Cesca Chenevix Trench

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Cesca Chenevix Trench (1881-1918) was an Anglo-Irish woman who became an Irish Nationalist illustrator. Later in life she adopted the Irish identity and took an Irish name Sadhbh Trinseach.

Cesca Chenevix Trench was born into an Anglo-Irish Protestant family. She grew up in a vicarage in Kent and even if her mother was an Unionist, she became an Irish nationalist. Trench's uncle Henry Butcher was an Unionist MP for Cambridge and they drew apart after 1910 when he did not support compulsory Irish language in the new National University. Her brother Reginald was also an officer in the Sherwood Foresters.

When Trench studied in Malvern boarding school in 1906-1908, she began to support Irish Home Rule in public. In 1908-1913 she lived in Folkestone but spent each summer in Ireland and went to a summer school there in 1911-1913. There she also met Diarmid Coffey, her future husband.

Trench's cousin Dermot - who committed suicide in 1909 - and her sister Margot were also Irish nationalists. She opened on account at Gleason in Dublin that sold only Irish products and swore off drink and tobacco unless they were manufactured in Ireland. When the new campaign for the Home Rule begun in 1912, Cesca and Margot collected signatures for a petition that all the Irish taxes should be lodged in an Irish treasury. They collected Irish folklore, customs and traditions.

In October 1913 Trench moved to Paris to study art. There she began to draw political cartoons in support of the Home Rule. She also made Celtic costume and poster designs for the Gaelic League paper An Claidheamh Soluis. At the same time she painted Irish scenes. She returned to Dublin in June 1914.

Trench begun to support Irish Literary Revival, helped with smuggling of guns to Irish Volunteers and joined their women's auxiliary branch Cumann na mBan, where she learned first aid. In July 1914 she also witnessed the Bachelor's Walk Massacre, where soldiers of the King's Own Scottish Borderers fired at civilians. Later she travelled to Lusk to found a new branch of Cumann na mBan. In July 1914 she begun to work at the Dublin School of Art (until April 1916) but still attended meetings.

When the Easter Rising begun in April 25 1916, she left home to join the other auxiliaries in the St Stephen's Green. She delivered her first aid supplies to the General Post Office and spent 45 minutes there trying to find Eoin MacNeill with the aid of Diarmuid Coffey but spoke only briefly with his wife. She and Coffey withdrew to Killiney Hill and she later returned home. In her diary, she regarded the Easter Rising a tragic mistake. She and her mother feared that she would be arrested for her involvement, but nothing happened, even if the Nationalist circles knew about it.

After the Rising, Trench continued to attend the Cumann na mBan meetings. She also continued to study Celtic art in the National Museum. She organized a play about Brian Boru and painted murals at the Carrigaholt Irish College. She made sketches about meetings of Sinn Fein and Gaelic League and created Christmas cards. She also befriended Lily Yates of the Dun Elmer guild.

In March 1917 Trench agreed to marry Diarmid Coffey. Yates helped her with her wedding gown. Coffey and Trench were married in April 1918 - couple of days later after she had heard that her brother had died on the Western Front.

Cesca Chenevix Trench died of Spanish flu in October 30 1918.