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“It Was Sowed In A Fur”

Eily O’Hanrahan O’Reilly was the younger sister of Micheal O’Hanrahan. Eily was one of many Cumann na mBan members chosen to deliver dispatches around the country the week before the Rising. Eily was asked to go to Enniscorthy, County Wexford, but was not given clear details as to who she was to see.

Asking her older brother, Micheal, he told her to go to the offices of the ‘Enniscorthy Echo’ paper and find Seamus Doyle, Adjutant of the Enniscorthy Battalion, Irish Volunteers.

Eily set out early on the morning of Holy Thursday, 20 April with her dispatch sown into a fur.  On reaching Enniscorthy she found the office of the ‘Echo’ but Seamus Doyle was not there. Refusing to hand over the dispatch to anyone other than Doyle she was finally taken to him.

Eily O’Hanrahan O’Reilly was a member of the Central Branch, Cumann na mBan.


Eily O'Hanrahan O'Reilly was interviewed for the programme 'Women of the Revolution' broadcast on RTÉ Radio, 12 April 1971. Photograph of Enniscorthy town courtesy of RTÉ Archives.

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