Recent additions to the Mountmellick Monument.
Lights and Names of Comrades
and more names of those who gave....
and hand crafted benches.
made by a local craftsman.
We are fortunate to have statements from some of Mountmellick people who took an active part in the liberation of Ireland. One of those was the Adjutant of 4th Battalion, Laois Brigade James Ramsbottom, of O’Moore Street, Mountmellick, Co. Laois.
His statement can be found here: http://www.bureauofmilitaryhistory.ie/bmhsearch/search.jsp?querystr=Mountmellick
“On 23 April 1916, when the Military Council of the Irish Republican Brotherhood finalised arrangements for the Easter Rising, it integrated Cumann na mBan, along with the Irish Volunteers and Irish Citizen Army, into the 'Army of the Irish Republic'. Patrick Pearse was appointed overall Commandant-General and James Connolly Commandant- General of the Dublin Division.”
Wherever there was an IRA Battalion or an Active Service Unit [Flying Column] there was also a unit of the Cumann na mBan [the women’s organisation] that did great work in providing support in the fight towards an independent Ireland.
“Looking through the records of this amazing period, one cannot help but be struck by the modernity of these women. For all their studied antiquarianism and the plundering of Ireland’s distant past for inspiration, they were very much of their own time. Many were highly educated, three out of the six women in the Second Dáil were graduates. They earned their own living, demanded equal pay and were independent minded, bold and confrontational. The women were prepared to defy convention and break rules. It was to warlike heroines such as Granuaile and Maeve rather than more conventionally ‘feminine’ women like Emer that they looked for role models.
According to IRA Commandant Michael Brennan, the flying columns would have collapsed without Cumann na mBan. “In despatch carrying, scouting and intelligence work, all of which are highly dangerous, they did far more than the soldiers . . . the more dangerous the work the more willing they were to do it.”
For more information see:https://archive.irishdemocrat.co.uk/features/cumann-na-mban/
