Clodagh Finn: Gertrude Gaffney — intrepid war correspondent and Ireland’s ‘ablest woman journalist’

Journalist was fearless, resourceful, resilient and often quite brilliant, writes Clodagh Finn

A sketch of journalist Gertrude Gaffney by Seán O’Sullivan which appeared in The Capuchin Annual (1939). Reproduced with permission from The Capuchin Annual.

If Gertrude Gaffney, once described as “Ireland’s ablest female journalist”, were alive today she would surely be reporting from the Middle East.

In the 1930s, she travelled extensively and reported from several war zones. Her car was ambushed by “the Reds” (anti-Franco forces) as she travelled to the front during the Spanish Civil War. On the eve of the Second World War, she was in Poland and saw German troops enter Danzig (now Gdańsk).