The influential life and death of an early republican

Biography/history.: Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa: Unrepentant Fenian.By Shane Kenna. Merrion Press, €19.95. Reviewed by Eoin Ó Broin

President Michael D Higgins at a ceremony last month marking the centenary of the funeral of Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa
Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa

Back in August, to mark the beginning of the government’s 1916 commemorations, President Michael D Higgins laid a wreath at the grave of Fenian icon Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa. An inscription on it in Irish read: “In loving memory of Jeremiah O’Donovan-Rossa, exiled hero and a source of encouragement for the cause of Ireland.”

But ...