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Jeremiah O Donovan Rossa died on 29th June 1915 at Staten Island, New York. On hearing of his death, Tom Clarke sent an urgent telegram from Dublin to John Devoy in New York, with the simple message: Send his body home at once . His funeral in Glasnevin Cemetery on 1st August that year was one of the largest political funerals in Irish history, and is now accepted as the precursor to the Easter Rising. Patrick Pearse famously declared at Rossa s graveside, 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! In this first and long-awaited biography of a hugely significant figure in Irish history, Shane Kenna examines the life of Jeremiah O Donovan Rossa. From modest origins in West Cork, he became passionately interested in national politics from an early age, and was later arrested for his republican activities. He then spent time in the toughest of British prisons, and was actually elected to the British House of Commons while still in prison. Exiled to the United States, he continued his involvement in republican organisations such as Clann Na Gael and set up the United Irishman newspaper. From the United States he organised, funded, and masterminded the Fenian dynamite campaign which was the first ever Irish bombing operation on British shores. O Donovan Rossa was a complex character who was both a family and a political man. This book tells his story from the earliest years to his death and funeral - a figure whose life work was dedicated to the establishment of an Irish Republic.

This multi-authored study explores how the natural sciences and the humanities together can understand the connections between the natural environment, the built environment, and the cultural heritage of communities along the west coast of Ireland. Knowledge of the sea and marine life, and what they mean to humanity is dependent on both scientific study and local knowledge, which, in turn, can lead to a greater commitment to sustainability. Until the 1950s, there was little government support for scientific research, nor an interest in helping fisheries beyond near shore catch. Irish fisheries remained small, underfunded, and had difficulty accessing international markets. However, as this book shows, Ireland’s cultural heritage demonstrates a deep appreciation for the coastal environment and a sense of place. This is preserved in the Irish language, in poetry, story and music, and in the ways the Irish lived with an often-wild coastal topography.

Described by Padraig Pearse as the “greatest of the Fenians”, John Devoy was born before the Famine and lived to see the Irish tricolour flying from Dublin Castle. The descendent of a rebel family, he was an avowed Fenian who went into exile in New York in 1871. Over the next half-century he was the most-prominent leader of the Irish-American nationalist movement. Every Irish leader from Parnell to Pearse sought his counsel. He organised a dramatic rescue of Fenian prisoners from Australia, rallied Irish America behind the Land War, served as a middle man between the Easter rebels and the German government, and helped move Irish-American opinion in favour of the Treaty. When he died in 1928, Devoy was accorded a state funeral and a hero’s burial in Ireland. This new revised edition of the acclaimed biography of this overlooked architect of the Irish independence movement is also the story of Ireland, and of Irish-America, from the Famine to Freedom, examining the extraordinary cloak-and-dagger planning of the Easter Rising and the critical role of America in its outcome. “The Devoy story, in Terry Golway’s hands, combines wide scholarship and adventure: it reads like a novel. Get a comfortable chair when you read this book: you won’t be able to put it down.” – Frank McCourt “Terry Golway tells the story of this exceptional man with affection and deft narrative sense…this book will charm and enlighten readers.” – Thomas Keneally

Special Sorrows carefully delineates the centrality of Jewish, Polish and Irish supporters in the United States to national liberation movements abroad and details how such movements shaped immigrant life in the United States.