May 2007

Cumann na mBan, a women's support group to the Irish Volunteers, was founded in 1914. Nationalist in outlook, its aims centred on arming Irish men, generating propaganda and presenting a united Irish opposition to English rule. The Free State government's awareness of Cumann na mBan's assistance to the IRA after the 1916 Rising resulted in large-scale imprisonment of republican women during the Civil War. But, for a time at least, Cumann na mBan had placed equality for women on the political agenda and demonstrated women could be as politically active and capable as men.