In twelve months Rossa fell in love again, this time with Ellen Buckley of Gortbrack and married in 1861. They had one son Florence Stephen O’Donovan Rossa, who lived until he was 21 and is the only one of his children buried in Ireland. Shortly after the birth, Ellen contracted fever and died. She is buried in Castlehaven old cemetery. Rossa was in America in 1863, when his wife Ellen died.

Rossa had a magic touch as far as girls were concerned; in April 1864 he met Mary Jane Irwin, a daughter of Maxwell Irwin of Clonakilty and married her on the 22nd October 1864. He often spoke of her as his little poetess.

James Stephens invited Rossa to Dublin to act as manger of “The Irish People” newspaper. They were not long in business when they experienced opposition from the clergy in almost every county in the country. Rossa travelled the whole country promoting the paper.

He said, “Our agents were bullied and threatened with hell and damnation. In Kilkenny the penance in confession was that they should not read The Irish People.”

On 15th September 1865 Rossa was arrested and taken to Chancery Lane police station. He was remanded in Richmond Prison, kept in solitary confinement (Those working for the paper were also arrested.). While awaiting trial, he had a visit from his wife. She told him what the papers were saying. Archbishop Cullen came out in a pastoral against them. Rossa said, our natural enemies were bad enough but when the sanctity of the Catholic Church corroborated the slander of the English enemy we were pretty badly off. The infamous Judge Keogh and a packed jury conducted the trail. He was found guilty of treason felony and the sentence was penal servitude for life.

On 13th December 1865 he starts his prison life in Mountjoy and is branded a “bad character.” When the formalities were gone through and the rules read to him, he asked for a pen and paper and he was told that he could not have the benefit of that rule, that there were special instructions in his case. This meant he was to be treated worse than the worst criminals in society.

“I went in to prison determined to bear all things patiently, determined to obey everything as I conceived that the dignity of the cause of liberty required that men should suffer calmly for it, but the more obedient and humble I was, the more my master showed a disposition to trample upon me”

“My cell was 10ft by 7ft. It contained a water closet, a table, a stool, a hammock bed made like a coffin and about two feet broad at the top, a saltbox, a tin box, a tin pint and a spoon. I got a pint weight of oakum to pick. I went to bed at eight o’clock and immediately after I was roused up and ordered to put my clothes out through the trapdoor. Every 15 minutes of the night the trapdoor was opened and I was called until I raised my head. There were two soldiers outside my cell window who kept calling “all night” to each other every half-hour. This continued for 10 nights. I never got an hour’s sleep. I read of some Eastern tyrants that tortured their prisoners by preventing them from sleeping. I experienced that torture under the government of those sanctimonious people who denounced it to the world when any one but themselves inflict it. On 23rd December I was moved to Pentonville in London. I felt happy to be in an English prison. I thought conditions could not be worse that what I had in Mountjoy. But I was greatly mistaken. I was deprived of my flannel underclothes, with the result that I was frozen, as there was snow at the time. I was not allowed write any letter here either. Captain Gambier was the director and we became well acquainted with each other.

He could order 28 days on bread and water in the most pathetic tones and regret that my bad behaviour was the cause. He gave orders to put me tailoring and told me the more obedient I was and the more industrious, the better it would be for me. The history of one day contains the history of nearly everyday of prison life, the same cheerless food, the same solitary confinement, the same dreary monotony, except if you grew discontented you could have a change for the worst in dark cells, bread and water and handcuffs.

Rising at six. Breakfast was 8oz. of bread and ¾ pt. of cocoa. Dinner was 4oz. meat, 5oz. bread and 1lb. potatoes. Supper was 7oz. bread and 1pt. porridge. You were to be at work from breakfast hour until 7:30pm except one hour for dinner.”

After a couple of months he received a letter from his wife. He got pen and paper to write to her but with instructions that he was not to report on his conditions in prison. At Mass on Sundays he was not to speak to anyone or even turn his head to see who was near him. Time went on and one day he was marched before the governor who said “I received a letter from your wife. I am able to inform you that on the 30th April your wife was delivered of a son.” But he would not give him the letter as he was not due a letter and he could not answer it as he could only write every six months. His next move was to Portland Prison. Here he and his fellow Fenians were lodged in a basement cell that was never before occupied. The cell was 7ft by 3½ft separated from one another by corrugated iron. The flooring was flagstones, ventilators and windows of cast iron and when it rained the water poured into these cells. To make life more unpleasant he was fitted with heavy boots for working (14lbs). He was put to work in the washroom. After a week in the washroom he and his friends were sent to work in the quarries to dress stones.