Rossa's Recollections, 1838 to 1898: Childhood, boyhood, manhood; customs, habits and manners of the Irish people; Erinach and Sassenach; Catholic and protestant; Englishman and Irishman; English religion; Irish plunder; social life and prison life; the Fenian movement; Travels in Ireland, England, Scotland and AmericaO'Donovan Rossa, Jeremiah
History
Rossa's Recollections, 1838 to 1898: Childhood, boyhood, manhood; customs, habits and manners of the Irish people; Erinach and Sassenach; Catholic and protestant; Englishman and Irishman; English religion; Irish plunder; social life and prison life; the Fenian movement; Travels in Ireland, England, Scotland and America
If I traveled from New York to San Francisco now, and stayed a time in
every city on the way, I could find a family cousin or connection in
every one of those cities--scores of them in these two cities I name,
among people who do not even know me. The mother of the children of
Alderman Henry Hughes, of New York, was an O’Donovan-Maol; her mother
was an O’Donovan Rossa, the daughter of one of my grand-uncles. The
mother of Counsellor McIntyre’s children, of San Francisco, is an
O’Donovan-Ciuin; her father is Martin Ciuin, of Sawroo, the son of my
mother’s sister, Kate O’Driscoll.
I could go into any parish in the Province of Munster and find family
relations and connections in it. Even in England I found relations in
whatever city I entered. In London the member who gave me a ticket to
go into the House of Commons in May, 1895, was one of my Old country
cousins--Ned Barry, of Newmill, one of the members for Cork County.
Then, when I went up to Newcastle-on-Tyne, a man called on me who told
me he recollected seeing me at his father’s house, in Dunmanway, when
he was a child. He was a grandson of old Jerrie Donovan, of Nedineh,
whom I met in my early days--Jer-a-Bhaaid, who belonged to the family
of my grandmother, Mauria ’n Bhaaid. This New Castle Irishman was
half a Tipperary man. His mother, before she married his father, Tim
O’Donovan Baaid, was a Miss Doheny, the niece of Father Doheny, of
Tipperary, who was a parish priest in Dunmanway.
The day before I left Chatham prison I had a visit from a man who was
living outside the prison walls. He said I may want some money, and he
put into my hand eight or ten sovereigns. He was Bildee Barrett, of
Ross, the son of Ned Barrett, whose mother was an O’Donovan Rossa, the
sister of my grandfather.
In 1894, when I was in Ireland, a double cousin of mine wrote me this
letter:
THE ARCADE, Ross Carberry,
June 5th, 1894.
DEAR MR. O’DONOVAN--We regret very much not having the pleasure
of seeing you in Skibbereen last evening, but we are glad to
learn from James Donovan that you will visit Ross Carberry
shortly, when we hope to give you a hearty welcome to your
native town. If my father (Rick Donovan-Roe) lived, how
delighted he would be to see you.
My husband is also a cousin of yours--a grandson of old Garrett
Barry. I remain, your fond cousin,
ELLEN COLLINS.
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