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O’Donovan Rossa
& Dr. Crokes (1894)
The
lecture visit of Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa to Killarney
at the invitation of the Town Commissioners took a
surprising turn as “The Sentinel” headlines of June 27,
1894 testify – “shabby action of Town commissioners. No
Reception Committee – No Lecture.” A fortnight earlier
that same body had called a public meeting in “the
Shambles house for the purpose of organizing a
reception”, however, “strange to say, he was not
received by the T.C.s but by a few Nationalists of the
old type – by the country people – and by some local
sympathizers who continued to cheer until the
Innisfallen Hotel bus brought him away.” Some tourists
invited him to join them on a trip to Muckross, Dinis
and Torc and the following Sunday took him through the
Gap of Dunloe and down the Lakes.
The
Nationalists issued a formal address to the
distinguished Fenian and next John Corcoran read “The
Address of the Dr. Croke Branch of the G.A.A to Jeremiah
O’Donovan Rossa”.
The Address:
Sir,
- We the members of the Dr. Croke Branch of the Gaelic
Athletic Association, approach you on this your first
visit to Killarney after many years of exile in the
“Great Republic” of the West, where so many of our
fellow countrymen have sought a home and a refuge, to
bid you cead mile failte to “Beauty’s Home”, unequalled
in this great universe for its natural charms, still
desecrated by the curse of landlordism. We have
endeavoured to make this occasion of your visit to
Killarney worthy of this our native town and the manly
part which the men of the “Kingdom of Kerry” played in
the past history of the county in their struggle for
National Independence, but we have met with unlooked-for
opposition from the Killarney Town Commissioners and it
is only yesterday a member of that body denounced us as
non-representative of any section of the ratepayers of
Killarney. Truly, we admit we do not possess an
extraordinary share of the world’s goods, we are simply
working-men and as the sons of working-men, we are proud
to say that it was our fathers who took to the hillsides
in ’67 and sacrificed every personal motive for Ireland
and we, as working-men, glory in the fact that we, too,
have done our part having identified ourselves with the
struggle for National freedom in Ireland during the past
fifteen years. A flag of truce has has been raised by
the Liberal Government – a brighter future has been
promised to Ireland and we have grounded our arms and
await results. But we would be utterly unworthy of the
name of Irishmen if we were base enough to forget the
signal services which you have rendered Ireland as a
patriot whose spirit is as unquenchable as it is
unbroken and the sufferings which you have endured for
Irish Liberty tonight, we with all the ardour of our
souls, greet you as one who possesses all the manly
instincts of the Celtic race.
(Signed)
D.D. Sheehan – Vice President
John Corcoran, Hon. Sec.
O’Donovan Rossa’s Reply:
Friends of the G.A.A. and the Nationalists in Killarney,
I suppose you are one (a voice “yes”) –
You
are Irishmen, you are united in that matter – I thank
you for the kind address of welcome you gave me. It is
cheering to me to receive this “welcome home” after
thirty years of imprisonment and exile. I hope the
expectations you have of the Liberal government, or any
English government will be realized – those expectations
you have. There is no man who would rather see a
peaceful solution to the difficulty between England and
Ireland than I. I have met in foreign lands, wherever I
went, Englishmen and I have always found an Englishman
just as good a man as any other; but the governing of
Ireland by England for the last seven hundred years has
been a government of tyranny (hear, hear). Since I grew
up and I was a little boy, I realized what tyranny was,
Englishmen have told us that. I was listening to Forde
in New York telling the people that if Irishmen wanted
their independence they should win it like men and I
heard Charles Bradlaugh at Fifth Ave., New York, fifteen
years ago, at a dinner table, say that Englishmen must
give Irishmen the rights that they receive but they must
take up the sword and they must fight for them.
(applause)
Well, you expect those rights from the English
government I hope she is sincere. I can’t go against
the people here and elsewhere who have such high hopes.
I only hope they will be realized.
Thirty years ago I was sent out of Ireland and after
five or six years of imprisonment in English prisons I
was banished from England and not permitted to return to
England or Scotland or Wales for a term of twenty
years. Those twenty years are passed and I thought my
life would not be properly ended unless I resolved – no
matter what the consequences may be – to visit the land
of my birth (cheers)
Thanking you very sincerely for your kind welcome I
don’t think it well to say anymore.
These sons of Killarney’s working men stood their ground
together for a brighter future. The Town’s
Commissioners dallied and denounced, but these
Crokes Stalworths advanced towards independence.
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