Analysis: Ireland's youthful revolutionary generation also explored new ideas of intimacy, marriage, spirituality and sexuality
By Mary McAuliffe, UCD
The diarist and Cumann na mBan activist Rosamond Jacob recorded in her diary a conversation she had about sex when at dinner with her friend Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington on 22 October 1919. The widowed Sheehy-Skeffington said that she was glad to have done with sex and regarded it as "rather a nuisance & a hindrance in life". The conversation then turned to Jacob and her sex life; she was asked if she had an interest in a young man they both knew or if her tastes were more like those of their mutual friends and fellow activists, Madeleine ffrench Mullen and Kathleen Lynn who had "no use at all for men".
In 1919 Lynn and ffrench Mullen were living in Belgrave Rd., Rathmines, where they would live together until ffrench Mullens's death in 1944. From 1916, Lynn kept a daily diary and her relationship with fellow activist, rebel, and social reformer ffrench Mullen can be viewed through the diaries, which more broadly, also reveal an interconnected cohort of feminist, republican women who had relationships with other women, in early to mid-20th century Ireland.
The couple first met in 1914, when they were both involved in revolutionary politics. At that stage Lynn was 40 and ffrench-Mullen was 34; no records exist of either of them being involved in any prior relationship, with men or women. Between 1914 and 1916 both were very involved in trade union activism, feminism, and militant nationalism. Both were active in 1916 as members of the Irish Citizen Army, with Lynn the chief medical officer at the City Hall outpost, and ffrench Mullen the head of first aid at the Royal College of Surgeons outpost; both were arrested and imprisoned in Kilmainham Gaol after the surrender. After ten days Lynn was moved to Mountjoy Jail and ffrench Mullen released; despite the more comfortable conditions in Mountjoy, Lynn's diary entry for 10 May 1916 reflects her overwhelming desire to be with her partner; "Mtjoy clean & comfortable, but I'd give £10,000 for Kilmainham & Madeleine".
The couple would be reunited in autumn 1916 and spend the next three decades running St Ultan’s Hospital for Sick Infants, campaigning for the rights of women, children and workers and maintaining an intimate personal relationship. They were, however, not the only female revolutionaries who were involved in relationships with other women. In writing of the world of radical and revolutionary men and women in early to mid-20th century Ireland, we do gain some knowledge of what the women did, however it is most often in relation to the men, and the male world of culture and politics and indeed sex and romance.
The historical challenge requires us to read women like Irish Lynn and ffrench Mullen with a queer lens. Historian Judith Bennett writes that these ostensibly single women are often depicted through a heteronormative lens, pathetic, lonely, sexless, failures in a game of heterosexual courtship and marriage. If biographies exist of these single women, the phrase 'she never married’ serves to occlude non-heteronormative relationships, often omitting any discussion of sex, intimacy, and relationships. While there is no doubt that most revolutionary women who remained single were heterosexual, taking this queer lens to the archive allows a rich history of same sex female couples to emerge.
In studying the social, intimate, and personal histories of radical movements or revolutions, it is often noticed that people make radical political and radical personal choices as spaces open up where that can happen. This is true of heteronormative and non-heteronormative relationships and revolutionary Ireland is no outlier in these histories of revolutionary sexualities. The youthful generation involved in the cultural nationalism, radical politics, trade unionism, feminism and militant nationalism of the early 20th century also explored new ideas of intimacy, marriage, spirituality, and sexuality.
From RTÉ Radio 1's Arena, Dr Sinéad McCoole on commemorating Dr Kathleen Lynn
This also happened among women and men involved in the feminist and socialist movements in the UK and US and around Europe. While analysis of the intimate relationships of some of the revolutionary men such as Roger Casement, Patrick Pearse, and Michael Collins are now being questioned, so too are those of women involved in suffrage, socialist and revolutionary organisations. It is incumbent to research these women not just for their involvement in Cumann na mBan or other groups but to look at their relationships, their networks, their partnerships and what they say of and about each other. Lynn’s diaries reveal her relationship with ffrench Mullen, but that relationship can also be read through the diaries of Rosamond Jacob and the papers of Hanna Sheehy Skeffington.
Margaret Skinnider’s executor burnt her diaries so her private life would not make it into the history books, but her relationship with Nora O’Keeffe can be read in the archives of other revolutionary women. A 1918 FBI file details the 'deviant’ behaviour of Irish republican activist and journalist Kathleen O’Brennan (sister of Áine Ceannt) who was having a relationship with the Irish American feminist and socialist Marie Equi at the time.
The death notice of Elizabeth O’Farrell has her partner Julia Grenan in the chief mourner position, where a widow or widower would appear and many letters and cards of sympathy to Grenan are in their archive in the National Library of Ireland. Grenan was later buried in their shared grave in Glasnevin under the inscription ‘faithful comrade and lifelong friend’. The love letters of suffragist and cultural nationalist Margot Trench to Judy Withers are in the National Library. Although active in England, Irish born suffrage activist, poet, and mystic Eva Gore-Booth (sister of Countess Markievicz) is buried in a joint grave with her lifelong partner Esther Roper, under a quotation from Sappho, "Life that is Love is God".
1/ As promised, I will showcase some of my research on the Irish female revolutionary same-sex couples. First, it's Elizabeth O'Farrell and Julia Grenan, who are often described as 'lifelong friends'.
— Dr Mary McAuliffe 🌈 (@MaryMcAuliffe4) June 7, 2022
below, left Elizabeth, right Julia#Pride2022 #pridemonth2022 #irishwmnhist pic.twitter.com/8GXYQl2zhG
The question is often asked if it is important to research and write these queer histories? The answer is that it is vital to write the histories of all marginalised groups, as only then can we challenge dominant narratives of class, gender, race, identity, and heteronormativity. It is vital that our understanding of the past is broad, complex, and inclusive, that we know that queer people always existed and that their resistances to the dominant discourses of sexuality, intimacy, and relationships always occurred.
Dr Mary McAuliffe is an historian and Director of Gender Studies at UCD. She is a consultant on the forthcoming TG4 documentary on Irish revolutionary women who were in same sex couples, ‘Radical Hearts / Croíthe Radacacha’.
The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ.
