Estella Solomons: ‘The spirit that drove her brush’

Kitchen in the basement of Liberty Hall;
Countess Markievicz is pictured stirring a pot of soup

‘Kitchen in the basement of Liberty Hall; Countess Markievicz is pictured stirring a pot of soup’

Spaarnestad Photo

The Abbey Theatre Handkerchief, 1913.

Courtesy of the National Library of Ireland

Mary Spring Rice and Mary Alden (Molly) Childers on board the Asgard

Courtesy of Kilmainham Gaol Museum KMGLM.16PC-1A43-11

900 rifles and 29,000 rounds of ammunition were landed at Howth, North Dublin on 29 July 1914. 

Courtesy of the National Museum of Ireland

Cumann na mBan Volunteer Poster
Courtesy of the National Library of Ireland
Cumann na mBan rifle badge, belonging to Brigid O’Mullane
Courtesy of Kilmainham Gaol Museum [KMGLM.2012.0246]

O’Donovan Rossa Funeral Committee 

Courtesy of Kilmainham Gaol Museum KMGLM.13PC-1B54-09

Back Row – J.K O’Reilly, P.T. Keohane, Diarmuid Lynch, Éamon de Valera, James Tobin, B.R. Parsons, John O’Mahony, W. O’Leary Curtis, John Larkin, William Cullen.

Second Row – Thomas MacDonagh, Martin Conlon, J.J. O’Kelly, James Casey, Richard O’Carroll, John Farren, James Buggy, Arthur Griffith, Seán McGarry, Joseph McGuinness, Joseph Murray, Henry Nicholls,  John Lawlor, William O’Brien,  Cathal Brugha, James Whelan,  John MacBride, Thomas Farren.

Third Row –  Josphine  Walsh, Constance Markievicz, Mrs C. Holohan, Brigid Foley, John R. Reynolds,  Edward Daly, James O’Connor, Tom Clarke, Peadar McNally, James Stritch, Michael Slater, Kathleen Clarke, Sorcha MacMahon, B. Cassidy.

Fourth Row  – Molly Reynolds, C. O’Moore, Michael McGinn, Thomas Meldon, Joseph Kelly, Brian O’Higgins, B. Walsh, Katherine McGuinness.

Female workers pull trolleys of shells in the grounds of the National Shell Factory at Parkgate Street, Dublin, during the First World War. 

© IWM Q 33212

Women Participants, 1916 Rising 

Ely O’Carroll’s House, Peter’s Place, Dublin.

(Máire Comeford’s key taken from the Irish Press, 9 April 1966)

Courtesy of Kilmainham Gaol Museum KMGLM.18PC-1B53-02

Front Row l-r: Madeline ffrench-Mullen, Brigid Foley, Dr Kathleen Lynn

2nd Row l-r: Rose McNamara, Kathleen Kenny, Mary Joe Walsh, Mrs Mary Lawless, Jenny Milner, Eileen Walsh, K. Kennedy, May Byrne, [unidentified], Annie Cooney

3rd Row L-R: May Moore, Kathleen Lane, Sarah Kealy, Gertie Colley, Mary O’Hanrahan, Amee Wisley, Bridget Murtagh, Cilla Quigley, Julia Grenan, Statia Twomey, B. Walsh.

4th Row L-R: Nora Thornton, Rose Mulally, Sheila O’Hanlon, Maria Quigley, Margaret O’Flaherty, Josie McGowan, Eileen Cooney, Josie O’Keeffe.

5th Row L-R:Lucy Smith, Nora Foley, Pauline Morecambe, Dolly Sullivan, M.Elliott, Mary Sullivan, Tilley Simpson, Mrs Catherine Treston

6th Row L-R: M.Kely, Brigid Brady, Jeannie Shanahan, Mrs Kathleen Barrett, Rosie Hackett, Margaret Ryan, Brigid Davis, Chris Caffrey, Patricia Hoey

Standing Left: A.Tobin, Aoife Taafe, Marcella Cosgrove, Mrs Kathleen Murphy, Bridget Foley [?Lucy Agnes Smyth]

Standing Right: Martha Kelly, Márie Nic Shuibhlaigh, Lily O’Brennan, Elizabeth O’Farrell, Nora O’Daly, Mary Murray.

Participants 1916 Commemorative Badge 

Courtesy of Kilmainham Gaol Museum [KMGLM.2019.0111]

Lady Divisional Superintendent Mrs Rowlette, Lady Ambulance Officer Miss Barry  and Lady Ambulance Officer Mrs Brown

Courtesy of St John’s Ambulance, Ireland

Irish Citizen Army outside Liberty Hall, 1917

Irish Military Archives, Bureau of Military History, BCD 119 3 5 

Irish Volunteer Dependants Fund Collecting Card

Courtesy of Kilmainham Gaol Museum KMGLM.18MS-1B53-29

A Solemn Pledge for the Women of Ireland

Courtesy of Kilmainham Gaol Museum KMGLM.18FO-1K55-05  

Child Holding Suffrage Placard ‘The Irish Women Demand The Vote.’

The Women’s Library at LSE Library, TWL.2002.588

The Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act

Courtesy of King’s Inn

The First Women Barristers Miss Frances Kyle and Miss Averil Deverell

Courtesy of the National Library of Ireland

Despatch Bag with initials CdeM Belonging to Countess de Markievicz.

Courtesy of Kilmainham Gaol Museum KMGLM.2018.0100

On display in The Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sports and Media Pop Up Women’s Museum – 100 Years of Women in Politics and Public Life. Image Ros Kavanagh

Citizens kneeling to pray in the City of Dublin, as Kevin Barry, is hanged in MountJoy Prison, Dublin. 

Getty Images

Celtic Revival Dress and Mantle, belonging to Kate O’Callaghan TD from the collection of the Kilmurry, Independence Museum, County Cork on display in The Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sports and Media Pop Up Women’s Museum – 100 Years of Women in Politics and Public Life

Image Ros Kavanagh

National Library of Ireland

The women seated are l. to r. Lily Brennan, Ellie Lyons, May Duggan, Brighid Lynch, Kathleen McKenna, Alice Lyons. Also included in this photograph: Joseph McGrath, M Knightly, DL Robinson, John Smith Chartres, George Gavan Duffy, Robert C. Barton, Éamonn J. Duggan, Arthur Griffith, Fionan Lynch and Erskine Childers.

Postcard from Gertrude B. Kelly, treasurer of the American Auxiliary Irish White Cross appealing for donations.  MS 41, 484/2/16 

National Library of Ireland

Irish Military Archives, Collins Collection, A-0863

Anti Treaty Teachtaí Dála

‘The Commissariat of Cumann Na mBan’, Pro Treaty members. 

Conlon Collection, Cork Public Museum

Nellie Fennell’s Programme of Commemoration held by Republican Women Prisoners of War in Kilmainham Gaol April 24th 1923.

Courtesy of Kilmainham Gaol Museum KMGLM.2010.0196

Autograph book watercolour by Grace Gifford Plunkett, North Dublin Union, 1923.

Box 12, Loretta Clarke Murray Collection of Women in Revolutionary Ireland, [MS.2016.016], John J. Burns Library, Boston College

The Senate Casket by artist Mia Cranwill (1880-1972) commissioned by Alice Stopford Green to hold a scroll containing the names of the Irish Free State Senators, appointed in 1922 and those co-opted to fill vacancies 1923-1925. 

By permission of the Royal Irish Academy © RIA