Clodagh Finn: Mary Jane Irwin was a rebel wife with a cause

For a long time seen merely as the wife of Irish rebel Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa, a new film reclaims the life and work of the Clonakilty woman who played a pivotal role in Ireland’s fight for independence

Mary Jane Irwin was one of the most active and effective revolutionary women of her time.

She was a literary sensation in America at the age of 22. She was a keen businesswoman, a political analyst and a mother of 13. She was also a public relations guru, before the term was invented, who used her expertise to rally support for Irish independence.

For once, happily, it’s not necessary to say that Mary Jane Irwin, of Clonakilty, Co Cork, deserves recognition in her own right because her American great-grandson Williams Cole has brought her back into the light in his compelling new documentary, Rebel Wife.