PICTURES: New book on Cumann na mBan in Tipperary is lauded by former Minister

A book titled 'Revolutionary Women of Tipperary, 1914 - 1923' written by Dr. Noreen Higgins McHugh, was launched by Dr. Martin Mansergh, at the Tipperary Excel, on Saturday November 23. The 560 page volume has an index to Cumann na mBan Pension and Service Medal applicants.

The book is in memory of Maureen Power (1896 - 1925) of Coolnagun, Tipperary, who inspired the book.

The story of Maureen's young life was outlined at the launch by a family descendant, Anne Power, who thanked Noreen on behalf of the Power Family, for the dedication to Maureen's memory.

Other contributions to the event came from Anna Wall and from Julia McHugh (Noreen's daughter).

The MC at the event, Josephine O'Neill, welcomed everyone to the launch and said that it was a special celebration. "Today is a great celebration because only 0.5% of recorded history is about women. This makes no sense as women make up 50% of the population.

"Our role in Cumann na mBan brought us into the political revolution. We all know that when the new state was formed we were pushed back into the kitchen, so it is really important that Noreen has recorded the lives of these brave Cumann na mBan women".

Dr. Martin Mansergh spoke in depth about Noreen's work in compiling this book. "We should all be immensely grateful for the encyclopedic work carried out by Dr. Noreen Higgins McHugh on the members of Cumann na mBan from County Tipperary. With the overall background context nationally also set out, much of the detail of which is not that well known, nor particularly highlighted in accounts of the Irish revolution.

Not far from here outside what was 'till recently the Post Office, the bright wooden statue of  a Cumann na mBan member provides an attractive reminder here in Tipperary of their importance in the
fight for national freedom.

In the context of the Irish revolution, the single most vital element in the support structures that enabled the fight to be carried on was Cumann na mBan, founded in 1914, a few months after the Irish Volunteers.

Noreen Higgins McHugh's incredibly researched book is based on two things; personal motivation allied to her well established authority, and the abundant availability of new source material, or material that has been newly made available, waiting to be systematically used.

As she explains in her foreword, her interest was sparked when she learned that a niece of her great
grandmother, Maureen Power, together with her sister Tessie, were active in Cumann na mBan both during the War of Independence and on the Anti Treaty side in the Civil War, and they were contemporaries of Kevin Barry in UCD.

Two of their brothers were active in the IRA in both Dublin and Tipperary. A family connection to some important event or movement is, I suspect, often a spur to historians in their desire to make sense of their families experience and contribution in other times and to rescue that for the historical record, which leads them on to exploring the bigger picture, as Noreen has done.

The other enabler of Noreen's work she explains thus; the case study of Cumann na mBan in Tipperary was only possible due to the online publication of the various databases held by the Irish Military archives.

These include the witness statements of the Bureau of Military History, BMH, the Military Service Pensions Collection and the Medals Collection. As former Deputy Chair of the Government's Expert Advisory Group on Centenary Commemorations, Chaired by Dr. Maurice Manning, which concluded its work at the end of 2023, I am delighted that this book is a vindication of a recommendation given to the Government to prioritise the digitisation of the entire Military History Collection, so that it is freely available and accessible online to all.

This is of benefit to everyone interested, relatives obviously, but including students and researchers, schools and colleges, and helps illuminate county and community history, as well as family history to which Noreen has earlier written a guide for this county" said Dr. Mansergh.

Dr. Noreen Higgins said that she first heard of Cumann na mBan many years ago when she learned that her great grandfather, Patrick Mullaney of Ballymorris, Kilmoyler, had a first cousin named Maureen Power of Coolnagun, Tipperary, and that she was very involved in the Cumann na mBan organisation in Dublin, and this sparked her interest.

She explained: "Initially I wanted to do the subject for my MA Thesis, but I had to shelve the idea as there were so few sources available, online or in print.

In recent years I started to make enquiries about Cumann na mBan from a lot of gentlemen historians. They would look at me and say 'ah sure they were great women' and they would add 'they were treated very badly in the pension process'.

They might add that 'they carried dispatches everyday to meeting houses'. In those three or four
sentences the subject of Cumann na mBan was basically finished. So my book was born out of frustration, that I could not find any book that looked at the ordinary lives of Cumann na mBan within the Tipperary or Munster area.

The book is divided into two parts; the first part is a narrative of the years 1914, the War of Independence, the Truce, the Civil War at National and Local level. The second part of the book is
related to dependencies of members of Cumann na mBan and is very specific to Tipperary and East Limerick"

Noreen will be giving a series of talks about the book at venues around the county. The first talk will take place at Bookworm, Thurles, on Wednesday December 4, at 7:30pm, and the second talk is
at Clonmel Library on Wednesday December 18 at 7:00pm.

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