Campaign to commemorate wife of Irish rebel buried in Staten Island

A campaign to raise awareness about Mary Jane Irwin O'Donovan Rossa and acknowledge her significant accomplishments has almost reached its targeted goal.

A GoFundMe initiative has been set up to fundraise for a documentary about the life of a female Irish nationalist, activist, poet, and hero.

Mary Jane Irwin O'Donovan Rossa was the wife of Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa, the famous Fenian prison whose 1915 funeral was said to have sparked the Easter Rising.

According to director Williams Rossa Cole, Mary Jane had "more to do with the revolutionary Fenian movement, Rossa's release from prison and making the historic funeral a reality than has ever been acknowledged".

Cole, who is actually Mary Jane's great-grandson, is seeking to tell the Clonakilty-born hero's life story once and for all.

Mary Jane (seen in the documentary sample above) died in the summer of 1916, and was buried in Staten Island, New York.

Cole's documentary will shed light on her significant contributions and help bring about some recognition at long last. He previously directed "Rebel Rossa" about Jeremiah's plight - which can be viewed on Amazon Prime here.

The new project has the working title "Rebel Wife: Mary Jane Irwin O'Donovan Rossa". As per the GoFundMe page, much of the material was filmed during the production of "Rebel Rossa" (trailer below) and therefore completion of the new installment requires "a modest budget". Cole is hoping to raise $3,000 before November - a target which he is almost at.

"Editing has already begun and the funds raised here will be used for: additional editing, sound mix, music licensing, color correction, festival submission and educational distribution strategy."

By supporting the project, Cole wants to highlight the often forgotten contribution of Irish women in history.

"Your support will help get this essential story out there and hopefully inspire more stories like it about largely forgotten women in history. Everyone that donates will be thanked and credited in the film. Like most documentary film efforts this is a labor of love fueled also by a strong belief that the story of women in history has long been erased, sidelined and unacknowledged. This project will do a little something to help that," he said.

To contact Cole and learn more about the project, visit here.

Related: 1916 Easter Rising