#OTD in 1858 – Birth of activist, feminist, politician and businesswoman, Jennie Wyse Power, in Baltinglass, Co Wicklow.

Stair na hÉireann

May 1

Jennie Wyse Power, born Jane O'Toole, in Baltinglass, Co Wicklow in 1858. In the 1880s she joined the Ladies Land League and found herself immersed in their activities during the Land War. She would compile lists of those evicted from their homes and also she organised the Land League in Wicklow and Carlow. In 1883 she married John Wyse Power, a journalist who shared her political beliefs; he was a member of the IRB. They had four children together, a fact that did not interfere with her political work.

She helped set up the Irish Women's Franchise League and was also a founding member of Inghinidhe na hÉireann and Sinn Féin becoming Vice-President of both organisations. She was later on the Provisional Committee that set up Cumann na mBan. She rose in the ranks to become one of the most important women of the revolution. In October 1914, she was elected the first President of Cumann na mBan. She was a successful business woman owning four branches of her Irish Farm Produce Company. The 1916 Proclamation was written in her home at 21 Henry Street, and she always maintained that the Military Council signed the proclamation in no particular order; they just signed as it was passed to each of the signatories, though, with James Connolly being eager to be the first to sign. Even the identity of the head of the Provisional Government was not altogether clear.

During the Rising she supplied food to the Volunteers. After the Rising she and her daughter, Nancy, helped re-organise Cumann na mBan and distribute funds to families suffering hardships, as well as the Prisoners Dependants Fund. These funds had been sent by Clan na Gael in the United States. She was subsequently elected as one of five women members onto Dublin Corporation in 1920 for the Inns Quay – Rotunda District.

Power supported the Treaty and by the end of 1921, she was convinced that in doing so, would mean the need to leave Cumann na mBan to form a separate organisation and helped set up Cumann na Saoirse (The League for Freedom), the pro-Treaty women's organisation and became its Vice-President. She was a Free State Senator from 1922 until 1936 and was also a member of Cumann na nGaedhal. On 5 January 1941, aged 82, she died at her home in Dublin, and was interred in Glasnevin Cemetery with her husband and daughter, Máire (who predeceased her). Her funeral was attended by many from both sides of the Dáil and the former revolutionary movement.