formed a secret, central committee within the Fenian executive.4 Other members of the IRB working for the newspaper included Denis Dowling Mulcahy and John Haltigan.
Registering the newspaper on 31 May 1863, its first issue was published on 28 November of that year and consisted of sixteen pages and cost three pence stamped or two pence unstamped. In America, one reader was so enthralled by The Irish People that he sought to congratulate Irishmen for producing such a medium, and writing a letter to the newspaper, he commended its staff. Saluting the team behind The Irish People, but only O’Donovan Rossa was signalled out by its author, the American felt that by placing the management of the newspaper in O’Donovan Rossa’s hands, ‘we may judge that the tone of the paper will be one of uncompromising loyalty of the only kind that should pass current among true Irishmen’.5 As suggested by the American correspondent, the tone of the newspaper was uncompromisingly republican and mirrored Fenian political ambition and ideology, setting itself the task of becoming the organ of the IRB. It examined the American Civil War and detailed the activities of the Fenian Brotherhood in America. It was never reticent in its nationalist views, even declaring in one article the wish for ‘the liberation of Ireland from the yoke of England’.6 The newspaper was decidedly in favour of a democratic republic and advocated the principle of Irish independence. As to how this was to be achieved, in common with Fenian ideology, the newspaper rejected constitutionalism and carried an article noting ‘true national independence never was and never will be anywhere achieved save by the sword’.7 Representing British rule within Ireland as the alien, the newspaper claimed that ‘enslaved’ people had the right to achieve their national independence.8 In the same vain, the following year a further edition used more aggressive language, commenting how ‘another Patrick’s day has passed and Ireland is still in chains’.9
The newspaper was equally anti-clerical and decidedly secular; this was particularly noticeable with the writing of Charles Kickham. The newspaper argued that many within the Roman Catholic priesthood, and particularly amongst the hierarchy, were ‘West Britons’, contented with the established order.10 In April 1864, the newspaper had condemned the Catholic Church in the most vocal terms and had signalled out the influential Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Paul Cullen, who had earlier denounced Fenianism, describing the Archbishop as ‘an individual enemy of Irish liberty’.11 Later that year, The Irish People published a letter which commented on ‘the propensity of the priesthood to tyranny,’ and denounced the Catholic Clergy as ‘a serious obstacle’ to advanced nationalism.12 This marked anti-clericalism hurt the business strategy of the newspaper as the Clergy strenuously piled pressure on its agents within several of its dioceses, making it the case that retailers were forced to withdraw its sale for fear of clerical denunciation.
Within a year of the newspaper’s establishment, O’Donovan Rossa had married Mary Jane Irwin, who he had met at a wake. Mary was originally from Clonakilty in County Cork; her family, similar to the Buckleys, had earlier been opposed to the relationship which forced the couple to get engaged in secret. Her parents, Maxwell and Margaret, had felt that O’Donovan Rossa was too old for their daughter and was burdened by a large family and a continual police interest in his career. Her father, who was a veteran of the 1848 Rebellion, was also horrified to learn that O’Donovan Rossa was scheduled to make for England before his wedding on business of James Stephens and had insisted on bringing the wedding forward. Accompanied by James Hopper, Stephens’ brother-in-law, he had sought to get a licence for his marriage from his church in Skibbereen, but on account of his politics, the priest found he could not give him his license. The priest argued with O’Donovan Rossa, citing the fact that he would have to come to confession and as a member of a secret society, he could not give him absolution unless he renounced Fenianism. Eventually unable to secure a formal licence from the church, he announced that he had not been to confession and had not met the Church’s requirements for marriage. He then left for Cork City.
Arriving in Cork City he had speculated that he could get confession from a priest who did not know him. The priest, however, had a suspicion about his politics and asked him if he belonged to a secret society, where Rossa accordingly told him he belonged to a movement ‘sworn to fight for Ireland’s freedom’. His confessor refused to give O’Donovan Rossa absolution on account of his membership, and before leaving the confession box he angrily told the priest: ‘I do not want absolution for it…. Tis for my sins I seek absolution, not for my virtues.’13 Unable to receive confession and a formal licence he made for Clonakilty, where he found that Mary Jane’s father had relented in his opposition to the marriage. As at Skibbereen and Cork, however, there were more difficulties with the Church, as the priest, Fr Leader, would not marry the couple, stressing that O’Donovan Rossa needed to see the Bishop before the priest could relent. As he needed to leave for England on Fenian business the following day, he could not consent to a meeting with the Bishop and threatened to marry Mary Jane in Cork City, which Fr Leader felt would set a bad example for local girls, as she was leaving the parish with an unmarried man. Eventually forcing an order for the marriage from the Curate of the parish, the couple were married in the Parish Hall on 22 October 1864 and set off for England on what O’Donovan Rossa termed ‘a honeymoon conspiracy tour’.14
Spending a month in Britain, O’Donovan Rossa and his new wife travelled through Liverpool, Blackburn, Manchester, Edinburgh and Glasgow. Recalling his travels as ‘the honeymoon life of an Irish traveling conspirator’,15 he met with Irish centres throughout Irish hamlets and districts. Returning to Ireland from Scotland, O’Donovan Rossa made a tour of Belfast and then returned to Dublin with Mary Jane. Mary Jane was an active poet and contributed regularly to The Irish People, using the pseudonym, Cliodhna. Mary Jane was a soul mate for the twice-widowed O’Donovan Rossa and mirrored his love of songs, poetry and politics. Within their family life they had endearing nicknames for each other, with O’Donovan Rossa calling his wife ‘Mollis’, an Irish language term of endearment, and Mary referring to him by the sobriquets of Dear, Cariss or Rossa.16 Writing a poem about her husband, Mary Jane recalled how:
When first he called me ‘Mollis,’ he sighed,
And told me he loved one –
One other who was already his bride,
And I should love her for him – I cried;
Then he told me that other was Erin,
Oh! But my love is fair to see!
And, Erin, his fairness is all to thee –
Strong with a lion’s strength is he,
And gentle with doveling’s gentleness he,
My loved and Thine, Oh! Erin.
She was also a republican and staunchly supported her husband’s involvement in the IRB; she soon became a regular acquaintance of the secret central committee and of James Stephens. On account of her gender, Mary Jane was not entitled to membership, but she was active within the movement and regularly delivered and hid messages. Like many of the women associated with the IRB in the late nineteenth century, her involvement within republican politics was brushed aside within historiography and lost in the passage of time. According to John Devoy, women like Mary Jane were instrumental to the success of the evolution of the movement in Ireland, asserting:
They took no pledge, but were trusted by the men without one, were the keepers of important secrets, travelled from point to point bearing important messages… Not one woman betrayed a secret, proved false to the trust reposed in her, or by carelessness or indiscretion was responsible for any injury to the cause. It was a fine record for Irish womanhood.17
In March 1864, Pierce Nagle had been appointed to The Irish People as a part-time paper folder, making parcels for agents and suppliers. He had been vouched for by Denis Dowling Mulcahy and had worked at St Lawrence’s Chapel, Dublin, and was a teacher of English at the Mechanics Institute. Nagle, however, was working for Dublin Castle as an
