Life
?1900-?; m. Irish Volunteer Cathal MacDowell, 1922; s. Sarah Fraser; s.
of Ernest Cavanagh, to whom she dedicated a book (‘murdered by the
English military on the steps of Liberty Hall’), cartoonist for The
Irish Worker; proclaimed ‘the poetess of the revolution’
by James Connolly, acc. R. M. Fox; mbr. first committee of Gaelic League;
contrib. W. P. Ryan’s The Irish Peasant; her poem ‘Ireland
to Germany’ quoted in Commons as evidence of conspiracy; carried
Rising message to Waterford in 1916; an edition of A Voice of Insurgency
(Dublin 1916), was published on Christmas Eve, 1916, and sold out within
28 days; responsible for recovering of Catherine Parnell’s lost MS,
‘The Tale of a Great Sham’; 36 poems in Catholic Bulletin,
1923-38.
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Works
Sheaves of Revolt (Dublin: City Printing 1914); A Voice of Insurgency
(Dublin: [priv.] 1916); A Ballad for Rebels (Dublin: [priv.] [1916]); Passion Flowers (Dublin: [priv.] 1917) [ded. to ‘Jack’,
her br. John, who was lost at sea]; Soul and Clay (Dublin: WH West
[1917]), with port. and foreword by F. R. Higgins; also Ireland to
Germany (Dublin: Shan-van-Vocht [n.d.]); Thomas Ashe [priv.
printed] (Dublin n.d.); A Flame from the Whins [n.d].
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