page_title: Louise Gavan Duffy
section_title: Politics
hierarchical_section_title: Louise Gavan Duffy / Biography / Politics
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Dublin im April 1916 - Osteraufstand - Ruinen der Hauptpost mit britischen Soldaten English: Dublin, April 1916 - Easter Rising- Ruins of the General post office with British soldiers
context_page_description: Louise Gavan Duffy was a suffragist and Irish nationalist who was present in the General Post Office, the main headquarters during the 1916 Easter Rising. She was also an educator, Irish language enthusiast and Gaelic revivalist, setting up the first Gaelscoil in Ireland.
  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 home where she was exposed to political figures and ideas. As she became increasingly interested in Irish, she moved to Ireland to learn and teach the language, eventually establishing the first Irish language school in 1917. She was one of the first women to graduate from University College Dublin, earning a Bachelor of Arts in 1911.
  Her interest in women's suffrage and Irish nationalism led to close connections with those movements and with similarly minded women. She became a founding member of two of the country's paramilitary republican organisations for women, Cumann na mBan and Cumann na Saoirse.
context_section_description: A supporter of women's suffrage, Duffy 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 with Mary Colum, as a co-secretary.
  She was aware that being a suffragist and a nationalist were not necessarily the same thing, realizing her involvement in Cumann na mBan was in support of nationalism.
  When St Ita's closed for funding problems in 1912, Duffy took the opportunity to complete her qualifications. After receiving her Cambridge teacher's diploma in 1913, she returned to UCD to study for a Master of Arts degree.
  
  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.
  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 other volunteers like Desmond FitzGerald and a couple of captured British soldiers, ensuring the volunteers were cared for. 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.
  Her group made it to Jervis Street Hospital where they spent the night. The next day, Saturday, Pearse formally surrendered. Duffy headed for Jacob's Biscuit Factory, another volunteer position, on the morning after the surrender, to see what was happening. There she found a hold out of volunteers who were unaware of the surrender or that the fighting was over.
  After 1916 she was elected to the Cumann na mBan’s executive and in 1918 was one of the signatories to a petition for self-determination for Ireland which was presented to President Woodrow Wilson by Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington. 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, while 3,430 men and 79 women were arrested. Families needed support. These organisations were able to arrange funding from the USA.
caption: The interior of the GPO after the Rising
exif: {}