"The Irish tongue and the Irish language are not the only things that suffer by the effort to turn everything Irish into English."
(Rossa's Recollections 1838 - 1898)
(Rossa's Recollections 1838 - 1898)
"All this I am saying [on genealogy] may be idle gossip, personal or family gossip, yet it may lead to something that may affect every one who is not ashamed of having an Irish father and mother, and of having every one and everything belonging to him, Irish. To those who would be ashamed of having it known who their father and mother and their family connections were, I have nothing to say, and I heed little what they say of me for having a little Irish family pride about me."
(Rossa's Recollections 1838 - 1898)
(Rossa's Recollections 1838 - 1898)
"Nine millions in 1845; four and a half millions in 1895. And those English savages rejoice over the manner in which they destroy us. They thank God we are gone, 'gone with a vengeance,' they say. What a pity we haven't the spirit to return the vengeance. But we are taught to do good to those that hate us, to bless those that curse us, and to pray for those who persecute and calumniate us. I can't do it; I won't try to do it; I won't be making a hypocrite of myself in the eyes of the Lord; I could sooner bring myself to pray for the devil first."
(Rossa's Recollections 1838 - 1898)
(Rossa's Recollections 1838 - 1898)
"While all of us talk much of fight, and glorify in song and story those who fought and fell, is it possible that something degenerate has grown into us, that always keeps us from coming to the point when the crisis is at hand!"
(Rossa's Recollections 1838 - 1898)
(Rossa's Recollections 1838 - 1898)
"Until England is made afraid, she will do nothing for Ireland, or give nothing to Irishmen."
(Rossa's Recollections 1838 - 1898)
(Rossa's Recollections 1838 - 1898)
"Irishmen of the present day should work to free Ireland in their own time, and not be shifting from their own shoulders to the shoulders of the men of a future generation the work they themselves should do."
(Rossa's Recollections 1838 - 1898)
(Rossa's Recollections 1838 - 1898)
"And how can I help thinking of the wreck and ruin that come upon the Irish race in the foreign land! One in a hundred may live and prosper, and stand to be looked at as a living monument of the prosperity, but ninety-nine in a hundred are lost, never to be heard of."
"we shirk our part of our duty, by going around the world preaching against England, on the anniversary of every day on which Englishmen murdered Irishmen.
If we were the men that we ought to be, we would be doing something to have 'vengeance wreaked on the murderer’s head,' instead of hugging to ourselves the satisfaction that we are doing all that belongs to Irish patriots to do, by celebrating those days"
If we were the men that we ought to be, we would be doing something to have 'vengeance wreaked on the murderer’s head,' instead of hugging to ourselves the satisfaction that we are doing all that belongs to Irish patriots to do, by celebrating those days"
"...I can afford to care but very little about what any one may say about my losing my soul because I do all in the world I can do to wrest from the English robbers what they robbed my people and robbed my country of."
Rossa's Recollections is available to read here. It's a fascinating book that covers O'Donovan Rossa's life story, outlines his unwavering ethnocentric love of Ireland and her people and hatred of their oppression, as well getting a glimpse of what life was actually like in old Ireland. Well worth the read.
Also, make sure to bookmark the website and follow Cartlann here on telegram (@Cartlann) and Twitter etc. They are putting together a brilliant database of nationalist content; essential reading and important work.
Also, make sure to bookmark the website and follow Cartlann here on telegram (@Cartlann) and Twitter etc. They are putting together a brilliant database of nationalist content; essential reading and important work.
Cartlann
Rossa’s Recollections: 1838 to 1898
PDF Chapters The Cradle and the Weaning At my Grandfather’s My Schooldays Irish Fireside Story and History The Emigrant Parting – Carthy [...]
"Too much talk and too little action have been the characteristics of Irish patriotism during a large portion of the last half century; and as we are supposed to learn from experience, it is believed that less of the former and a corresponding increase of the latter will, in the future, serve our country’s cause best and our enemy’s cause least."
"Irishmen should have a country; they have a right to the country of their birth. By the use and aid of one steel—the pen—our committee have taken possession of that right, and as their title one day may be disputed, I trust they will be able and willing to prove it by the aid of another steel—the sword."
"Thus was this Irishman reminded of the loss of his country; he had no country; we Irishmen are slaves and outcasts in the land of our birth."
"Thus may foreign nations believe this country is not ours, and I am sure you will not be surprised that England is particularly positive on this point. She has made all possible efforts to convince us of it. She has broken the heads of many Irishmen trying to hammer this opinion into them. For seven long and dreary centuries has she been trying to force it on us; and against her during all this time have the majority of Irishmen protested. Yet has she disregarded every protestation, every claim, and every petition, and instead of treating us as human beings or subjects, she has made every effort that pen, fire and sword could make to extirpate our race.
She has stained almost every hearthstone in the land with the heart’s blood of a victim; and the other day, in savage exultation at the idea of her work being accomplished, she cried out, ‘The Irish are gone, and gone with a vengeance’. But the mercenary Thunderer lies. I read it in your countenances. The Irish are not gone; but part of them are gone, and in whatever clime their pulses beat to night, that ‘vengeance’ which banished them is inscribed on their hearts, impregnates their blood, and may yet operate against that oppressor who, by his exterminating and extirpating laws, deprived them of a means of living in the land of their fathers."
She has stained almost every hearthstone in the land with the heart’s blood of a victim; and the other day, in savage exultation at the idea of her work being accomplished, she cried out, ‘The Irish are gone, and gone with a vengeance’. But the mercenary Thunderer lies. I read it in your countenances. The Irish are not gone; but part of them are gone, and in whatever clime their pulses beat to night, that ‘vengeance’ which banished them is inscribed on their hearts, impregnates their blood, and may yet operate against that oppressor who, by his exterminating and extirpating laws, deprived them of a means of living in the land of their fathers."