Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa: 

In the centenary year of Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa’s death, it is appropriate that his life, and his patriotism, be marked in the county and country of his birth, writes Gabriel Doherty

JEREMIAH O’Donovan Rossa (1831 to 1915) was born into an Irish-speaking farming family in the Rosscarbery area of West Cork in 1831 — though the precise location remains a matter of dispute to this day.

This area was notorious, indeed proverbial, for the extent of the suffering experienced during the years of the Great Famine — an event through which he lived and which clearly had a decisive influence on his attitude towards a variety of important contemporary issues in Ireland, most notably the questions of land ownership and the government.