Kathleen proudest woman in Drogheda
SHE ONCE HID SENSITIVE INFORMATION FROM THE BLACK AND TANS UNDER A STONE
August 1980
ONE of the proudest women in Drogheda these days is Mrs. Kathleen Dempsey of Sandyford Terrace, whose son, Ray, was recently elected as Mayor of the town.
Mrs. Dempsey, or Lady Kate as she is known to her children, is no stranger to the world of politics. She was a member of Drogheda Corporation for seven years from 1967 to her retirement in 1974 at the age of 81.
Her election to the Corporation on a Fine Gael ticket put paid to the all male dominance of the Corporation since its initiation in 1412. However, since her retirement no other woman has succeeded to Mrs. Dpmpsey and the male stranglehold has been re-asserted.
But Mrs. Dempsey’s political career by no means started with her election, rather it was the final move in her political life. She had made a bid for a seat in the previous local elections but failed by a margin of six votes.
She hit the national headlines and drew a response from people all over the country when she proposed the inclusion of local rugby and soccer clubs in the 1916 commemoation celebrations in the town, when the proposal was rejected she walked out, leaving chaos and controversy behind her.
At the time she insisted that her action was taken because she felt that those who played soccer and rugby were no less Irishmen than those who didn’t, and should not be barred from the celebrations. There was considerable support for her move, including that of Aid. James Whelan, chairman of the O’Raghallaighs Football Club.
Adding weight to Mrs. Dempsey’s stand at the time was her record in public life. In her teens she was actively associated with the old IRA in their fight for freedom. As Despatch Adjutant of the First Eastern Division she was under constant surveillance by the ‘Black and Tans’.
On one occasion the Tans unexpectedly raided her father’s home on the Chord Road. “I had several despatches of importance on me at the time, she recalled, ‘I couldn’t let them fall into their hands so I sneaked into the garden and hid them under a stone in the flower bed’.
Another exploit still clearly remembered is the occasion when she carried the nozzle of a machine gun under her coat as she cycled from Drogheda to Ardee while keeping a watch out for the Tans patrols. The gun was later used for a raid on the barracks at Ardee.
Her achievements were remembered in 1941 when she became Drogheda’s first woman to receive a Military Service medal and a widows pension of 12/6 per week for the role she played in the fight for Independence. Her sister Mary and brother Hugh also received Service medals.
Following her election, Mrs. Dempsey concentrated on less military roles. As president of the local Housewives Association and one of its founder members she was more aware of the feelings of local women than most, and she put the knowledge to good use in the corporation.
Mrs. Dempsey was well aware of the inadequacies of the social service in the country. She was widowed and left with five young children when her husband, Vincent, died in 1937 and she found herself having to manage on an income 15 times less than what she had but manage she did.
Vincent Dempsey was also a well known personage in Drogheda., A keen Gaelgeoir, he was the first hostage to be taken by the Black and Tans when they came to Drogheda.
Mrs. Dempsey remembers well the affect his imprisonment had on him. She often told her children of the terrible conditions his hands were in because of the hard labour he was sentenced to, filling in holes that had been blown in the roads. At the time he was acting as the first court clerk in the Drogheda area.
When he died Mrs. Dempsey was left with the task of bringing up young Vincent, who is now a senior executive with AnCo and lives at Sandpit; Deirdre, now Mrs. Richard O’Brien who lives at Railway Terrace; Gertrude, who is married in Balbriggan to Gerry Shields a foreman with Hampton Mills, Ray who lives at College Rise, and Aidan, who works in Bissells and lives in the family home.