Mrs O’ Donovan Rossa knew that this was a total lie, and she wrote to the editor, saying, that due to her Husband’s ill health, nobody had the opportunity to interview or speak to him during the last year of his life. She said “My husband O’ Donovan Rossa was as he said of himself in the dock, an Irish man since he was born, and I can testify that during his last long illness, he was the same unconquerable Irishman, breathing the same unalterable desire for the absolute freedom of his country and its utter separation from England.

Rossa is fondly remembered in Ireland and we have three monuments in West Cork, 1 in Reenascreena, 1 in Rosscarbery and O’ Donovan Rossa Park in Skibbereen. In Dublin there is a Rossa memorial in St Stephens Green near Grafton St corner. There are 4 GAA clubs named in his honour,

• O’Donovan Rossa in London
• O’Donovan Rossa in Magherafelt Co Derry
• O’Donovan Rossa in Belfast
• O’Donovan Rossa in Skibbereen

Rossa’s funeral in 1915 and the oration by Padraig Pearse renewed spirits in Ireland and gave inspiration for the struggle that followed. The IRA learned from Rossa that spies and informers should not get a second chance and this contributed to their success.

My Grandfather Daniel Buckley Gortbrack was at Rossa’s funeral. Being a relative he was issued with a Graveside ticket. (He was a nephew of Ellen Buckley, Rossa’s second wife.) He, and other friends left the graveyard early to get the train back to Cork. As a result they missed Pearse’s oration. This was a cause of great regret later on as History unfolded.

The Committee that organised Rossa’s funeral had many of the leading nationalist figures of that time. Most of the 1916 leaders were involved. Looking at the list of names, his funeral in Glasnevin must have been a gathering of the Greatest Irishmen of the 20-century.