Unlikely Rebels (32 page)

The charming portrait of ‘John' and Grace in early childhood had not been a harbinger of a close relationship in later years between the two. The distinctions made by the Plunkett ladies of charming Kate and Muriel, and ‘John' and Grace of ‘sharp' wit did not allow for the fact that Grace was quieter than her younger sister, losing contact with the more prominent women of the movement. ‘John' was socialising with Helena Molony, Máire Perolz and Kathleen Lynn, but Grace's friends, like the Burkes and the Kellys, were not in that category.

In fact, ‘John's' contacts over the years were less with family than with artistic people and old friends from political affiliations. Jimmy O'Dea produced some of her plays, and she was pictured with two celebrity comedians: Noel Purcell, who captured our childhood hearts as the pantomime ‘Dame' (‘Oh no, he didn't; oh yes, he did') and none other than Stan Laurel when he and Oliver Hardy played in the Olympia Theatre, Dublin, in the 1950s. She was a regular visitor to Maud Gonne MacBride's house, where she played the planchette board with Maud and her daughter Iseult. Helena Molony was another ‘old faithful' from the troubled times who remained a friend. ‘John' also remained close to Kathleen Lynn, and she and Finian stayed with Dr Lynn during one of their residential problem periods before they bought the house – in Finian's name – at Chester Road, Ranelagh, the final address for both of them.

Apart from appearing to have inherited her father's sense of humour and aside from whatever influence Bridget might have had, ‘
John' herself recalled that her father, though a unionist, felt chagrined to see Irish Catholic peasants doff their caps to the landlords who had acquired, by conquest, their forebears' land. Like Nellie in County Meath, Frederick's work brought him face to face with all that was socially wrong in Ireland.

A more assertive personality than either Kate, Grace, or Nellie, ‘
John' can be seen to have inherited much of her mother's nature, though she, too, in
The Years Flew By
, conveys, however tentatively, Nellie's more outspoken reservations about Isabella's lack of motherliness. This was somewhat at odds with the recollections of Maeve and Finian, who had good memories of their grandmother on their visits to her home.

It took moral stamina for ‘
John', as it did for Nellie and Grace, to struggle through the years of economic difficulty. Her journalism reads today as pungently as for her then audience, the more extreme republicans. Gradually, apart from her own
News and Views
publication, her work found its way into more politically subdued channels, even finding acceptance in the conservative
Irish Times.

As well as writing about her beliefs, ‘John' also passed on her views in person, both in the 1930s and 1950s, to obviously enraptured audiences of children in the various public libraries around Dublin. It made all the difference to hear Ireland's history from someone who had been so close to its emerging freedom.

She threw herself, wholeheartedly, into any cause she espoused and was involved in commemorative celebrations for both Maud Gonne MacBride and Dr Lynn. It has to be said that most of her causes, as well as being philanthropic, were also anti-British: she argued in an article in
An Phoblacht
that Ireland had shown India the way to freedom, and she marched with Maud Gonne MacBride, both of them carrying banners, with the 1932 Indian–Irish League; during the Second World War she was involved in homing about 400 German children in Ireland, to save them from British bombs.

Her son Finian thought of her not only with affection but also with pride. He had lived with her in poverty as well as in better times, and both he and his Aunt Kate had helped her lack of economic worldliness.

Sidney Gifford-Czira died on 15 September 1974, the last of the Temple Villas Giffords, a determined republican to the very end.
[5]

May they all rest in God's peace, those with their pygmy army and also their mightier opponents from whom they wrestled Ireland's long-sought freedom. Their entrances and exits, all of them – now a part of time.

Notes

Isabella Burton Gifford, the mother of the Giffords.

Helen Ruth (Nellie) Gifford, taken in early 1917.

Ada Gifford.

Catherine Anna (Kate) Gifford, the eldest of the sisters.

Sidney Gifford, who was commonly known by her pen-name ‘John', with her son Finian in 1917.

Grace Gifford in the garden of Larkfield House, where she had been offered refuge by Countess Plunkett.

Joseph Plunkett, one of the leaders of the 1916 rebellion and husband of Grace.

Count and Countess Plunkett (seated in the back of the car), parents of Joseph Plunkett.

Thomas MacDonagh, husband of Muriel, who was executed for his part in the 1916 rebellion.

Muriel and Thomas MacDonagh, with their first-born, Donagh.

Barbara and Donagh MacDonagh, left parentless after 1917.

Grace (left) and Nellie with Nellie's daughter Maeve.

Gabriel Gifford, taken in America. On the back of the photograph he suggests that he looks like Winston Churchill.