The Funeral: Part One

The remains of Rossa were brought from New York to Liverpool where they were transferred to the S.S. Carlow bound for Dublin. Even the seemingly simple process of moving Rossa’s coffin from the American ship to the Irish ship became an elaborate affair involving fifty Irish Volunteers carrying him two miles. Frank Thornton (SD 24 South New Chapel) later recalled the incident:

“I got instructions to make arrangements with the Old City of Dublin Steampacket Company to have their boat draw alongside the American liner ‘St. Paul’ in the Mersey when O’Donovan Rossa’s body arrived on that boat. The whole anxiety of our American friends of the Clann na Gaedheal and also of the I.R.B. and the Volunteers in Dublin was to ensure that Rossa’s body did not touch English soil on its way back to Ireland for burial. All arrangements were made to have the City of Dublin boat alongside, but owing to the late arrival of the ‘St. Paul’, brought about by bad weather, this was not possible. However, we got over the difficulty in another way. We mobilised fifty members of our Volunteers in Liverpool and boarded the ‘St. Paul’ at Prince’s Landing Stage and carried the body from there right along the Dock Road to the Nelson Dock on Irish shoulders, the journey being over two miles.”

When they finally arrived on Tuesday 27 July at the North Wall in Dublin his remains were removed to the Pro-Cathedral where they stayed until the following day when they were brought to City Hall following requiem mass. Here they lay in the vestibule, the coffin on view with a special glass cover to allow people to see the Fenian leader.

On Sunday 1 August, the morning of the funeral, all the planning came together. Trains from all parts of the country began to arrive and unloaded the day-trippers who took up their positions throughout the city. Coming from Offaly, Cavan, Galway, Sligo, Mayo, Derry, Antrim, Derry and Cork amongst many other counties they converged on Dublin en masse around 11am.