Sexual assault and dying from gunshot wounds or bomb blasts were among the traumatising violence that women in the Irish Civil War experienced, new records have shown.
The serious and traumatising violence women suffered during the conflict is revealed in compensation claim records, as well as the psychological impact on victims.
Some injuries were accidental, due to female civilians being in the wrong place at the wrong time, or because they were present when there were raids on private homes.
Dr Gemma Clark, from the University of Exeter, has analysed newly accessible records of the Irish Free State’s Compensation (Personal Injuries) Committee.
She said: “Revolutionary Ireland was not a safe place for many Irishwomen, however there is little evidence that sexual violence was widespread during the conflict.
“The records suggest violence against women was not used in a systematic way to realise political or military objectives.
“But it’s important to remember that people then, as now, may be reluctant to report sexual assault.
“The highly damaging legacies of the Civil War ought not to be forgotten, and these papers give information about the violence and intimidation suffered by people which otherwise would have gone unrecorded.”
The committee was set up in April 1923, as the war was ending, to consider injuries sustained by civilians.
The committee considered in total 6,616 applications from the public, paying out more than £269,000 (around €16 million, in today’s terms) to the injured and dependants of the dead.
There are 2,107 applications for support in the records, 19% of which were submitted by, or on behalf of, women.
The claims suggest many women were killed because they were at the wrong place at the wrong time.
James Fletcher, from Co Donegal, claimed compensation after his wife Esther was killed accidently while walking down the street while an IRA raid on a bank was in progress.
Serious attacks also took place in the home, where women bore the brunt of violence.
Some had opened the door to violent groups searching for the men of the house.
Bridget Barry from County Cork had to hide under her kitchen table when “machine gun fire and bullets came through [the] back door”.
She had given water to ‘rebels’ who came to her front door, an act seen by National Troops who then opened fire.
Dr Clark’s investigations of possible cases of sexual assault were made difficult by omissions and obscure language in the sources.
Women were more forthcoming in compensation claims, by contrast, about forced hair-shearing than sexual assault or rape.
This was used as a punishment for women who were associated with British or Free State forces – socially, economically or by passing on information.
Anne White, a housekeeper for a Catholic priest in County Cork was assaulted when the house was raided by armed men in April 1923.
Her sister Mary, also a servant, and the priest, “remonstrated” with the raiders, but they were threatened with revolvers – and Mary was “badly dragged about and assaulted”, which, according to the compensation claim, resulted in lasting physical and mental damage rendering her unable to work or care for elderly parents.
