ELIZABETH O’FARRELL. IRISH REVOLUTIONARY. 1916.
The story of the role of the women of 1916 is now being told, finally. There are so many I would never have time to paint them all.
I think of Countess Markievicz and Kathleen Lynn, who I have painted already and would love to add Margerat Skinnider, Helena Moloney, Kathleen Clarke, Grace Gifford and many more.
Disclaimer: I speak only for myself and these are my views, not the views of the Moore Street Preservation trust.
1916 Moore Street Preservation Trust
Markievicz and Lynn are joined now by this new series of 1916 portraits with this new artwork of Elizabeth O’Farrell, created specially for the Moore Street Preservation Trust, through the good offices of Gerry Adams and Micheál MacDonncha of Sinn Fein.
I do not ask for royalties here, all monies go to the trust.
It will be sold by them as a limited edition, signed and numbered high quality print to raise money to fight the colonialist British developer Hammersons who are trying, with the active help of Dublin City Council, to destroy the heart of Moore Street having been previously defeated in their crude attempts to actually level all of the historic buildings in Moore Street and gentrify it for profit.
Who Was Elizabeth O'Farrell?
This truly amazing story of Elizabeth O’Farrell, a midwife and nurse, who joined Pearse and Connolly in the GPO during the 1916 Rising against colonialist British should be remembered always, a she was one interesting woman.
Her lifelong friend, Julia Grenan, from her Irish Citizen Army and Cumann na mBan days, who was with her when she died in 1967, was also in the GPO with her in 1916.
When they were legging it from the burning GPO to go over to their new HQ on Moore street, Pearse turned to her and said: ‘Your women fighters were the bravest of us all’.
Unlike DeValera, a misogynist sadly, who refused to allow any of the Citizen Army or Cumann women into the fight at Boland’s Mills, Pearse and Connolly had many of these great young women with them and the IRA rebels in the GPO, the most dangerous rebel outpost of the Easter Rising.
It is believed that O’Farrell, a trained qualified nurse, tended to the wounded James Connolly in the GPO but she could shoot too, they were all trained in sharpshooting.
Pearse had not wanted any women hurt so he refused to allow them fight at first, just tend the wounded and make ham sandwiches, but he relented when the going got crazy.
Ireland's Shame
Later, like all the brave women fighters of the Irish Citizen Army and Cumann na mBan, these heroic women, ‘the bravest of them all’, were denied their proper 1916 pension unlike the men they fought beside.
I have no idea whose sick notion this was but it was adhered to by the successive governments of both DeValera and Cosgrave, two men more loyal to the powerful Irish Catholic church than the new born Irish Free State, which feared the role of radical women in an newly independent Ireland so I would guess this was their idea.
That Famous And Infamous Photograph
Elizabeth O’Farrell is remembered mostly for her role in the surrender of Pearse to General Lowe and the subsequent removal of her presence in that iconic photograph of Padraig Pearse, the rebel commander and General Lowe. Her feet remained giving Pearse four legs and and a strange posture.
This airbrushed photo came to symbolise ALL the heroic women of 1916, airbrushed out of Irish history by the Irish state, after they had fought so hard for so long for Irish freedom.
Restoring History vs Erasing History
Luckily today, thanks to writers, artists, and filmmakers, the long neglect in recognizing our female fighters and rebels is slowly being rectified.
Things have improved, but the dysfunctional Irish political elite are still determined to erase all traces of the rebellion—from Clanbrassil House to Mount Street Bridge.
The vested interests—developers and the government—have ensured the destruction of key IRA positions on that bloody battlefield, where volunteers made a heroic stand against the advancing British army and inflicted heavy losses.
And then there’s Moore Street, left to decay, abandoned deliberately so they can rid themselves of reminders of the heroes who fought for Ireland.
All the remaining sites and battlefields from 1916 are in real peril, as we see from this latest attempt to destroy Moore Street and the street markets so beloved by all true Dubliners.
Women of the Roll of Honour
Check out this list of women who took part in 1916. There are a lot! Click here!
The Creation of the Artwork 2025
As usual I tried to link my own image to the best and most recognisable image of O’Farrell, in this case a very muddy old press photograph. I loaded this old photo into Photoshop and tried to just add a little more detail. (See below)
It really did help me define her a little more accurately. Elizabeth O’Farrell was also a very young woman at the time and I wanted to reflect that also without glamourising her image.
As usual my first step was to execute a proper line drawing, in old-fashioned pen and ink, then painted in acrylics with some details added in colour inks to bring it to completion.
I wanted her to look as if she had seen some shit and of course she had from a wounded James Connolly to the many other causalities that littered the bloodstained floors of the GPO.
In the end I think I got this one right and I’m damn proud of it too.
When this new print for the Trust is ready to go I will post links on all my pages so keep an eye out and also follow the Facebook page of the Moore Street Preservation Trust.
Fight back. Remember all our martyrs for Irish freedom.
Honour our fallen heroes, the men who gave their lives so that we would be free from genocidal British colonial rule, but honour these amazing women, all way ahead of their time, they deserve it too.
-Jim FitzPatrick. 2025