Eithne Coyle

Eithne Coyle (1897–1985;^[1] Irish: Eithne Ni Cumhaill) was an Irish republican activist. She was a leading figure within Cumann na mBan and a member of the Gaelic League.^[2] She would also become notorious for her involvement in two high-profile prison escapes in the 1920s.

Early years

Coyle was born in Killult, a village near Falcarragh, County Donegal, to Charles Coyle and May McHugh (the youngest of their seven children).^[1] Her brother Donal Coyle served as Commandant in the 1st Northern Division of the Irish Volunteers.^[3] She joined Cumann na mBan in 1917 and became active in fundraising and anti-conscription campaigns.^[4]

Growth in the movement

As head of the County Donegal branch of Cumann na mBan Coyle played a leading role in mobilising her members to canvass on behalf of Sinn Féin for the 1918 general election.^[5] Between 1918 and 1919 she lived for a time in Dungannon as a Gaelic League organiser before moving to County Longford to set up Cumann na mBan branches.^[4] She subsequently became Gaelic League organiser in County Roscommon.^[4]

During the Irish War of Independence whilst Coyle was based in the Longford-Roscommon area she became a close comrade of the local Irish Republican Army, providing them with sketches of a local police station that she knew.^[2] Regularly harassed by Black and Tans in Roscommon, with her house twice wrecked by members of the organisation, she was arrested on New Years Day 1921 and subsequently sentenced to three years penal servitude for aiding IRA members.^[6] In keeping with Cumann na mBan policy, she refused to recognise the court during her trial and even sat reading a newspaper as a sign of contempt.^[7]

Held at Mountjoy Prison Coyle and fellow inmate Linda Kearns hatched a plan to escape from the prison. On 31 October 1921 Coyle and Kearns, along with two other inmates Mary Burke and Aileen Keogh, with help from sympathetic warders, scaled the wall of the prison and escaped in cars driven by republicans who had been instructed to wait outside.^[8]

Anti-treaty

Following the Anglo-Irish Treaty Coyle supported the anti-treaty faction. Following the signing of the treaty she toured County Donegal, County Londonderry and County Tyrone and found that many of the local branches had lost much of their membership and was forced to reorganise the movement in Ulster as a more streamlined model.^[9]

Coyle also sought to enforce the IRA boycott on Belfast goods that had passed but which had met with little enthusiasm and the Belfast Telegraph even reported that on the Londonderry and Lough Swilly Railway an armed Coyle held up the train from which she removed all copies of Belfast newspapers before publicly burning them.^[10] Coyle's activity, which was not sanctioned by Cumann na mBan's leadership, became a regular occurrence on that train line.^[11]

During early 1922 Coyle's activities saw her frequently arrested by pro-treaty forces although on each occasion she was released without charge.^[12] However in September 1922 the Provisional Government decided to crack down on the activities of Cumann na mBan renegades and Coyle was the first member to be arrested as part of this move. Initially held at Ballyshannon she created another first there by becoming the Cumann na mBan member to go on hunger strike, refusing food for seven days as there was no female prison guard. After being briefly detained at Buncrana Coyle was eventually taken to Mountjoy Prison, some eight weeks after her initial arrest.^[12]

By the time Coyle arrived at Mountjoy there were already several Cumann na mBan members in the prison and overcrowding became a problem. Coyle led protests against these conditions, with the women throwing their beds out of the cells and sleeping on the floor. This lasted for six weeks before another hunger strike was begun.^[13] Later moved to the North Dublin Union internment camp Coyle was one of twenty female prisoners to escape on 7 May 1923. She was recaptured the following day however.^[14]

Later years

Coyle was elected as President of Cumann na mBan in 1926, a post she held until her resignation in 1941.^[3] She married Bernard O'Donnell, a Donegal IRA man, in 1935.^[3]

Coyle, who held socialist opinions, was a founder member of the Republican Congress in 1934 although on 18 July that same year she and fellow Cumann na mBan activist Sheila Humphreys resigned after it became clear that a feud between the IRA factions would follow this move, something both women hoped to avoid.^[15]

References