‘This girl Cunning was about the best in Co Antrim’

Only now can the role of women in the War of Independence in the north be told. By Brian Feeney

Cumann na mBan marching during the War of Independence

Brian Feeney

July 18 2021 11:00 AM

Until recently, first-hand accounts of the War of Independence have been provided almost exclusively by members of the IRA who participated in the conflict.

Many of them gave witness statements in the 1940s to the Bureau of Military History in Dublin, detailing their careers in the IRA.

These have all now been digitised and made available online. However, hardly any of these witness statements gives an account of the important role of the women of Cumann na mBan during the war. Now, this overlooked aspect can be examined.

In their applications for military service pensions which the Fianna Fail government established in the 1930s, many of these women laid out in detail what they did and why they think they are entitled to a pension. They also had to provide references to corroborate their claims.

Again, the Bureau of Military History has digitised the pension applications and published them online where they can be read for the first time.

Like the witness statements of the 1940s, they don’t provide a full picture, because large numbers of anti-Treaty republicans would not acknowledge the Free State government, so gave no witness statement, or applied for a pension. However, many did and so we can have an insight into the role of Cumann na mBan.

In Belfast, there were about 300 Cumann na mBan members at the time of the 1916 Rising. Some, like Nellie Neeson, had joined in 1914 as the Irish Volunteers were being formed.

Neeson was sworn in at Mac Art’s Fort on Cavehill by Sean Mac Diarmada and Bulmer Hobson. The leading Belfast figures were Winnie Carney, the GPO veteran, who described herself as “James Connolly’s aide-de-camp”, and Agnes McCullough, wife of Denis McCullough, the foremost republican in Belfast.

The women in command of Cumann na mBan in Belfast, as the IRA’s Belfast Brigade was established in 1919, were Annie Ward and Elizabeth Delaney. Neither applied for a pension, but their role is described by other applicants.

In the 1918 General Election, the women had canvassed, distributed election materials and generally fetched and carried.

Although it was political activity, it was hazardous business, because there were regular pitched battles in Divis Street and Clonard, west Belfast, between Sinn Fein supporters and Joe Devlin’s Hibernian “baton men”, who vastly outnumbered republicans.

During the IRA campaign 1919-22, Belfast Cumann na mBan women played a crucial role. The IRA’s Belfast active service unit was based in a tailor’s shop in Rosemary Street, with an arms dump in North Street premises backing on to the shop.

It was also an important depot for dispatches. Maggie Fitzpatrick ran the whole operation, yet the Belfast IRA leader, Roger McCorley, later a colonel in the National Army, never mentioned her in his extensive witness statement.

A dozen Co Antrim women applied for pensions for Cumann na mBan service. The strongest units were attached to the 4th Battalion of the Antrim Brigade, based in Cloughmills, Dunloy, Loughguile and Corkey.

The president of the branch in Ballycastle, Lizzie Boyle, summed up the role of the women as follows: “Carrying arms to Volunteers. Conveying information and carrying dispatches. Sheltering and guarding Volunteers while on the run... carrying and concealing arms. Providing transport and travelling with Volunteers while entering and leaving the district. Collecting information. Providing food, shelter, clothing etc.”

Two Cumann na mBan members in Antrim stand out: Lena Cunning from Dunloy and Mary Fitzpatrick from Martinstown in Glenravel.

Cunning’s supporting reference stated, “this girl Cunning was about the best in Co Antrim”. She was “the chief dispatch carrier to and from brigade HQ 22 miles away twice weekly, and to Belfast from 1919-22, carried in arms and ammunition and in summer 1922 helped IRA men escape south.” She emigrated to St Augustine, Florida in the 1920s and died in 1994, aged 99.

Mary Fitzpatrick was the senior Cumann na mBan officer in the county in command of 100-150 women. She controlled the main arms dump on the family’s land at Carrycowan, Martinstown and other dumps nearby. Brigade and divisional meetings took place there.

B Specials burned two of the farm buildings and, during one raid, they opened fire on the house with Fitzpatrick inside.

When the IRA attacked Loughguile RIC barracks in February 1921, she stood by with bandages and first aid equipment, which she brought on her bicycle.

No doubt the actions of these women in Antrim and Belfast were replicated across the country, but in most cases after 1922 they never told anyone what they did.

Only in their pension applications 15 to 20 years later were they required to set out in detail their activities during the War of Independence.

Now, for the first time, their contributions are available online to help provide a more rounded picture of events in those years.

** Excerpted from Antrim: The Irish Revolution 1912-23 by Brian Feeney, published by Four Courts Press