrewd, Barnes [Stephens (Head Centre), who appointed him as ; tj[ie< : District' Centre. Rossa started a Literary called the Phoenix CluJ), under; cov.er of which the.business.of the;;conspiracy was skiliPully on. About 1858 he ancj, his associates contrived to attract, the attention of the Government.; iThey^were tried and convicted, but ,were released m 1859, on condition of coming up for judgment .-/-..when; called upon. Thenceforward Rossa became a confidential.agent of Stephens-; went to and > fro ; between England and America, :and distinguished -himself by . his zeal and address. When the reyplt-of; 1.8^7 was -. m jition,'wc "Government, aware' of what was.goingiton, seized -most of the Fenian Leaders. Stephens escaped i Rossa was condemned to 5 penal servitude for life. 'Since then he has been, it is asserted, an altered man. '* He lost his geniality ' and lightheartedness, but he retained his intelligence, firmness and energy. He has become a leader of the most thorough-going and ferocious of the American Fenians, ' and his paper, the tJnii'ed \ irishman, constantly idyofcates'the' most' extreriae dynapolley ■ against England.