Liverpool's Irish Volunteers and O'Donovan Rossa's funeral

THERE is a Liverpool part to the O’Donovan Rossa funeral that has been little known.

Captain Frank Thornton of the Irish Volunteers in Liverpool provided a written statement in 1915 which is available via the Bureau of Military History. His account provides a fascinating insight into the landing of O’Donovan Rossa’s funeral casket in Liverpool. 

It had sailed from New York on board the American Liner the ‘St Paul’. 

The Irish Volunteers in Liverpool were instructed not to allow O’Donovan Rossa’s body to touch English soil.

There was a plan to transfer the funeral casket between ships on the River Mersey but there was a delay in the ‘St Paul’ arriving in Liverpool which led the boat for Dublin needing to berth at Nelson Dock.

Thornton describes up to 50 Irish Volunteers from both ‘A’ and ‘B’ Companies in Liverpool assisting in carrying the funeral casket over two miles from Princes Landing Stage, along the Dock Road to Nelson Dock and then providing a guard of honour overnight until the ship sailed the following day.

Thornton also states that the Liverpool Volunteers then escorted O’Donovan Rossa to the Pro-Cathedral in Dublin, then to City Hall and finally to Glasnevin Cemetery for burial.

Neil Doolin of the Liverpool Easter 1916 Commemoration Committee says:

“It's a remarkable story and provides a great insight into the activity of the two companies of Irish Volunteers at that time.

“The story also highlights the need for us to recapture aspects of Liverpool Irish history previously unknown and perhaps even ignored. To that end, the Liverpool Easter 1916 Commemoration Committee is working towards commemorating the 100th anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin and detailing the role Liverpool women and men played in the Rising itself.

“I’ve no doubt they where inspired by the life of O’Donovan Rossa and by the central role they had played in his funeral procession and burial.”

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