Top Issue 1-2024

4 August 2015

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10,000 throng Sinn Féin's O'Donovan Rossa re-enactment in Dublin City Centre

Huge turnout at colourful republican commemoration eclipses state event

THE CONTRAST between the separate state and Sinn Féin commemorations on Sunday for the centenary of the 1915 funeral of Fenian dynamiter O'Donovan Rossa – the prelude to the 1916 Easter Rising – couldn't have been more obvious.

Perhaps it was a reflection of the Establishment's discomfort in having to mark the historic role of a man dubbed a “terrorist” for having set up a training school and funding in America for bombers who wreaked havoc in England.

O'Donovan Rossa portrait

O'Donovan Rossa

The state's event was barely distinguishable from any standard ceremonial occasion other than a brief re-enactment of Pearse's famous graveside oration. A select few took pride of place alongside 1916 relatives while the majority of he public were excluded, if even given a second thought by Fine Gael/Labour Government officials. The Sinn Féin re-enactment, on the other hand, was an inclusive celebration of the indomitable Fenian spirit of freedom that not only encouraged the public to watch but to take part.

The participation in the Sinn Féin ceremonies by two great grandsons of O'Donovan Rossa made the commemoration especially poignant.

O'Donovan Rossa rally 2015 Re-enactors Cavalry 2

The head of the Sinn Féin O'Donovan Rossa Commemoration

The staid state event at Glasnevin Cemetery with the customary (compulsory) Defence Forces military detachment and band to add a bit of ceremonial style involved a few hundred people. 

The imaginative pageant organised by Sinn Féin attracted thousands of participants, many of whom enthusiastically took part by dressing in their own period costume for the occasion.

O'Donovan Rossa rally 2015 GPO

The eye-catching spectacle drew the attention of countless thousands more as it wound its way from Dublin City Hall at the foot of Dublin Castle, past Trinity College, across O'Connell Bridge and along O'Connell Street past the GPO to Glasnevin Cemetery, arriving after the conclusion of the Government event.

O'Donovan Rossa rally 2015 Indo

And while Fianna Fáil and Eilish O'Hanlon of the Sunday Independent could only carp from the sidelines about the Sinn Féin event, it was so colourful that Ms O'Hanlon's own newspaper's website (intentionally or unintentionally) used images showing the splendour of the Sinn Féin event to illustrate a report of the state event alone!

O'Donovan Rossa rally 2015 Indo Crowd

RTÉ's main TV news bulletin on Saturday night, Nine News, interviewed O'Donovan Rossa's great grandsons at the start of the Sinn Féin re-enactment of O'Donovan Rossa's lying in state at City Hall.

In City Hall, Sligo republican Fr Michael O’Flanagan, a radical young priest famed for his oratory and for standing with the people in land and labour struggles in the West (played by actor Allan Keating), spoke at the opening of the lying in state.

Four magnificent black-plumed horses drew the 1900s funeral carriage through the streets of the capital to Glasnevin. The cortege was led by four mounted and uniformed Irish Volunteers cavalry officers with the Claíomh ('Sword') living history group resplendent in the uniforms of the Irish Volunteers and Cumann na mBan.

O'Donovan Rossa rally 2015 Re-enactors

Claíomh living history group adding their authenticity and style to the drama (Photo: Julie Corcoran)

The traditional hearse was flanked by 22 members of the Cabra Historical Society in Irish Volunteers and Citizen Army uniforms and accompanied by the great grandsons of O’Donovan Rossa and guests of honour.

They were then followed by a huge procession including the O'Neill/Allsopp, South Derry Martyrs, Carrick on Suir and Éire Nua bands with several thousand participants, many in costumes reflecting the 1915-1916 period.

O'Donovan Rossa rally 2015 GA

At Glasnevin Cemetery, Sinn Féin deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald TD introduced famous singer Red Hurley with a new song about 1916 by equally famous composer Pete St John, The Spirit of the Gael. Gerry Adams TD, President of Sinn Féin, gave a short speech on the historic nature of the occasion before the famous, powerful graveside oration of Pádraig Pearse was given by actor Edward Cosgrove.

O'Donovan Rossa rally 2015 Grandsons lay wreath

Great grandsons Williams Rossa Cole and Rossa Williams Cole from New York lay a wreath at the grave of O'Donovan Rossa at the Sinn Féin re-enactment

There followed a salute of three volleys by the Irish Volunteers and Citizen Army before the casket was covered with a black cloth and a wreath laid on the grave by the two great grandsons of O'Donovan Rossa.

Proceedings came to a close with the Cabra Historical Society singing Amhrán na bhFiann.

O'Donovan Rossa rally 2015 Crowd 2

Part of the huge crowd that packed the streets outside Dublin City Hall at the start of Sinn Féin's O'Donovan Rossa Commemoration

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