"...we have many such patriots among us to-day; not alone in Ireland, but in America, and in every other land to which the Irish race is driven—patriots who will do anything to free Ireland but the one thing that must be done before she is freed. And to say that she cannot be freed by force is something that no manly Irishman should say—something he should not allow a thought of to enter his mind, while he has it in his power to grasp all these resources of war, or “resources of civilization” that England has at her command for the subjugation of Ireland and other nations. England knows well that Irishmen have it in their power to bring her to her knees, if they fight her with her own weapons, and that is why she labors so insidiously to put the brand of illegality, infamy, and barbarity upon such instruments of war in their hands as in her hands she calls “resources of civilization.” “England,” said Gladstone to Parnell, “has yet in reserve for Ireland the resources of civilization.” Ireland has such “resources” too; and, when it comes to a fight—as come it must—the Parnells must be sure to use them in England as the Gladstones will be sure to use them in Ireland. Then, may there be an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, and blood for blood"
"Many another Irish exile,” did I say?—did I call myself an “exile”?—an Irishman in New York, an “exile”! Yes; and the word, and all the meanings of the word, come naturally to me, and run freely from my mind into this paper. My mother buried in America, all my brothers and sisters buried in America; twelve of my children born in America—and yet I cannot feel that America is my country; I am made to feel that I am a stranger here, and I am made to see that the English power, and the English influence and the English hate, and the English boycott against the Irish-Irishmen is to-day as active in America as it is in Ireland. I am also made to see England engaged in her old game of employing dirty Irishmen to do some of the dirty work that she finds it necessary to have done, to hold Ireland in thrall. "
"With the history Irishmen have, or ought to have, by heart, it is surprising how easy it is to lead them to expect redress for their grievances from the Parliament of England — from that Parliament that has so often cajoled and deceived them, that Parliament whose proper function is to rivet the chains by which they are held in bondage. I don't know is it innate slavery, the slavery engen- dered in the Irish blood during seven hundred years of subjection — I don't know what it is ; but there it is again at the very present day — the people "agitating" for their rights, and sending good men to the London Parliament to get them. It is, to my mind, the evading and avoiding of what alone will ever get Irish rights from England — that is, fight and preparation for it."
- O'Donovan Rossa
- O'Donovan Rossa
"...if the indignation and retaliation of the Irish peo- ple would set London and other English cities ablaze, not alone would the whole Irish race all over the world rejoice, but the world itself and the victim spirits of the English-oppressed na- tions of the earth would shout " Halleluiah ! " from the heavens.
This may look like tall talk, but it is no taller than I have been trying to act during my "banishment from Ireland. England has proclaimed war against me ; she makes me an outcast on the world, and forbids me to tread my native land, and I have made no peace with England. I am at war with her, and, so help me God ! I will wage that war against her till she is stricken to her knees or till I am stricken to my grave."
- O'Donovan Rossa
This may look like tall talk, but it is no taller than I have been trying to act during my "banishment from Ireland. England has proclaimed war against me ; she makes me an outcast on the world, and forbids me to tread my native land, and I have made no peace with England. I am at war with her, and, so help me God ! I will wage that war against her till she is stricken to her knees or till I am stricken to my grave."
- O'Donovan Rossa
"If the British flag floats in Ireland, and if the impress of British dominion is on the land, nevertheless it is not English nor England's by right ; it is Irish and belongs to the Irish, and it will be theirs yet if they act like men and repudiate the political teachings that would educate them as slaves."
- O'Donovan Rossa
- O'Donovan Rossa
"Perhaps it is a very great crime to teach the people to be independent of priests in politics ; this I did do, and this I will do as long as the priests oppose any organization of means to rid Ireland of English rule, and I believe no organization will do it that will not be oath-bound and secret in and about Ireland, and that will not avail of all and every means that is deemed necessary to attain the object."
- O'Donovan Rossa
- O'Donovan Rossa
Forwarded from Archiving Irish Diversity Stuff (AIDS)
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This is a place of peace, sacred to the dead, where men should speak with all charity and with all restraint; but I hold it a Christian thing, as O’Donovan Rossa held it, to hate evil, to hate untruth, to hate oppression, and, hating them, to strive to overthrow them. Our foes are strong and wise and wary; but, strong and wise and wary as they are, they cannot undo the miracles of God who ripens in the hearts of young men the seeds sown by the young men of a former generation...Life springs from death; and from the graves of patriot men and women spring living nations. The Defenders of this Realm have worked well in secret and in the open.
They think that they have pacified Ireland. They think that they have purchased half of us and intimidated the other half. They think that they have foreseen everything, think that they have provided against everything; but 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.
They think that they have pacified Ireland. They think that they have purchased half of us and intimidated the other half. They think that they have foreseen everything, think that they have provided against everything; but 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.
Forwarded from Archiving Irish Diversity Stuff (AIDS)
Pádraig Pearse spoke at the graveside of Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa on this day, 1915
Forwarded from Archiving Irish Diversity Stuff (AIDS)
“We are bound to love our own people with a special and peculiar love, a love that is not founded upon the common characteristics of the human race, but which is founded upon the special and distinctive character of our own nationality.”
- Father Mícheál Ó Flannagáin from his full graveside oration at the funeral of Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa, where he spoke side-by-side with Pádraig Pearse (pictured).
Credit: legacy_irish
More here: http://carrowkeel.com/frof/odrspeech.html
- Father Mícheál Ó Flannagáin from his full graveside oration at the funeral of Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa, where he spoke side-by-side with Pádraig Pearse (pictured).
Credit: legacy_irish
More here: http://carrowkeel.com/frof/odrspeech.html
Forwarded from Archiving Irish Diversity Stuff (AIDS)
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O'Donovan Rossa - Brian O'Higgins
When O'Donovan Rossa died in America, it was decided to accede to his final wish to be buried in his native land. O'Higgins sat on the funeral committee and was first and foremost in organising that historic event which has come to be regarded as a defining moment in Ireland's history. In the Souvenir produced in relation to this funeral, these verses were published.
When O'Donovan Rossa died in America, it was decided to accede to his final wish to be buried in his native land. O'Higgins sat on the funeral committee and was first and foremost in organising that historic event which has come to be regarded as a defining moment in Ireland's history. In the Souvenir produced in relation to this funeral, these verses were published.
Forwarded from Cartlann.org
"The English robbed the Irish, and having pauperized them, made poverty a crime. Then, the Irish were a proud people, and made desperate efforts to hide their poverty, and no greater offense could be given to one of the old stock than to have poverty thrown in his face – ‘twas the worst aspuchaun that could be thrown at him. We belong to the “ould stock;” there is not a drop of any blood in us, at father or mother’s side for generations, but Irish blood; and we inherit the pride and poverty of the race. But to have that poverty thrown in our face, after battling with the world for fifty years – and battling during the greater part of those fifty years against the powers that plundered our people – is a thing we will not quietly stand." - "The Crime of Poverty", Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa, The United Irishman, June 24, 1882.
https://cartlann.org/authors/jeremiah-odonovan-rossa/the-crime-of-poverty/
https://cartlann.org/authors/jeremiah-odonovan-rossa/the-crime-of-poverty/