106th Anniversary of the Foundation of Cumann na mBan.
The official launch of Cumannn mBan took place 106 years ago in Wynn’s Hotel, Dublin on April 2nd, 1914. The meeting was presided over by Agnes O’Farrelly who laid out the aims of the new organisation to the assembled crowd. The original leadership of Cumann na mBan was dominated by the wives, sisters and other family relatives of prominent leaders of the Irish Volunteers.
Cumann na mBan was set up as a women’s auxiliary section of the newly formed Irish Volunteers organisation. Similar to the Irish Volunteers, at the beginning, it wasn’t a particularly radical organisation. A more radical feminist organisations already in existence in the Irish Women’s Franchise League and radical feminists were also active in the Irish Citizen’s Army.
Two months later, John Redmond of the Irish Parliamentary Party, was to exert his influence over Cumann na mBan when he succeeded in imposing 25 of his own nominees onto the executive of the Irish Volunteers. Shortly after the outbreak of the First World War, Redmond proceeded to drive a split in the Volunteer movement. He led the majority of it’s men into a new organisation, the National Volunteers. Redmond then took a political decision to gamble with the lives of thousands of Irishmen in the hope that the British would keep their promise of Home Rule. These volunteers were sent off to join the British Army and shed their blood for the British Empire.
In contrast, the majority of Cumann na mBan members chose to stay with the Irish Volunteers and actively discouraged enlistment in the British Army. Its members grew increasingly convinced of the need for an armed rebellion against British rule. Aside from the women of the Irish Citizen Army, every other woman who took part in the 1916 Rising was a member of Cumman na mBan. After the Rising, the 1916 Proclamation was adopted by the organisation and it’s members went on to play a vital role in popularising republican ideals. Cumann na mBan members were very active throughout the Tan War and after that in bolstering opposition to the counter-revolution.