Winifred Carney was childhood friends with Nora Connolly, daughter of James Connolly, and typed dispatches and mobilization orders for rebels in the GPO during the 1916 Rising. She was sent to Mountjoy Gaol, then transferred to Aylesbury Prison in England and finally released in December 1916.
Lily Kempson and Mary Hyland were both members of the Cumann na mBan who used their firearms during the Rising to obtain food for the rebels. Kempson held a bread cart at gunpoint while Hyland used her gun to commandeer a milk cart.
Elizabeth O’Farrell, also a member of the Cumann na mBan, served as the liaison between Pearse and the active rebels to deliver news of the surrender throughout the ruins of Dublin. Maire Nic Shiubhlaigh was a member of the Cumann na mBan who, similar to many other members, spent many weeks before the Rising preparing medical kits. Kathleen Keyes MacDonnell was likewise a member of the Cumann na mBan who used her house in Cork as a safe house for members of the Irish Republican Army. Her kindness let to multiple raids from British officers, which she faced bravely.
Mary Spring Rice was a gunrunner who helped to smuggle rifles and ammunition off of a German yacht during the Howth Gun Running movement.
There were also countless other women who contributed in other, but just as important ways. About 200 women were directly involved in the Easter Rising of 1916. They were the cooks and the couriers They were the gun-runners and the Red Cross. They were the informants and the supporters. Each of these women risked their lives, directly or indirectly, by allowing themselves to be associated with the Easter Rising. Many women were ordered to leave their posts before the surrender on April 30, 1916. Out of the 3,000 people arrested after the Rising, 77 were women. Most were released on May 9, but 6 others including Markievicz were deported to a jail in England.
Many women were ordered to leave their posts before the surrender on April 30, 1916. Out of the 3,000 people arrested after the Rising, 77 were women. Most were released on May 9, but 6 others including Markievicz, were deported to an English jail.
The contributions of each of these women are less known within the overflowing context of the history of the 1916 Rising, particularly as it pertains to women and their involvement. The amount of information available on these women is less in part due to their social class and inaccessibility to people of power. This was an area in which women like Markievicz, Skinnider, Sheehy-Skeffington, Clarke and Gonne did not lack due to family backgrounds and marital status.
Many of the key women in the Rising received instruction on how to shoot a gun as children, due to the presence of hunting as a leisurely actively enjoyed by wealthy families. This skill is one that was directly transferable to actions during the Rising which identified these markswomen as figures in history.
Often times these lesser known women did not have had the same access to education and literature that women of a higher class had, and had less physical evidence of their contributions to leave behind unlike those that had had access to education. After all, that’s the trouble with history, it is written by those who can write.