Kate Geoghegan: 'Noted Carlow Patriot'

Introduction

My great great grandmother, Catherine ‘Kate’ Geoghegan (nee Cummins), has always been someone of acute interest to me and possibly one of the reasons I got into genealogy as a teenager in the first place. Who cannot fail to feel the heavy weight of responsibility of being named after someone who was described by contemporaries as: ‘a great patriot’; ‘a woman of the highest character…; and who’s ‘courage and determination were always an inspiration to those with whom she came into contact’?

Her life was one of hardship – at different points in her life she was raising children and grandchildren, caring for invalid husband and daughter. At one point, her son, my great grandfather, went missing in Egypt for several years during WW2. She was constantly worrying about money, at various points not having enough money for rent or food. And despite all of this, there is overwhelming evidence that she worked tirelessly, selflessly and indeed passionately for the Republican cause in Ireland during the period 1917 to 1923.

Catherine 'Kate' Geoghegan (1873-1962)

Background

Catherine or ‘Kate’ as she more commonly went by, was baptised in Carlow on the 3rd August 1873. She was the fifth child and first daughter of her parents, Morgan Cummins and Margaret Ann Carey. Her family, allegedly an ‘old republican’ one, hailed from Tinryland some seven kilometres away where she was laid to rest in 1962. Her gravestone there proudly proclaims that she was a ‘founder member of Carlow Cumann na mBan Carlow Brigade’.

Kate's gravestone in Tinryland

 It is tempting to try and link her to the four Cummins’ from that area (Thomas, George, Patrick and William) who were involved in the Battle of Carlow on the 25th May 1798, when five hundred were left dead and their remains thrown into the croppy hole at Graigue-Cullen. This is perhaps another avenue to explore in the future.  Maybe Kate had heard stories from her paternal grandparents James and Anne Cummins (nee Brennan) and her great uncle, also called Morgan. Sadly, this is all purely conjecture.

Taken from the 1798 Souvenir Supplement by Nationalist & Leinster Times (Carlow edition)

What is clear, is that by her thirties she and her much younger brother, Morgan Cummins were the only surviving members of their family. At least two of her four elder brothers had been involved in the military (one of them, Patrick, having died in Trimulgherry, India of malaria in 1905). By 1914 all four of the elder brothers had died. She also had a younger sister, Alicia, a servant in Paupish, Carlow but she had also died in 1894 aged 15. The family were clearly a poor one – her maternal grandmother Anne Carey, signed one of her brother's birth registrations with ‘her mark’, clearly signifying that she was unable to write her own name. That said, Kate clearly received some kind of an education – her countless letters, mostly written in her own hand, though sometimes shaky, are clearly the work of a literate person.

Carlow Cathedral c.1900 where Kate was baptised and married

Kate married Thomas Geoghegan on the 15th January 1893. It wasn’t until 1901 when Kate was 27 that she welcomed her first child, Margaret (known as Maggie, Mag or Peg); followed fairly swiftly by Elizabeth (known as Lil or Lily) and twin boys Morgan and Patrick in 1905. Both her daughters were also members of Cumann na mBan, whilst her sons were both Fianna members during the period 1919-22.

Barrack Street c.1950

The family lived on Barrack Street at the ‘top’ of the town. Her proximity to the military barracks directly opposite her home helped define her work in during the upcoming War of Independence (1919-21) and then the ensuing Civil War (1922-3).

The military barracks opposite Kate's house c. 1966

Run up to the ‘Black and Tan’ War 1916-19

In Jan 1917, Kate helped found the Carlow branch of Cumann na mBan, the women’s arm of the Irish Republican Army. She was at that time the V/C. She states on her records that at the time of the Easter Rising some nine months before that she had ‘sympathised with [the] republican movement and worked privately.’ In 1917 she acted under orders from her O/C Bea Brophy (later Bea Ryan) collecting funds, drilling and helping to run first aid classes. She claims repeatedly in documentation that she put the first republican flag up over Carlow in August of that year. In September 1917 she helped raise money on the day that Thomas Ashe died on hunger strike having been force fed at Mater Hospital. During this period she says she one of the reception party for Eamonn de Valera when he passed through Carlow Station and one of the signatures to the address of welcome presented to him ‘when few was there’.

Funeral of Thomas Ashe in 1917

In 1918, Kate continued with these same duties. Collecting funds for the I.R.A. seems to have been one of her particular strengths. Her companion in this task, Father Seán Ó Cíllín, writes to the Pensions board that ‘she never shirked’ and that there was ‘no better assistant and worker [for collecting funds].’ Her later O/C, Brigid Laffan, also testifies that she was ‘a strenuous worker’ in this regard. At some point during this year, one of her two daughters, was seriously injured in a baton charge by the R.I.C. This is probably the second daughter, Lil, whom Kate often refers to in later letters, as being unable to work due to poor health.

In 1919, Kate continued with her duties and in addition participated in parades and military lectures. As she writes on her application ‘[I was] always ready to make British Rule impossible in Ireland’.

Cumann na mBan members training at Ducket's grove, near Carlow

War of Independence 1919-21

During the heart of the Irish War of Independence or ‘Black and Tan War’ Kate ramped up her activities in Cumann na mBan. Beyond her usual duties of collecting funds, she began catering for IRA prisoners being held in Carlow Barracks (as well as sending parcels to the Curragh Internment Camp). She lived literally opposite Carlow Barracks and was known to visit prisoners there five to six times a week where she tended to the ‘material comforts’ of the men there as well as doing their laundry. A CnmB colleague, Margaret Doyle writes: ‘I have known her myself to have sent over her own breakfast and dinner over to prisoners.’ She also used her visits to the barracks to collect information from prisoners about upcoming raids at Duckett’s Grove (the local training facility for the IRA and CnmB) and IRA headquarters. Indeed she says she successfully carried ammunition out of IRA headquarters during a raid in 1921. She admitted to putting up men on the run (‘sometimes for one week, sometimes two’. Another IRA colleague John Foley comments in letter: ‘her house was always open to the boys’.

Members of Carlow IRA in 1920

She also stored arms and bombs on her property (Pensions board: ‘what kind of weapons?’ Kate: ‘Revolvers, rifles, ammunition’). Family lore, has these being hidden under the flagstones out in the yard of the house.

Carlow column IRA training 1920-21

At the funeral of Patrick O’Toole in February 1921 (a prominent trade unionist and ‘lover of the Irish language’ who died at Ballykinlar Internment Camp aged 29) she managed to smuggle in several revolvers for the firing party, despite heavy British military presence there. That night her home was raided by the Black and Tans and they threatened to burn it down. A month later, a member of the R.I.C. Sergant O’Boyle was shot in the jaw and back on his way back to the barracks. Once again her home was raided, and ‘I was threatened that I would be shot’. Indeed, she claims during this period, ‘my home was continually raided’ and her and her family were ‘subjected to terrorism by enemy troops.’

Fellow members of CnmB pictured in Carlow in 1921 - note they are standing on top of the Union Jack

Irish Civil War 1922-3

In June 1922, the Irish Civil War broke out. In this period she continued to obey orders and her work for prisoners. During this period she ‘saw to [the] burial’ of two IRA men killed at Castledermot and brought loaded revolvers to their funerals also.

Revolver from 1922

She also began dispatch work, bringing weapons and ammunition on her person to various IRA groups in the area making around 10 deliveries a week, ‘sometimes 20 rounds [of ammunition], sometimes 25, sometimes only 10’. In July, the military barracks were attacked – letters from IRA colleagues say she helped assist the column by providing information on the military movements in town. As a result her house was machine gunned – indeed a witness, John Hynes, writes, ‘I saw the windows of [her] house after being riddled with bulets [sic]’. At some point that year, she managed to help the local IRA column avoid arrest by sending her daughter Lil, to Castledermot to warn them that ‘eight or so lorries [of troops] were coming to attack them.’

Free State Troops in an armoured car from the period

She also put up posters in the town, and even managed to attain some additional ammunition from a contact inside the Barracks (‘they were only friends for a time’). The following year she took up the duty of the O/C who was arrested in May and detained until October and took charge of her house until she was released from prison. It was in this period, that her own daughter, Lil Geoghegan, was detained as a prisoner.

Lil Geoghegan (later Mulrooney) in her CnmB uniform

The house was machine gunned three times during the period (apparently ‘because there was a machine gun placed in the window of the barracks opposite’); on one occasion ‘the window in her house was blown to pieces by the enemy, herself and her family making a very narrow escape’. When questioned about the attacks by the Pensions Board, she claims hers was particularly targeted because ‘I was the only active member [of the IRA] on the street.’ As one of her former colleagues wrote to the board ‘I believe herself and her family suffered more than any other family in Carlow County.’

Free State Troops fire on the Four Courts in Dublin

The Irish Freestate and beyond

Why then, you might ask, is there such substantial evidence of Kate’s activities in this period? Indeed, I have read some 300 or so documents pertaining to her work during the period 1917-1925.

In 1934, the government passed the Military Services Pensions Act, extending the existing acts of 1924-1930. Kate, now 61, was eligible for a pension for her work and so she applied in November. She states all her particulars on the forms and gives a number of witnesses to each stage of the period 1916-23. Despite government letters saying she has an excellent case for a pension, nothing was immediately decided. In 1938, she wrote to her MP, Mr Norton, seeking help. She provided lots of documentary evidence – countless letters from senior members of the Carlow IRA, colleagues from Cumann na mBan in Carlow, testimonies of prisoners she worked – even senior members of Cumann na mBan in Dublin wrote to support her case. Norton brings her case up at the Ceistanna in the Dáil. Despite mentioning her ‘acute distress’ and the fact that she is supporting an ‘invalid husband and children dependent on her,’ the Minister of Defence, Aiken, cannot say when the pension will be granted and promises to ‘bring it to the referees notice’.

One of the countless letters testifying to her work

Kate’s letters continue to Norton and the Board. ‘I have only 10/ a week to live on’ she writes, ‘my daughter is not working’. She receives a letter from Norton in 1939, ‘owing to the large number of applications received, it is regretted that it is not possible to indicate when a decision [on your case] is likely to be made’.

One of Kate's many letters to Norton from 1939

Her husband Thomas died in early 1940. Norton returns to the Dáil in 1940. Mr Everett on behalf of Norton asks the Minister for Defence if he will state when a decision will be conveyed to Mrs. K. Geoghegan, Barrack Street, Carlow, on the application submitted by her for a pension under the Military Service Pensions Act, 1934. Mr. Traynor merely replies: ‘As the referee has not reported to me on the case, I am not in a position to state when a decision will be conveyed to Mrs. Geoghegan.’ Her letters to Norton and the Board get more desperate – ‘I am six months behind on my rent’ she writes in 1941.

One of Kate's letters from 1941

Norton appears in front of the Dáil for a third time in February 1941 -

Mr. Norton:  In view of the fact that the Minister stated in September, 1938, that this case was then before the referee, will he indicate now why it has taken the referee almost two and a half years to come to a decision in this case?

Mr. Traynor:  Actually the referee is awaiting a report from the brigade to which this lady was attached and I am afraid, until that report is received, not very much advance can be made.

Mícheál Ó Ríaín's letter of 1941

Later that year secretary of the Carlow Brigade IRA Pension’s Committee, Mícheál Ó Ríaín, writes very firmly in 1941 to the Department of Defence, that Kate was in ‘very poor circumstances’, that ‘there was no reason for the delay’ and that the claim ought to be dealt with ‘immediately.’

The letter from Ó Ríaín seems to have done the trick - she was award her military pension certificate in 1941 and awarded a pension of £9 6S 1D per annum.

Kate's pension documentation

Kate by this stage was 68. Why did the pension take so long to get through? One suspects a combination of the high numbers of applicants and administrative incompetence. The latter is strongly suspected – over the next couple of years, she writes more letters. In Decemeber 1941, she writes ‘I have not received any monies for the last two months… I am very badly off and cannot wait any longer’. Another letter sent in March 1942, seeks further pension money on the basis of her having been V/C of her branch, only arrived in the right department nearly a year later in February 1943 as attested by an internal memo. She received her Black and Tan medal during this period (with bar – suggesting active service) – but this must have provided little comfort, when she needed to pay her rent and put food on the table.

Black and Tan Medal received by Kate in 1942

In 1947, she made an application for ‘special allowance’ swapping her usual old age pension for £29 10s a year in addition to her military service pension.

She ended her years in her home in Carlow and died in 1962 aged 89. Her funeral was well attended, by her children, grandchildren and nephews from Carlow, America and England. Her coffin was draped in the tricolour accompanied by a guard of honour made up of her old Cumann na mBan and IRA colleagues, just as she herself had done at the funeral of Patrick O’Toole forty years before.

References

All documents and letters pertaining to Kate's Pension case can be found on the Military Archives Website here