Clodagh Finn: Recovering the voices of rebel women from muffled silence

On Wednesday, spare a thought for Kathleen O'Connell from Ballydehob on the 79th anniversary of her death, one of the ordinary, extraordinary women rebels whose legacy has been forgotten, until now

Karen Minihan's two volumes on women activists during the War of Independence. Picture: Finola Finlay

When Cumann na mBan captain Kathleen O’Connell saw 17 lorries and a car with a lady searcher approach her house in West Cork in 1921, she was confident all incriminating material had been dumped. Everything, that is, except the dispatch still in her pocket. She took it out and ate it.

When I read that detail — quoted in Karen Minihan’s excellent volume More Extraordinary, Ordinary Women — I tried to imagine what it was like to scrunch up a piece of paper and force down its brittle dryness before yet another raid on your house got under way.