and covered in light heather, making a makeshift blanket to keep her warm. This woman was too cold and hungry to move. An equally poor ‘neighbour’ of hers had collected meal for her from the relief team, but she was unable to cook it. Fr Collins pleaded with O’Donovan Rossa to give her some more food, and he was inclined to agree with the priest, issuing her with an unauthorised stock of meal. Leaving the island he recalled:
Father Collins accompanied us to the other end of the island to take the boat for Sherkin. The walk was about three miles. We entered many houses on the way. Some of them had flags for doors – the wooden doors having been burnt for firing. In one house were five or six children; one of them was dead – evidently died from starvation. I reported that case of death to the first coroner I could communicate with when I reached the mainland; and inquest was held and the coroner’s jury brought in a verdict of: ‘Death from starvation.’3
Returning to Skibbereen, O’Donovan Rossa found himself in trouble with the Board of Guardians. The largest owner of land on Cape Clear, John Wrixon Beecher, had complained that in giving extra meal to the starving, O’Donovan Rossa had exceeded his brief, had violated the trust of the Poor Law System and had been in breach of its rules and regulations. Beecher insisted that O’Donovan Rossa was not fit to be a temporary relief officer, that he should be discharged from his position and should not be paid for the weeks of service he provided. Beecher also proposed that O’Donovan Rossa should pay for the extra meal, which he had distributed beyond the ration set, from his own pocket. Without O’Donovan Rossa’s consent or knowledge, he was relieved of his duties and replaced. Furious with his treatment, he defended his actions to the Board of Guardians and the Poor Law Commissioners in Dublin, citing how he was not prepared to allow the people to starve. He further suggested that the real reason why he lost his job was not because he distributed greater levels of food than he was allowed to do, but because he reported the death of a child due to starvation rather than keeping it a secret.
At the end of 1860, John O’Mahony, the founder of the Fenian Brotherhood, arrived in Ireland. O’Mahony’s visit was organised clandestinely for fear of arrest. O’Mahony was born near Mitchelstown, County Cork and was eager to revisit the province of his birth. It was decided by what remained of the local organisation of the Phoenix Society/IRB in Skibbereen that O’Mahony would be welcomed to the community. It had been arranged that the Fenian leader would be picked up at Roscarbery and then taken to Skibbereen where he would meet the local IRB and discuss the state of West Cork and Fenianism in the aftermath of the crushing Phoenix arrests. Before arriving in Ireland in 1860, O’Mahony had called upon Stephens in Paris, where the IRB chief was hiding since the Phoenix arrests in 1858, and it was on his initiative that Stephens returned home to Dublin to begin to reorganise the revolutionary movement in the spring of 1861. There was an understanding between Stephens and O’Mahony that the Fenians would supply the IRB with 5,000 soldiers and 50,000 rifles and muskets. Stephens agreed to this on an understanding that no insurrection would be attempted against the British Administration without this Irish-American support. Touring the country and visiting his sister in County Tipperary, O’Mahony eventually arrived in Rosscarbery. The Fenian leader entered the town on an early form of public transport, known as Bianconi’s Long Car. Greeted by O’Donovan Rossa, Dan McCarthy and Morty Moynahan, he was then taken to Skibbereen where he was received as a returning hero by the local IRB. Listening to O’Mahony speak of the idea of a republican government, O’Donovan Rossa was greatly impressed by his style, virtue and principles. He regarded O’Mahony as one of the finest Irishmen that he had the pleasure of meeting, and describing the Fenian leader he claimed that: ‘He made the impression on me that he was a man proud of his name and of his race. And I liked him for that.’4
While O’Mahony was in Ireland, back in America, Terence Bellew MacManus a veteran of the 1848 Rebellion, originally from County Fermanagh, had died in San Francisco. Buried in Calvary Cemetery, San Francisco, it was decided by the Fenian Brotherhood that he should be exhumed and buried in Ireland. This decision was based on a calculation that the MacManus funeral could galvanise the Fenian base in Ireland and prove a means to radicalise and educate the people as to the concept of republicanism as an alternative to British administration of Ireland. It also provided an opportunity to establish a cult of the Dead Rebel, which in turn would provide an opportunity to recruit thousands of Irishmen to the cause of Fenianism, thus revitalising the movement. Arriving in New York City, prior to his departure to Ireland, Bellew MacManus’ remains were greeted by huge crowds of Irish-Americans, and his was one of the largest funeral cortege’s seen in that city’s history. As part of the planning of the Bellew MacManus funeral it had been decided that his remains were to be buried in Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin. James Stephens, in his capacity as Chief Organiser of the Irish Republic, had personally written to O’Donovan Rossa, asking him to meet the body at Cork. Stephens also wanted O’Donovan Rossa to accompany MacManus’s remains to Dublin, and the Cork Fenian eagerly accepted. O’Donovan Rossa took his place in the delegation accompanying MacManus’ remains, and when the body arrived in Cork there were crowds of onlookers to witness the arrival. As the body came in quite a stir was caused when a little boy had been seen climbing up a nearby ships flagpole to remove an overlooking British Union flag. Briefly staying in Cork O’Donovan Rossa helped to put the MacManus’ coffin on a train for Dublin and like the other delegates accompanying the remains, he was armed with a pistol. Each delegate had been given a pistol due to a rumour that some people within the IRB organisation would attempt to commandeer the body and use the seizure as a means to rally the people to a premature insurrection.
With the train moving apace from Cork en route to Dublin, there was a stop of seven minutes at Limerick Junction. Here, the anxiety was palpable for O’Donovan Rossa and the delegates accompanying the body. Knowing that the train was carrying Bellew MacManus, hundreds of onlookers had arrived on the platform and thronged fields surrounding the train station. In anticipation of this stop at Limerick Junction, Stephens had ordered local IRB men to be at the station to protect the body and the delegates in the event of an IRB mutiny. With anxiety growing, and the train due to depart Limerick Junction, Stephens shouted out of the window, calling on those assembled to kneel and pray out of respect to Bellew MacManus. The assembled crowd began to recite the Catholic pater and ave for the dead enmasse. As it was in Cork and Limerick Junction, in Dublin, hundreds of onlookers had turned out to see the remains of Bellew MacManus. O’Donovan Rossa was amazed by a city ‘ablaze with torchlights’, in the Young Irelander’s honour.5
A numerous body of persons, admirers of the deceased were present at the Knightsbridge [sic – Kingsbridge] terminus, and when the train moved toward the platform, the entire assemblage, with uncovered heads, awaited the opening of the van containing the deceased… The van containing the body was then opened, and the coffin, which was encased in a heavy square wooden box, was removed on the shoulders of a number of men to the hearse prepared for it.6
All of this was in defiance to the Roman Catholic Hierarchy, who, led by Archbishop of Dublin Paul Cullen, had condemned the funeral and forbid Catholic clergy from taking part in any funeral service for the Young Irelander. Archbishop Cullen even went so far as to deny the use of Dublin’s main Catholic church, the Pro-Cathedral, and was immovable in his opposition. Archbishop Cullen’s opposition to the funeral was no surprise: he had earlier been a vehement opponent of the ecumenical Young Irelanders and as a member of the Roman Catholic Hierarchy, he was bound to oppose secret societies such as the Fenians. Considering that the archbishop would not allow MacManus’ remains into any Catholic church in Dublin, the funeral committee had secured the lecture theatre of the Mechanics Institute on Lower Abbey Street, the present site of the Abbey Theatre, to house the body before burial. With the remains of Bellew MacManus now in Dublin City, O’Donovan Rossa took his place as one of the Cork delegates accompanying the body to Abbey Street:
The hearse, preceded by six torch bearers, was immediately followed by Captain M.C. Smith and other members of the Cork and American committees. Then followed about 300 persons, on either side of whom torch bearers walked. The melancholy cortege proceeded along the Quays with a slow and solemn pace. The appearance of torches and the orderly bearing of those who followed the hearse was very impressive and imposing.7
