The poet Dante consigned traitors to, I believe, the
ninth circle of hell; but what kind of traitors? Traitors against
king, against country, against friends and benefactors. England is
not my country; I have betrayed no friend, no benefactor. Sidney and
Emmet were legal traitors, Jeffreys was a loyal man, and so was
Norbury. I leave the matter there."
One hour after the utterance of these words John O'Leary, dressed in
convict garb, his hair clipped, and his beard shaved off, was the
occupant of a cell in Mountjoy prison, commencing his long term of
suffering in expiation of the crime of having sought to obtain
self-government for his native land.
* * * * *
JEREMIAH O'DONOVAN (ROSSA).
In one of the preceding pages we have mentioned the fact that at the
Cork Summer Assizes of 1859, a conviction was recorded against Jeremiah
O'Donovan (Rossa) for his complicity in the Phoenix conspiracy, and he
was then released on the understanding that if he should be found
engaging in similar practices, the crown would bring him up for
judgment. It is characteristic of the man that with this conviction
hanging like a mill-stone about his neck, he did not hesitate to take an
active and an open part with the promoters of the Fenian movement.
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