Sisters atWar
Traditionally, the role of women in Ireland’s revolutionary years was overlooked, but in recent times we have become more informed about the fearless women who helped shape our history words sinéad mc coole and edel cassidy
Members of Cumann na mBan
T
he Decade of Centenaries has provided an opportunity to focus on the complex period of our history from 1912-1923. Events that took place during this time include the foundation of the Irish Volunteers, the Home Rule and Land Bills, the 1913 Lockout, the 1916 Rising, the suffrage movement, the first sitting of the Dáil, the War of Independence, the Civil War, the Foundation of the State and Partition. With the release of a wealth of documentation, historians have been building a more complete version of our history. As a result, there is a greater awareness of the role of the women who were very actively involved in the struggle for Irish freedom and the foundation of the new State. Several hundred women took part in the 1916 Rising, not only carrying dispatches and providing medical care but also fighting beside their male comrades. Most of these women belonged to organisations such as Inghinidhe na hÉireann, Cumann na mBan and the Irish Citizen Army. Inghinidhe na hÉireann was an Irish nationalist women’s organisation founded by Maud Gonne in 1900. It merged with the new Cumann na mBan, set up in 1914 so that women could assist the Irish Volunteers in their fight for the freedom of Ireland. 60 SUMMER 2021 ANTHOLOGY
Kathleen Clarke, who chaired the first meeting of Cumann na mBan in the aftermath of the 1916 Rising, urged the women present to get to work and declared, ‘let us show our enemy what we women can do’. It was women who undertook the administration of the Volunteers Dependents’ Fund which was set up for the welfare of the families of those who had been killed or interned. They organised fundraising, contributed to the propaganda machine, participated in elections and provided safe houses for rebels who had escaped arrest. Many of the same women later assisted in the distribution of funds raised by the American Committee for Relief in Ireland through the Irish White Cross. Women were at the fore of the anti-conscription campaign which resisted the British government’s imposition of a military draft in Ireland during the First World War. This year, we take a look back at the events of 1921, one of the most violent periods in the Irish War of Independence. In the eight months before the truce was called in July 1921, guerrilla war was at its most intense and the violence and death toll escalated. With many of the men imprisoned, women filled the void. New information available from the Military Archives pension records shows how vital and how extensive their role was in the continued fight for Irish independence. Their work included hiding and moving arms, administering medical aid, fundraising, keeping contact with prisoners and acting as spies and couriers. They faced regular interrogation and often brutal raids of their homes by the British forces. During this period, there were many families from across disparate social, economic and geographic divides who wished to seek Irish independence. Some followed Wolfe Tone’s strong ideals of republicanism and had ancestors who had fought in rebellions over the centuries. Others were non-political but were drawn to radical nationalism through the cultural revival in Irish sports, language, drama, dance and other cultural activities. The diversity of the families involved in radical nationalism is told here in the stories of some of the brave sisters who played an enormous part in the fight for Irish independence, sisters at war, who were willing to give their lives for their country. They endured imprisonment, hunger strike and separation from their families and friends for their beliefs.
