Civil War history of violence to women exposed in papers

WOMEN were killed by guns and bombs, were the victims of sexual assault and had their hair forcibly shorn during the Irish Civil War, new analysis of documents shows.

The serious and traumatising violence women suffered during the conflict is revealed in compensation claim records, as well as the psychological impact on victims.

Some injuries were accidental, due to women being in the wrong place at the wrong time, or because they were present when there were raids on private homes.

Dr Gemma Clark, from the University of Exeter, has analysed newly accessible records of the Irish Free State’s Compensation (Personal Injuries) Committee.

She said: ‘The highly damaging legacies of the Civil War ought not to be forgotten, and these papers give information about the violence and intimidation suffered by people which otherwise would have gone unrecorded.’

The committee was set up in April 1923, as the war was ending, to consider injuries sustained by civilians. The committee analysed 6,616 applications from the public, paying out more than £269,000 (around €16.1million, in today’s terms) to the injured and dependants of the deceased.

Around 12% of compensation claims mentioned mental illness triggered by witnessing violence at close quarters.

A woman called Mary Hyde told how her nerves were ‘shattered’ after being knocked unconscious after a mine explosion in St Mary’s Hall, Cork, on March 2, 1923.

And Mary Gallagher had a ‘very severe shock’ when ‘Irregulars’ attacked her home in the Arigna mountains in Co. Roscommon.

Dr Clark said some women were targeted because of their loyalties or beliefs. At Dillon’s Cross, Co. Cork in December 1922, Mary Barry said she and three other girls were ‘singing a song in support of the Treaty when a shot rang out and I fell’. She attributed the attack to ‘civilians believed to be anti-treaty or supporters of anti-treaty forces’.

When a ‘party of Irregulars’ carried out a night-time raid at the home of Patrick Callanan, in Dromelehy, Cooraclare on December 29, 1922, his daughter Mai – a suspected informer to Government troops – was shot in the foot.

Serious attacks also took place in the home, where women – as guardians of the domestic space – bore the brunt of violence. Some had opened the door to groups searching for the men of the house.

Dr Clark said her investigations were made difficult by omissions and obscure language in the source documents. But women were more forthcoming in claims about forced hair-shearing, which was used as a punishment for those who associated with British or Free State forces.

Anne White, a housekeeper for a Catholic priest in Co. Cork, said she was assaulted when the house was raided by armed men in April 1923. The compensation claim record stated that Anne was forced into a car by the raiders and taken to an unoccupied house five or six miles away, where she was kept and her hair cut off.

Dr Clark said: ‘The records suggest violence against women was not used in a systematic way to realise political or military objectives. But it’s important to remember that people then, as now, may be reluctant to report sexual assault.’

helen.bruce@dailymail.ie

‘Violence not used in systematic way’