Richmond Barracks 1916: "We were there": 77 women of the Easter Rising

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It is now generally acknowledged that women played a pivotal and vital role in the Irish Revolutionary movement in the years 1913-23, including the Easter Rising. Women of the Irish Citizen Army, Cumann na mBan, the Clan na nGaedhal Girl Scouts as well as individual women fought side by side with their male counterparts in most of the Rising outposts in Dublin, Enniscorthy and Galway during Easter Week 1916. After the surrender, 77 of these women were arrested along with their male colleagues, and marched to Richmond Barracks. It is these 77, representing a cross section of Irish society at a pivotal time in Irish history, whose histories, activism and legacies form the nucleus of this book. Alongside biographies of these women, detailing their garrison and contribution during Easter Week, 77 Women of Richmond Barracks contains contextual essays on the socio-political climate in Ireland 100 years ago and on the aftermath of the fighting. These women came not just from Dublin but from various places around the country; they were also disparate in terms of their class, background, education, and motivation. This book will enrich readers' knowledge of the period by allowing the retelling of the history of the 1916 Rising from a more nuanced, balanced perspective, offering analysis of the path to politicisation of these women in the pre-1916 period. This new research and analysis is a welcome addition to the historiography of the period, giving voice to the forgotten women of the Easter Rising.