A very interesting account of the family backgrounds and activities of the women of Cumann na mBan in the North Antrim area was given by Dr. Margaret Ward in Cuchullian’s GAC Dunloy Clubrooms on Saturday night, 22nd March 2025.
Dr. Margaret Ward is Honorary Senior Lecturer in History at Queen’s University, and this occasion was the launch in the North Antrim area of her new book ‘Rebel Women’, which gives a very thoroughly-researched account of the formation of Cumann na mBan in Belfast and the North Antrim area. Over many years she has researched the mostly-unrecorded roles of women in Irish nationalist movements, trying to unearth and publicize what the experiences of these women had been, and what had inspired their activism.
‘Rebel Women’, her second book, covers the formation of Cumann na mBan from its inaugural meeting in Dublin on 2nd April 1914, which was attended by two women from Belfast, Winifred Carney and Ina Connolly, and its subsequent development in the North in the context of the political situation here.
Dr. Ward’s presentation in Dunloy concentrated on those women from the North Antrim areas, particularly Ballycastle, Glenravel, Loughgiel and Dunloy, and was attended by members of the families of those now-deceased women.
Her book lifts the veil of almost complete silence which inevitably covered the activities of these women, living as they did under a government which had declared their organization illegal under the Special Powers Act, meaning that they could very rarely speak openly about what they did, quite often even to their own families, for the safety of both. Some even had eventually to leave their homes and begin new lives elsewhere.
The activities in the Belfast area are better known due to the writings of women like Nora Connolly, where she wrote about her father James Connolly and of her own experiences as a member of Belfast Cumann na mBan. Others who wrote were Winnie Carney, who was one of the woman in the GPO at the Easter Rising, and Elizabeth Corr, who was one of a small group who travelled to Coalisland before the Rising.
The evening in Dunloy covered firstly the lives and history of the local McCamphill family from which most of its nine girls had joined and were active in the local Cumann na mBan branch. Breid and Lena joined in January 1916, following some of their other sisters, and they set about establishing branches with others in Cloughmills and Loughgiel. Lena and her sister Jeannie McCamphill’s previous activity in Belfast had mostly been in the making up of first-aid kits and carrying dispatches, while their youngest sister Casilda had stored documents and ammunition which had been given to her by members of London Cumann na mBan when she worked there. Her headstone in Dunloy graveyard mentions her membership of the organization.
Given the political affiliation of the majority in the surrounding areas, and the presence of military and RIC barracks there, the activities of these women and their companions had obviously to be kept very secret, and the setting up of safe houses was an essential part of what they did, particularly in the Loughgiel area. They came to know men on the run, some of whom they later married – Lena to Brian Cunning, Breid to Seamus Dobbyn, Casilda to Felix McCorley, and Jeannie to the local well-known poet, writer and Irish language enthusiast and one of the founders of the Feis na nGleann, Andy Dooey.
Mary O’Loan from Glenravel was the most senior member of Cumann na mBan in the North Antrim area, along with her sister Gertie, and she worked closely with Lena McCamphill in organizing branches in her own Glenravel, Cloughmills and Portglenone, as well as Ballycastle, Cushendall and Ballymena.
Mary had trained as a teacher, later working in Glendun, and was over time in charge of at least 100 members in the area, as well as representing Antrim on the executive of Cumann na mBan, attending their conventions in Dublin. She was twice arrested for two short periods for her efforts as a very active dispatch carrier. When she eventually tried to get back her old job as a teacher, the Northern government refused to reinstate her – “due to my political opinions no doubt, as well as to my religion”, as she said.
Her sister Gertie’s activities, with others, covered carrying food, dry clothes, intelligence, first-aid kits, beds and stretchers for the wounded, as well as escorting men to the safety of the border on their way to the Curragh camp.
Maggie (nee Martin) McShane, from Corkey in Loughgiel, was an early member of Cumann na mBan in North Antrim, joining first the Dunloy branch and then in 1919 helping to form the Loughgiel branch, becoming its secretary. Her Martin home was in a fairly remote area and thus served as a safe house, as did the surrounding local area, though the authorities soon began to subject it to many raids. Maggie attended to wounded men on occasions, helped by a local and sympathetic doctor, and supported the Dunloy and Glenbush camps, as well as those hiding in dugouts near her home, by bringing them food and clothing.
Maggie later married Daniel McShane who came from a farming family in Tully, Loughgiel, and they went to live in Ballintoy, a few miles outside Ballycastle.
A good number of the McShane and related family members attended the gathering in Dunloy, as did members of the O’Loan and McCamphill families and a good number of other local interested people. Questions from the floor were answered expertly by Dr. Margaret Ward, who was then thanked very much for uncovering the little-known activities of these local North Antrim women, and making it available to all in book form.
Other women of Cumann na mBan from North Antrim who are mentioned in Margaret’s book are Lizzie Boyle, Mary (nee Gillan) McCarry, Annie McGarry, Mary (nee McKiernan) Scally and Mary Stewart – all from Ballycastle; Katie (nee Murray) McElheron from Cushendall; Jane O’Neill from Glenravel; and Katie (nee McCarte) O’Boyle from Glenariffe.