With the 100-year anniversary of the 1916 Rising this year the Galway Film Fleadh will host a timely documentary Rebel Rossa, a personal investigation into the life and legacy of the famous – and infamous – Irish rebel Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa by his American great-grandsons.
From an idyllic childhood in rural Ireland torn apart by the Potato Famine to imprisonment and torture in dank Victorian jails; from forced exile to New York where he organised a direct action bombing campaign in the UK to the massive funeral in Dublin that ignited events that led to Irish independence, Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa symbolised the very core of the unrepentant Fenian Irish revolutionary.
The film tells the story of Rossa and his equally ardent wife Mary Jane, delving into what they did and what they meant during the fight for Irish independence and – now that the 100 year anniversary of the Easter Uprising is approaching – what they mean in a contemporary context, both in Ireland and in a world where the term “terrorist” is often used but rarely examined.
Rebel Rossa screens at the 28th Galway Film Fleadh on Thursday, July 7th at 6:15pm in the Cinemobile. Get your tickets now.