The Biggest Lie of the Irish Revolution Pt. 2

Welcome to the History of Ireland. Last episode, we began looking at the violence doled out to women by both sides in the Irish War of Independence. Now, listener Lisa Rosenthal of New York got in touch to point out that I had maybe skirted over two important nuances, and I think she’s right, so let’s quickly rectify that.

In her email, Lisa points out that at this period in history, the status of women was going through immense change all over the world. Women were asserting themselves and rethinking their standing in society, and they were facing resistance from all sides. However, the Irish revolutionary movement was actually relatively forward-thinking when it came to women. Cumann na mBan were hugely respected and very, very important across the movement. And you had female judges in Dáil courts, you had female spies, and women like Countess Markievicz and Hannah Sheafy Skeffington were seen as important leaders in the movement. But I think we might be overstating things a little bit by saying that Sinn Féin or the IRA or the Irish Revolution movement was inherently feminist. And Lisa is onto something. Researchers discuss how bobbing was sometimes used by the IRA to police women they saw as stepping outside the realms of what was acceptable for quote-unquote good Irish Republican women. It’s important to remember that part of the violence discussed in these two episodes was used to try and control a generation of women who were breaking free from the rules society had placed on them.

The other point that Lisa made is a grim but important one. As she puts it, sadly, some men simply take pleasure in hurting women. And we kind of can’t ignore this. Like any war, the Irish War of Independence was probably used by a few men like this as an excuse. It’s a harrowing thought, but I agree with Lisa that it’s something to keep in mind, especially as we dive into this episode. So here goes.

On April 14th, 1921, the Irish Bulletin devoted an entire issue to the quote outrages on Irish women. This term was used a lot. Outrages and quote other indignities. The Irish love a good euphemism. See the emergency aka World War Two or the troubles. And outrages solidly falls into the camp of a euphemism, often being used to speak about sexual assault without breaking the very tightly held Irish taboo of mentioning it.

But in this specific article, numerous women did come forward. One was Noire Healy, a mother of four. She described how on February 8th, 1921, two men wearing police uniforms and white masks broke into her home. She describes the attack, saying her attacker quote, caught hold of me and pushed me into the back kitchen and closed the door. In spite of my every resistance, he then succeeded in criminally assaulting and raping me. The following day, she went to the police station with her husband, who was a solicitor, but was sent away.

There was also the 21 year old Miss Nellie O’Mahony, who described how on Christmas night, 1920, two uniformed men who quote, seemed to have had some drink taken, broke into her home. She talks how one of the men lifted her nightdress and she puts it, proceeded to put his hands all around my body. She also stated that I did not pursue the matter further as from the state of terror that existed consequent upon the deeds of the black and tans, I was afraid and I am afraid to pursue the matter further. The bulletin apparently had evidence of many other sexual assaults, but women were not willing to have their names mentioned publicly.

And this wasn’t all that the Irish Bulletin published about this topic. There was another article titled, The War on Women and Children, released in July 1921, and it spoke of cases of rape and attempted rape across the militarised south of the country. It wrote how the threat of rape, quote, had the effect of spreading a profound feeling of dread amongst large numbers of women in the districts where they occurred. And that these raids were a source of sleeplessness, nervous breakdown, and the case of expectant mothers produced very grave results for women and children. The article went on to say that women know that it is during curfew hours attempts of a sexual character have been made. The IRA themselves also talk about this. A man from the area even went as far to say, quote, IRA men’s sisters and other girls had to go on the run fearing rape. The IRA gritted its teeth and showed little mercy to the tans after such outrageous.

And it’s interesting, if that’s the right word to use, to see how sexual assault and violence against women was used for different reasons by both sides. For the British, as one historian describes it, targeting women became a tactic employed by crown forces seeking to undermine the community’s support of an enemy army on the run and to emasculate the self-professed protectors of the Irish people. Meanwhile, the IRA were using violence against women to stop spies and informers, but also to, quote, other victims for breaching the IRA’s view of appropriate femininity and to serve as a warning to others who would dare to undermine the Republicans efforts or values.

In fact, increasingly historians agree that the only thing exceptional about these reported incidences of sexual assault was that they were the ones that were reported. Repeatedly at the time it was pointed out how reluctant Irish women were to mention any kind of sexual assault. As the amazing Hannah Sheehy-Skeffington puts in her report, Statements of Atrocities Against Women in Ireland, made and signed by Mrs Hannah Sheehy-Skeffington, women shrank from anything in the nature of publicity. Side note, we’ll have to come back to Skeffington at some point because she is an absolute god, but I just don’t have time to go into her amazing life story right now.

Anyway, even the British at the time admitted that, quote, unfortunately in their work of hunting down people, the agents of the British government often act in a way which is terrifying to women. It is, however, extremely difficult to obtain direct evidence of incidences affecting females where the women of Ireland are reticent. Why were they so slow to discuss these sexual assaults? Especially when they were painting the British in a bad light? Well, mostly because this was 1920s Ireland. We as a culture still put victims of sexual assault through the ringer, and it was even worse back then. As historian Susan Byrne puts it, young and not so young women were terrified of being judged as sexually deviant and the associated social stigma and hardship it could bring, end quote. This was a society deeply entrenched in victim blaming. Those sexually assaulted by British forces would often be shunned by their families and societies. There’d be accusations of leading them on, and there was just such a taboo around this issue.

And though it seems that the black and tans were the biggest perpetrators of these, quote, outrages, the IRA were culpable as well. In fact, once we get past the Irish War of Independence, there are some frankly horrific reports of sexual assault occurring during the Civil War. Throughout this time period, both in the Irish War of Independence and the Civil War, victims were shunned and kept quiet. Women were institutionalised, locked in asylums, suffered mental breakdowns, shipped to England, sent to Magdalene laundries, and often died young. These were silent crimes carried out by both sides, and rarely did anyone face justice.

But, as Linda Connolly writes, for now there is ample evidence that sexual violence did occur during the Irish Revolution, and it occurred with enough regularity in women’s lives to indicate that it was neither entirely rare nor unknown. She writes this in reference to a project by the Military Service Pensions Collection that began publishing files in relation to just under 1500 people online. In these documents, there are doctor’s notes and assessments laying out violence against women. However, Connolly mentions something that just left me gobsmacked. She says that quote, additional stories of explicit sexual violence are also reported to exist in these records, but have not been publicly released yet for ethical reasons. Yeah, so 100 years on, we are still not comfortable sharing the stories of these poor women. It should be said that things are slowly but surely changing. You should check out a great documentary on RTE called A War on Women by director Ciara Hyland.

Finally, I want to end on a quote from an article by Louise Ryan. The article is titled Drunken Tans, representation of sex and violence in the Anglo-Irish war, and it was one of the first to really explore this topic. And towards the end, Ryan makes something very clear. She states, It is important that republican women are not merely seen to be passive victims, upon whom outrages of physical and sexual nature were enacted. The women of Cumann na mBan saw themselves as soldiers, participating in warfare. Far from being passive, they were active agents in dangerous militarized arenas. End quote. It’s ridiculous to even have to say it, but women were vital to the war effort. And failing to acknowledge the realities of their experiences, both as victims and active participants, does the women of the Irish War of Independence a grave disservice. Both their struggles and their successes need to be remembered.

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The History of Ireland was written and produced by me, Kevin Dole. Additional research and fact-checking by Robert Babington, music by Liam Doyle, and additional help from assistant producer Aoife Murphy. This podcast was recorded in the lands of the Wurundjeri people of the Kugan Nation, Sovereign. There are special offers to shop for this week at Dunn Stores. Dine in on a Milano deal with Annie Two Pizzas, One Side, and Coke or Fanta Orange One Litre, all for just 10 euro. Treat yourself to selected Cadbury Block Bars, now half price. We’re stocked up with selected breakfast cereals, only 3.50 each. Plus, save more with your 10.50 voucher. Dunn Stores, always better value. Terms and conditions apply vouchers can be used on next grocery shop, DRS Applies.