Irish Rebels in English Prisons: A Record of Prison Life.

This is a rare or used book from the Berkelouw Rare Books Department.

New York: D. & J. Sadlier & Co. 1880. 8vo. Original blind-stamped dark green cloth (extremities slightly rubbed). (II VIII442 pp.). The preface is an article from the London Spectator which was "a review of the report of Lord Devon's Commissions of Inquiry into our (Irish dissidents) treatment in prison." Apart from some age-toning of the pages and some foxing of end-pages a very good copy. Rubber-stamp on front fly-leaf and pp. I. The very rare unrecorded 1st edition published 2 years before the New York P. J. Kenedy 1882 edition which is erroneously always cited as the 1st edition. NOTE: Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa was born in Rosscarbery County Cork September 10th 1831. He witnessed the devastation and squalor caused by the Great Famine in the 1840's. Like Thomas Davis and the Young Ireland Movement in the 1840's he viewed the fight for independence in terms of a spiritual struggle between civilizations. He formed a new national movement the Phoenix Society of Skibbereen. In 1858 the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) also known as the Fenians was formed in Dublin and New York. Rossa's Phoenix Society was one of the first recruits of the new organisation. He was arrested in 1858 for being connected with the Fenians and in 1865 he was sentenced to life imprisonment after the Fenian Rising. Whilst in prison he suffered inhumane and cruel treatment at the hands of the prison authorities. In 1870 his case stirred quite an interest in the public domain when a letter he had written describing his treatment in prison was smuggled out and published in several newpapers both in England and abroad. As a result the treatment of Fenian prisoners in particular O'Donovan Rossa was raised in the House of Commons and the Prime Minister Gladstone had to hold an enquiry into the treatment of Fenian prisoners. On January 5 1871 the British in a general amnesty released 30 Fenian prisoners on the condition that they exile themselves to a country of their choice and not return until their sentences had expired. Rossa chose to go to America and arrived in New York with four other exiles to a hero's welcome from the city's large Irish community and even received a resolution of welcome from the U.S. House of Representatives. In New York he wrote 3 books Prison Life (1874) Irish Rebels in English Prisons (1880) Recollection 1838 - 1898 (1898) all of which recount the atrocities experienced during his imprisonment in England. During the 1880's he helped orchestrate a contoversial dynamite bombing campaign in England. He understandably received extraordinary attention from the English press. For years they campaigned for his arrest and punishment. The mere mention of the name Rossa in the English mindset engendered immense fear possibly more than his violent activities deserved. Nevertheless there is no doubt that Rossa was an extreme radical. O'Donovan Rossa died in 1915 in a Staten Island hospital. His widow agreed to send his body back to Ireland for burial. More than 10000 people attended his funeral. (G. Treanor Irish Heritage Group)