IF THE August 1915 funeral of Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa was a portent of the Irish Volunteers’ military strength, British authorities were given an even clearer picture just five weeks before the Easter Rising began.

When Eleanor Burke eventually asked her grandmother why she never spoke about her membership of Cumann na mBan in Kerry, Ellie Rice replied: “We learned not to speak or say anything because one idle word during that period could cause somebody’s death.”