Eithne Coyle

Eithne Coyle (1897–1985; However, her role in the period now known as 'revolutionary Ireland' was more extensive than her membership of these two groups indicates. A letter from Peader O'Donnell dated 19 April 1945 in support of her application for a military service application noted she was targeted severely during the Irish Civil War by the Irish Free State forces who 'regarded her more as an IRA officer than as Cumann na mBan organiser, which indeed she was'. She would also become notorious for her involvement in two high-profile prison escapes in the 1920s.

Early years

She was born as Annie Coyle on 3 January 1897 in Killult, a village near Falcarragh, County Donegal, to Charles Coyle and May McHugh (the youngest of their seven children). Her brother Donal Coyle served as Commandant in the 1st Northern Division of the Irish Volunteers. Her father died at the young age of 36, a misfortune that Coyle attributed to the pressures of dealing with unscrupulous landlords who evicted her family from their lands. She notes in her private papers that it was during this fraught childhood that she first met Maud Gonne 'who dazzled everyone by her beauty, charm, and humility'. For periods in the 1890s, Gonne campaigned in Donegal for tenant farmers' rights. Between 1918 and 1919 she lived for a time in Dungannon as a Gaelic League organizer before moving to County Longford to set up Cumann na mBan branches. After that escape she stayed in an IRA training camp at Duckett's Grove, County Carlow until a truce on 11 July 1921 and the Anglo-Irish Treaty in December 1921. for the North West of Ireland. She toured County Donegal, County Londonderry and part of County Tyrone and found that many of the local branches had lost much of their membership and was forced to reorganise the movement in Ulster as a more streamlined model.

In response to the 1920 large-scale expulsions of Catholic workers from their jobs in Belfast, Coyle worked to enforce Sinn Féins 'Belfast Boycott' of unionist-owned businesses, banks and goods produced in that city. (See: The Troubles in Ulster (1920–1922)). The Belfast Telegraph reported that on the Londonderry and Lough Swilly Railway an armed Coyle held up the train from which she removed all copies of Belfast newspapers before publicly burning them. Coyle's activities (which were not sanctioned by Cumann na mBan's leadership) became a regular occurrence on that train line. She was also the official dispatch carrier between the IRA 1st Northern Division and 3rd Western Division, a role that included rowing between Donegal and Sligo to ensure messages were not intercepted. However, in September 1922 the Provisional Government decided to crack down on the activities of Cumann na mBan renegades and Coyle was the first member to be arrested as part of this move. Initially held at Ballyshannon she created another first there by becoming the Cumann na mBan member to go on hunger strike, refusing food for seven days as there was no female prison guard. After being detained at Buncrana Barracks for two weeks Coyle was eventually taken to Mountjoy Prison by boat, some eight weeks after her initial arrest. Later moved to the North Dublin Union internment camp after an infamous night of terror for women transferred from Mountjoy Prison and Kilmainham Gaol. Coyle noted the terrible conditions at the North Dublin Union, which had previously housed troops: 'without exaggeration you could dig the dirt off the floors with a spade and leave enough behind for worms'. Coyle was finally released from Kilmainham in December 1923 following a hunger strike.

Later years Coyle was appointed to the executive of Cumann na mBan in 1924 and was elected as president in 1926, after Constance Markievicz resigned to join Fianna Fáil. It was a post she held until her resignation in 1941.

After she stood down as President of Cumann na mBan she started research to complete a history of the organisation from 1914 to 1923. She had a particular interest in the women involved from the north of Ireland and Scotland. Her private papers reveal she had collected surveys and questionnaires from a range of women but she never published a book on this subject. Bernard died in February 1968.