Geraldine Plunkett Dillon

Geraldine "Gerry" Plunkett Dillon (1891–1986) was an Irish republican and member of Cumann na mBan, best known for her memoir All in the blood. She was a sister of Joseph Plunkett, a signatory of the 1916 Proclamation of the Irish Republic.

Early life and family Geraldine Plunkett Dillon, known to her family as Gerry, was born Geraldine Mary Germaine Plunkett in 1891 in Fitzwilliam Street, Dublin. She was the fourth child of the seven children of Count George Noble and Mary Josephine Plunkett (née Cranny). Throughout her life Dillon had a difficult relationship with her mother, recalling that at the age of 6, "I decided to hate my mother."

Role in Irish independence Her brother, Joseph, was a signatory of the 1916 Proclamation, and Dillon actively supported his involvement with the Irish Volunteers and the Irish Republican Brotherhood. She helped to smuggle gelignite and ammunition into Dublin by taking delivery of the two bags in February 1914 from Liam Mellowes. She was a friend of Michael Collins, whom she met through Joseph in 1915 to help her when she had been left to manage the family finances and property while her mother was visiting the United States. In 1916, Dillon was living with Joseph at Larkfield House in Kimmage, the grounds of which were used as an Irish Volunteers training camp. In the run-up to Easter 1916, the house was home to a large number of Volunteers who came from London, Liverpool, and Glasgow. Joseph gave her a pistol, which she carried continuously in her jacket.

On Easter Sunday 23 April 1916, she married Thomas Dillon, a chemistry lecturer whom she had met in University College Dublin, in Rathmines Church. Her brothers, George and Jack, were in attendance wearing their Volunteer uniforms, with Rory O'Connor was the best man. The wedding ceremony attracted the attention of the British forces, with a pair of "G-men" removed from the church by O'Connor and the Plunkett brothers. The wedding had been planned as a double wedding, with her brother Joseph planning to marry Grace Gifford, but he was occupied with the planning for Easter Monday. Dillon's husband was to take part in the events of Easter Rising, and was instructed to go to the Imperial Hotel on O'Connell Street on Easter Monday with Dillon after the wedding and to await orders there. The hotel was chosen specifically due to its view of the General Post Office, which was to be the centre of the Rising. As Thomas was a chemist, it was planned that he would be placed in charge of any chemical factories the Irish Volunteers captured to manufacture munitions and explosives, but this did not come to fruition. Instead, the couple watched the events unfolding from the hotel. When Rory O'Connor visited them to update them on progress, Dillon asked to be admitted into the GPO, but Joseph refused her permission. Instead, he ordered them back to Larkfield to start manufacturing explosives. They cycled back to the house through lines of British soldiers.

After Joseph's execution, the Plunkett siblings remained active in organisations such as the Irish Republican Army and Cumann na mBan.

Dillon was present at the first sitting of the Dáil at the Mansion House in January 1919. Her husband spent a great deal of the period of 1916 to 1922 imprisoned or hiding from the authorities due to his republican activities, including an internment from May 1918 to January 1919 in Gloucester prison. They initially lived in Dangan House and later in Barna, where it was used for Sinn Féin Court sessions with her husband presiding as judge. Her husband was already in hiding, so their children were left in the care of a servant, Peggy. After protested that her children were not allowed to live with her in the prison, as was usual at the time, the matter was raised in the House of Commons and she was released. Her daughter Eilís later recalled that by not being in prison with her mother, she had "lost her only chance of being able to boast I was imprisoned for my country." One son died at age three. Some of her papers are held in the National Library of Ireland.