Out of the shadows
Guns and Chiffon, Women Revolutionaries in Kilmainham Gaol
By Sinéad McCoole
Guns and chiffon, women revolutionaries in Kilmainham Gaol is the
culmination of three years work by Sinéad McCoole who also wrote
the biography of Lady Lavery. Sinéad brings to life women who
have been in the shadow of their male revolutionaries for far too
long. These women, ranging in age from 12 to 70 and from all
walks of life both urban and rural, working class to college
educated, were the fabric that held the republican cause together
from 1916-1923.
During 1916 these women, although not wanted at first, proved
themselves fearless and useful. 77 women were incarcerated after
the Rising. Through their organisation Cumann na mBán following
the Rising they took the lead in fundraising, looking after
interned men's families, hiding documents and weapons and because
some of their leaders were widows of the 1916 men, such as Grace
Clifford and Mrs Tom Clarke, they became the living symbols of
the Rising. During the Tan War these women provided safe houses,
gathered intelligence and hid guns and ammunition as well as
carrying on the duties of mothers and wives.
When it came to the Treaty the majority of Cumann na mBán opposed
it by 419 to 63. After this Cumann na mBán lost its moderate
support and was thus left with dedicated republicans.
The Free State, recognising the vital role these women would play
in the civil war, arrested and detained them without charge under
the Emergency Powers Act. Arrests were made for possession of
republican literature, Cumann na mBán meetings, collections and
distribution of funds.
The death penalty was not carried out for serious crimes such as
when my aunt, May Zambra, who was 17 years of age, shot at a CID
agent. She was arrested and was one of the youngest republican
prisoners to go on hunger strike. These arrests of republican
women must have finally helped to defeat the republicans in the
civil war.
After the civil war these women suffered financial loss and found
it hard to find work, some emigrated and some never married. As
was said at the time, who would want to wed these `wild women''
who had been excommunicated by the church?
At last we have a book (available as part of an exhibition in
Kilmainham Gaol, entrance fee £5 includes a copy of the book)
that gives the credit to these brave women and girls who gave
everything and more for Irish freedom. Sinéad's book is well laid
out, with lots of good photographs, and is easy to read except
some text is very small and I would have liked a roll call of all
the women imprisoned in Kilmainham Gaol but otherwise a super
book. It is summed up by the spirit of my aunt May Zambra when
she wrote in her jail journal:
Here's to those in the union
Here's to those on the run
Here's to those that are active
d here's to those that can carry a gun.
By Joe Tierney
Good in places
A World Full of Places and other stories
by Michael Carragher
Published by The Blackstaff Press
Price £7.99
Michael Carragher is actually a good writer, even though having
the cachet of being published is never any proof of such. Born in
Newry, the 44-year-old was a teacher at Arkansas State University
and is currently a visiting writer to Arkansas state schools.
For me many of his stories are uneven, rarely resolved and lack
the leavening of traditional Irish humour. Furthermore, I'm not
really into fairies, Pookhas or banshees. Darby O'Gill, begorrah,
was certainly a fine film but Hollywood is the best resting place
for de Little People.
The opening story is about an Irish couple, married and based in
Montana. The husband is an academic who when driving home from
college hears a banshee and is convinced that his father back in
Ireland is going to die that night. Professor Phelim McGilloray
(even his name sounds derived from a poitin haze) and many of the
other characters in this book of short stories are thinly
Christianised peasants who revert to superstition at the drop of
a pixie-hood.
McGilloray's bored and childless wife of 15 years is at home
drinking vodka and he is having an affair with a student, whom he
is just about to learn is pregnant. It's the stuff of full-blown
domestic tragedy with great potential which is unnecessarily
squandered in melodrama.
`Brotherhood' is about an attack on an Irish landlord by two IRB
militants, the younger of whom, Jem, is indecisive with his
pistol (killing the landlord's horse instead of the landlord) and
is sent back with a knife to finish the job. Again, Carragher is
more in danger of effecting an attitude of apathy in the reader
rather than revulsion, given that the moral quandary is
undeveloped, if stated at all, and one has no sense of the
brutality one suspects he is trying to communicate. Even the
paranoia of an innocent fugitive in England (`Coward!') who
believes the IRA (mistakenly) thinks he is an informer provokes
little empathy, the story lacking in tension.
The simple stories are his best, reminiscent of early Walter
Macken (though without his nationalism): a farmer's encounter
with a savage bull as both are trapped in a corral; the stress
(and superstition) experienced by a poor farmer awaiting news of
his wife in confinement; a Protestant boy's disillusionment with
his passive father when the IRA (during the Tan War) seize the
family's legally-held firearms.
In a `World Full of Places' a young man, Teddy, is crushed by the
claustrophobia of a marriage in which he was entrapped. For
inspiration he reflects upon the life of his incorrigible Uncle
Con who travelled the world and was beholden to no man or woman.
It is the finest story of the collection, even if hope and a life
can only be found in flight.
by Danny Morrison
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