cover image NO ORDINARY WOMEN: Irish Female Activists in the Revolutionary Years 1900–1923

NO ORDINARY WOMEN: Irish Female Activists in the Revolutionary Years 1900–1923

Sinead McCoole, . . Univ. of Wisconsin, $29.95 (288pp) ISBN 978-0-299-19500-7

Behind every successful revolutionary movement there are women, lots of them, as McCoole (Hazel: A Life of Lady Lavery ) makes abundantly clear in this excellent look at the women who fought for Ireland's independence. She begins with the formation of Inghinidhe na hÉireann (Daughters of Ireland) by Maud Gonne in 1900, which evolved into the Cumann na mBan , the women's auxiliary of the IRA. More than 200 women fought in the Easter Rising of 1916; some were arrested and released, but others were exiled to prisons in England. The Countess Markievicz (née Gore Booth) received a death sentence, which was commuted to imprisonment because of her sex. Later elected to the Irish parliament, she became the first female cabinet minister in Western Europe. Because so many families of the rebels were left destitute, Kathleen Clarke—whose husband and brother were executed by the British—ran the Volunteers Dependants Fund and gave a young rebel named Michael Collins his first important job in post-1916 Dublin. Later, Clarke became the first female lord mayor of Dublin. During the War of Independence, women carried dispatches, scouted and did intelligence work and provided safe houses for men "on the run." During the Irish Civil War of 1922–1923, many members of the Cumann na mBan went against the treaty that partitioned Ireland and were imprisoned by the new Irish Free State government. McCoole also provides 72 extraordinary biographical sketches of these patriotic women, both famous and unknown, in this absorbing and exciting look at a little-investigated part of Irish history. 192 illus. (Mar.)