Clodagh Finn: The Cork women who helped build the State were left with almost nothing

New research uncovers the poverty, neglect and quiet desperation faced by Cork women who fought during Ireland’s revolutionary period

Some members of Cumann na mBan who carried out vital work to help Ireland gain independence.

I have been haunted by her words all week. In 1956, Mary MacCarthy, a former Cumann na mBan member from Bantry, Co Cork, wrote a short note to the Department of Defence to acknowledge her special allowance: “Thank you so much [I’m] very grateful. I was often hungry lately.”

That will tell you just how inadequate the paltry E-grade military pension she received for her service during the War of Independence and Civil War had been.