Louise Gavan Duffy

Louise Gavan Duffy
Born (1884-07-17)17 July 1884
Cimiez, France
Died 12 October 1969(1969-10-12) (aged 85)
Dublin, Ireland
Nationality Irish
Other names Luíse Ghabhánach Ní Dhufaigh
Alma mater University College Dublin
Occupation Educator, Suffragist, Nationalist
Known for Founding Ireland's first Gaelscoil

Louise Gavan Duffy (Irish: Luíse Ghabhánach Ní Dhufaigh, 17 July 1884 – 12 October 1969) was a suffragist and Irish nationalist who was present in the General Post Office, the main headquarters during the 1916 Easter Rising, as well as an educator, Irish language enthusiast and Gaelic revivalist who set up the first Gaelscoil in Ireland.[1][2][3]

Duffy was born in Cimiez, France into an Irish family which was both strongly Catholic and staunchly nationalist. Her father and brothers were important figures in political and legal spheres. She was raised in France in a well to do and culturally vibrant house and with exposure to political ideas and people.[4]

Interested in languages Duffy became an enthusiast for the Irish language and moved to Ireland to learn it and to teach, eventually setting up the first Irish Language school in 1917. She was one of the first women to get a degree from University College Dublin when she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1911.[5][2]

Her interest in women's suffrage and Irish nationalism meant that she was closely connected with those movements and other similar minded women in Ireland. She became a founding member of two of Ireland's women's paramilitary republican organisations, Cumann na mBan and Cumann na Saoirse. She was in the midst of the fighting during the Irish Easter Rebellion in 1916 and was part of the unsuccessful deputation to U.S. President Woodrow Wilson for support for Irish independence.

Biography

Duffy was born in France, the daughter of Irish nationalist Sir Charles Gavan Duffy, one of the founders of The Nation and his third wife, Louise (née Hall).[6][7][2]Her father had been repeatedly tried for treason and sedition due to his actions as a nationalist. Eventually he moved to Australia where he became the 8th Premier of Victoria. Finally he retired to France.

Her brother George Gavan Duffy was one of the signatories to the Anglo-Irish Treaty in 1921, an Irish politician, barrister and judge. Her half-brother Sir Frank Gavan Duffy was the fourth Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia, sitting on the bench of the High Court from 1913 to 1935. Her mother died when she was five and she was reared in Nice by her Australian half-sisters from her father's second marriage.[2][7]

Duffy came first to Dublin in 1903, when her father died and was buried in Glasnevin Cemetery. That was when she first heard Irish spoken; she found a grammar book in her father's things and became curious. Her father had not been an Irish speaker, though his own mother had been fluent. Duffy fell for the language and resolved to move to Ireland.[8][9]

She could not afford to move until after she received a small inheritance from her grandmother in 1907. Once in Ireland, she went to the Gaeltacht to learn Irish and also took courses through Cusack's College in London so that she could matriculate. Then she entered University College Dublin, taking arts. She lived in the Women's College, Dominican Convent during this time and graduated in 1911 with a Bachelor of Arts and was one of the first women to do so.[5][2]

Due to a lack of teachers and despite not having her full qualification, she taught in Patrick Pearse's St Ita's school for girls in Ranelagh.[8][2][10][7]

Politics

Duffy was a supporter of women's suffrage and spoke at a mass meeting in Dublin in 1912 in favour having of the Home Rule bill include a section to grant women the vote. She also joined the Irish republican women's paramilitary organisation Cumann na mBan, as a founding member in April 1914, serving on the provisional committee and with Mary Colum, as a co-secretary.[10][2]

She was very aware that being a suffragist and a nationalist were not necessarily the same thing and to focus on the one at hand, which in Cumann na mBan, was nationalism.[11][12] When St Ita's closed, due to a lack of funding in 1912, Duffy took the opportunity to finish her qualifications. She got her Cambridge teacher's diploma in 1913 and went back to UCD to get a Master of Arts.[2][8]

She was in fact working on her Master's thesis during the Easter break in 1916 when the rumour came to her that the Rising had begun in Dublin city centre. She walked to the Rebel headquarters in the GPO where she told Pearse, one of the leaders, that she did not agree with the violent uprising.[13][10][14]

I was brought to Pearse and had the temerity to tell him that I thought the rebellion was very wrong as it would certainly fail but that I wished to be there if there was going to be anything doing.

She spent all of Easter week working in the GPO kitchens with both other Volunteers like Desmond FitzGerald and a couple of captured British soldiers ensuring the other Volunteers were cared for.[15] The women in the GPO were given the opportunity to leave under the protection of the Red Cross on the Thursday as the shelling of the building had caused fires but almost all of them refused. In the end the she was amongst the second group of the people to leave the GPO on the Friday, tunnelling through the walls of the buildings to avoid coming under fire.[16]

Her group made it to Jervis Street Hospital where they spent the night. The following day, on the Saturday Pearse formally surrendered.[10]Duffy headed for Jacob's Biscuit Factory, another Volunteer position, on the morning after the surrender to see what was happening.[17] There she found a hold out of Volunteers who were unaware of the surrender or that the fighting was over.[10][2]

After 1916 she was elected to Cumann na mBan’s executive and in 1918 was one of the signatories to a petition for self-determination for Ireland given to President Woodrow Wilson by Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington.[13][2] During her time in the GPO, she had collected names of the Volunteers and promised to take messages to their families. This may have influenced her in being involved in the National Aid Association and Volunteers Dependants Fund. In the aftermath of the rebellion there were 64 known dead among the Volunteers, 3,430 men and 79 women were arrested. Families needed support. These organisations were able to arrange funding from the USA. [2][18]

Scoil Bhríde

In 1917 she co-founded and ran Scoil Bhríde, an Irish language school for girls in Dublin, which is still in operation. Her co-founder was Annie McHugh who later married Ernest Blythe. The end of the Rising lead to the Irish War of Independence. It was fought from 1919 to 1921. During this time Duffy was mostly focused on the school. However the school was raided by the military and Duffy later admitted it was in fact used for rebel meetings and to safeguard documents. In October 1920 Irish leader Michael Collins met Archbishop Patrick Clune there in secret.[7][2][19][20]

The war ended with the Anglo-Irish Treaty in 1921. The result was the Irish Civil War which lasted until 1923. Duffy was a supporter of the Treaty, which her brother had signed, and as such she left Cumann na mBan and joined Cumann na Saoirse which she was instrumental in founding as an Irish republican women's organisation which supported the Pro-Treaty side.[16][19]

Once the civil war was over, Duffy left the political arena and focused on education. She especially had to focus on funding in the early years of the school. She worked with UCD's Department of Education from 1926 once Scoil Bhríde was recognised as a teacher training school. She published educational documents like School Studies in The Appreciation of Art with Elizabeth Aughney and published by UCD in 1932.

Until her retirement, she also lectured on the teaching of French. Once retired she gave much of her time to the Legion of Mary and to an association which worked with French au pairs in Dublin. In 1948 she was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Laws by the National University of Ireland. She retired as principal in 1944.[7][2]

Historical legacy

Recognising the importance of her first hand experience and with a good political understanding, Duffy recorded her memories of the events in which she had taken part. In 1949 she gave an account of her life in relation to nationalist activities to the Bureau of Military History.[10] She was involved in Radio Éireann broadcast in 1956 about the women in the Rising.[21]In 1962 she took part in the RTÉ TV program Self Portrait broadcast on 20 March 1962.[8] In March 1966 she gave a lecture in UCD to mark the 50th anniversary of the Rising which was published in The Easter rising, 1916, and University College Dublin (1966)

In 2014 An Post issued a stamp to commemorate the centenary of the founding of Cumann na mBan.[22]In 2016, for the centenary, a documentary has been produced which discusses seven of the women, including Duffy, who were involved in the Easter rising.[23]

She died, unmarried, in 1969, aged 85, and was interred in the family plot in Glasnevin Cemetery.[9]

Bibliography

References

Sources

Other reading

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