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Available
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Publication
The O'Brien Press (2004), Edition: 2, 288 pages
Description
Updated edition with many more biographies and a new introduction by the author. Spies, snipers, couriers, gun-runners, medics, women played a major role in the fight for Ireland's freedom, risking loss of life and family for a cause to which they were totally committed. This book highlights a time when vast numbers of Irish women were politicised and imprisoned for their beliefs, with a special emphasis on one prison, Kilmainham Gaol. They came from every class in society and all walks of life: titled ladies and shop assistants, doctors, housewives, laundry workers, artists and teachers. Some were married with children, others widowed and some mere schoolchildren. These are hidden stories that vividly recreate the characters, personalities and courage of Ireland's revolutionary women.… (more)
Media reviews
SINEAD McCOOLE began her research nearly ten years ago for an exhibition and catalogue on women in Kilmainham Gaol, where she is a guide and curator. Her endevaours have resulted in this, the first overall survey of republican women's activities during this period since Margaret Ward's book
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Unmanageable Revolutionaries was published in 1983.
She has amassed a huge amount of material, including interviews with surviving activists and their families and many unpublished sources, and a particular strength of her book is the attention it gives to many lesser-known names, showing how widespread and extensive women's involvement was.
The biggest chapter is devoted to the civil war, when it seemed that there were more republican activists in prison than out of it.
McCoole's detailed account of day-to-day prison life is fascinating. Morale and spirits were kept up with educational classes, sports and arts and crafts, but even valiant efforts to decorate the cells could not disguise the filthy conditions in Kilmainham.
In Mountjoy, the prisoners were at the mercy of the deputy governor, Paudeen O'Keefe, who combined buffoonery with menace.
Rebellion and active resistance to the regime continued in spite of the violent response of the authorities. At least three women died as a result of their experiences soon after being released from prison.
The second half of this book takes the shape of a biographical dictionary detailing the lives of severnty-four women, each with an oval portrait. It looks like a commemorative album. But McCoole's research is meticulous and she provides each entry with its own bibliography which should prove to be a boon to future historians. Two appendices list women prisoners in 1916 and the civil war.
O'Brien's usual high standards of book design are much in evidence with this beautifully produced book.
The pages are studded with colour photographs of the personal belongings of many of the women involved, from Nora Connolly's Webley revolver and Kathleen Lynn's 1916 medical box to items of jewellery, as well as many sepia photographs and yellowing documents. The atmospheric vignettes of Kilmainham Gaol interiors convey the grimness of this forbidding building with perhaps undeserved picturesqueness.
McCoole's book shows how much documentary evidence there is for women's political activity during the period, and she is one of a number of historians thanks to whose recent efforts a much fuller picture of the period is emerging.
These women cannot be dismissed as mere supporters and auxiliaries of the movement. They were active and highly politicised participants. No 'ordinary women' indeed! Show Less
User reviews
LibraryThing member jen.e.moore
This is a terrific different perspective on a familiar story: the women involved in the Irish independence movement, War for Independence, and Civil War. That is, if it's a familiar story to you - if it isn't you're going to be a little lost. The book is split into two parts. The first is
Reading the biographies also gave me a new perspective on the Troubles - when founding members of Sinn Féin were being buried with full military honors (which they undeniably deserved) into the late nineties, it's easier to see how people could keep justifying that level of violence. I also want to give a shout-out to the author for being nonpartisan throughout the entire book. She betrays no partiality to either side, British or Irish, Free State or Republican, pointing out the heroism and the atrocities in both, wherever it touches her story. It makes for decidedly uncomfortable reading sometimes, which I have to applaud.
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narrative, and gives a decent summary of the environment, both political and physical, where these women lived - with a heavy focus on Kilmanham Gaol where political prisoners were held through both wars. The second is a collection of biographies of as many women as the author could manage to compile. (It's great to see someone other than Maud Gonne and Countess Markievicz discussed at length.)Reading the biographies also gave me a new perspective on the Troubles - when founding members of Sinn Féin were being buried with full military honors (which they undeniably deserved) into the late nineties, it's easier to see how people could keep justifying that level of violence. I also want to give a shout-out to the author for being nonpartisan throughout the entire book. She betrays no partiality to either side, British or Irish, Free State or Republican, pointing out the heroism and the atrocities in both, wherever it touches her story. It makes for decidedly uncomfortable reading sometimes, which I have to applaud.
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Language
Original language
English
Physical description
288 p.; 6.75 inches
ISBN
0862788838 / 9780862788834