Easter Widows: Seven Irish Women Who Lived in the Shadow of the Easter Rising
“Dublin town in 1916, a flame of freedom did arise.
A group of men with determination caught an Empire by surprise.”
Clark, MacDiarmada, MacBride, Pearse, Ceant, Plunkett, Connolly and MacDonagh are some of the names imprinted in the minds of many Irishmen and woman, as the leaders of a very short-lived rebellion known as the Easter Rising, that took place in Dublin almost a hundred years ago and the memory of which is enshrined within poetry and song. However, until the publication of McCoole’s book, it is really only the “Men of 1916” whose stories have been told and whose actions have been recorded. Little has been known and written about the widows of these men (apart from Maud Gonne), whose only real connection to each other is that all their husbands were arrested and executed because of the Easter Rising.
Easter Widows focuses on seven couples. Using a mixture of memoirs, correspondence and historical accounts of events, McCoole builds up a picture of the relationships, devoting a different chapter to each couple, from their early years, their developing romances and the aftermath of the men’s deaths and impact on the wives. In some cases, this led to personal tragedy. For others, like Maud Gonne MacBride and Kathleen Clarke, it strengthened their own political power and status and even led to imprisonment for the two women as republican activists. Kathleen Clark went on to become Ireland’s first female mayor.
