Donegal women in the Civil War
BY LIZA GALLEN, EQUALITY OFFICER, DONEGAL SINN FÉIN
The women of Donegal who played a part in the Civil war
were, like their male counterparts, subjected to torture and
degrading treatment at the hands of Free State forces for
upholding their republican principles following the signing of
the Treaty. The international laws governing the Red Cross and
respected throughout the world, stood in very little standing
with the officers and men of the Donegal Command of the Free
State army.
Women held captive at Buncrana Barracks were subjected to very
harsh treatment. One woman, Cissie O'Doherty, unmercifully kicked
by an army officer, suffered such severe injuries that she later
had to undergo a serious operation and spent a number of months
in hospital recuperating. This was as a result of an officer's
display of his toe-plated army boots manufactured in England.
Theresa McGeehan, Marian Blake, Mary McBride and many other
women throughout the country were subjected to similar torture
throughout the Civil War and this was probably by the same men
who would have sought food and sanctuary from these women during
the Tan War.
Marian Blake was to suffer with poor health long after her
release, the result of the conditions the women had to endure
during their incarceration at Buncrana. These conditions cost the
life of Mary McBride, who died soon after from the effects of a
cold contracted from wet blankets supplied to the prison. The
women were then held in a cold clammy cell in a disused portion
of the barracks, used as a punishment area, for that awful crime
of shouting "Up the Republic".
Free State forces used various tactics to try to break the
spirit of these women and when all else failed they resorted to
defamation of character, with officers broadcasting the vilest
and most degrading allegations about the women - all this for
simply upholding the principles of the Republic, which the Free
State forces at one time upheld, but had since deserted.