Life in Ireland
He was born at Rosscarbery, County Cork, to Denis O'Donovan and Nellie O'Driscoll, a family of tenant farmers, but in correspondence with the eminent scholar John O'Donovan the two arrived at the conclusion that Rossa's ancestors belonged to the admittedly long obscure but ancient sliocht of the MacEnesles or Clan Aneslis O'Donovans. His ancestors had held letters patent in Kilmeen parish in the 17th century before the confiscations, with his agnomen "Rossa" coming from the townland of Rossmore in Kilmeen. He became a shopkeeper in Skibbereen, where, in 1856, he established the Phoenix National and Literary Society, the aim of which was "the liberation of Ireland by force of arms", This organisation would later merge with the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), founded two years later in Dublin.
In December 1858, he was arrested and jailed without trial until July 1859. In 1865, he was charged with plotting a Fenian rising in 1865, put on trial for high treason and sentenced to penal servitude for life due to his previous convictions. He served his time in Pentonville, Portland and Chatham prisons in England.
In an 1869 by-election, he was returned to the British House of Commons for the Tipperary constituency, in which he defeated the Liberal Catholic Denis Caulfield Heron by 1054 to 898 votes. The election was declared invalid because he was an imprisoned felon.
Read more about this topic: Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa
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