Helen Ruth Gifford (1880 – 1971)

Irish Republican, Labor Activist, Member of the Citizen Army,

Easter Rising Participant. Radio Broadcaster, Journalist and Writer.

Early Years

Helen Ruth (Nellie) Gifford was the fifth child and second-eldest daughter born to Frederick Gifford and Isabella Gifford (née Burton) in Phibsborough, Dublin on November 9, 1880.  Her Catholic father was a successful solicitor who practiced law within the confines and constructs of British Imperial Statutes.  Her Protestant mother was a niece of Frederic William Burton, who during his tenure as director of the National Gallery in London, was responsible for acquiring many of its most prized works of art. Despite his very British credentials Frederic Burton was an ardent admirer of the men and women of the Young Ireland movement of the 1840s. 

Politically the Giffords were conservative and Unionist and supported British rule in Ireland. In what could be considered a symbolic act of affirmation of their Britishness they raised their children in the mother’s Protestant faith. That decision was also a clear and defiant rejection of the Catholic Church’s Code of Canon Law that mandates the children of mixed marriages be raised Catholic.

Despite their wealth and privileged lifestyle, the Giffords failed to instill in their six female children Katherine, Helen, Ada, Muriel, Grace and Sidney an appreciation for the system that made their lifestyle possible. On the other hand, their six male children fully embraced the system and, in their adulthood, served it faithfully.

The degree to which the Gifford sisters would later reject British rule in Ireland and embrace Irish Independence was best demonstrated by two of the sisters: Muriel, who married Thomas MacDonagh, and Grace, who married Joseph Mary Plunkett. Both MacDonagh and Plunkett were amongst the executed leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising.   

Nellie and her sisters early education was received at small private schools generally located in Protestant homes and staffed by the owners with little or no teaching qualifications. Their education consisted of rudimentary reading, writing and math skills. After that they were sent to the prestigious Church of Ireland’s Alexandra College. Except for Katherine who went on to receive a BA degree in languages, the others were average students who did not pursue third-level education. What they did possess was an appreciation for the arts. During her time in Alexandra College, Nellie chafed at the snobbery and class distinction displayed by the teachers and students towards the less well-off students.

Nellie's enrollment in Alexandra College ended during her early teenage years when her mother brought her home to Temple Villas to manage the pantry and host family parties.  Her father’s parties were the most interesting as many of his guests, included John B. Yeats and his two sons, John and Willie, were accomplished individuals in the legal, literary and political professions and as such were well informed and consummate conversationalists.  On the other hand her mother’s parties were dour affairs attended by snobbish women who gossiped and bragged about their brave sons who were away serving the Empire in the Boer War, a war later denounced for its notorious concentration camps and brutal killings of defenseless people including women and children. Such atrocities would be classified as war crimes if committed some 40 years later.

The Gifford girls also hosted their own friends at Temple Villas. In turn they visited their friends’ homes. One of the homes visited was that of the poet George Russell (Æ) where, during subsequent visits, they met Constance Markievicz, Maud Gonne, James Stephens and Padraic and Mary Colum.

Face-to-face with the Other Ireland

Circa 1896, Nellie applied for and was accepted to train as a cookery instructress by the Department of Agriculture to teach household management to female students throughout Ireland.  After she completed the prescribed six-week training course she set out equipped with the utensils needed to train her female students how to cook and perform myriad other household chores over two six-week sessions. Although most of her assignments were in Co. Meath others sent her across the country as far as Co. Limerick.  Her classes were conducted in schools, church halls and even in barns.  Her lodgings were as varied as her teaching venues, varying from local boarding establishments to farmers homes and laborers cottages.

It was during that time that Nellie became aware of the abysmal living conditions and lingering plight of tenant farmers and farmworkers despite the hard-won concessions stemming from the Land Wars and subsequent Land Acts of the 1870s, 1880s and early 1900s. Like so many of her Protestant contemporaries including Maud Gonne, Constance Markievicz, Dr. Kathleen Lynn, Ella Young, Alice Milligan and others, Nellie was astounded at the injustices meted out by the elites of the British Empire to its oppressed victims in Ireland as elsewhere in the world.  As a result of such a blatant display of indifference by the British, Nellie became involved in the Ranch War campaign of 1906/9 spearheaded by Laurence Ginnell of the United Irish League to close the loopholes in the Land Purchase Act of 1903 that prevented tenant farmers, mostly in the western regions of Ireland, from purchasing the land they tilled. As a result of that campaign, the final Land Act enacted by the British Parliament for Ireland was passed in 1909 and allowed for the transfer to the Land Commission of farmland by compulsory purchase thus allowing for the division and distribution of small tracts of farmland to local tenant farmers and farmworkers. 

Between assignments Nellie would return home where she would be brought up to date by her sisters on the goings-on in Dublin. At the turn of the 20th century, Dublin's slums and infant mortality rates were worse than those in London, Glasgow or any other big city in what was then the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.  Despite that grim statistic, Ireland was also in the throes of a renaissance broadly referred to as the Gaelic Revival movement that encompassed the arts, literature, language, Gaelic games, women's suffrage, workers’ rights and Irish freedom. Nellie's rebel spirit found expression in the convergence of Ireland's national aspirations embodied within the Gaelic Revival movement.

In 1910, Nellie and her sisters worked with Maud Gonne, Constance Markievicz, Helena Molony, James Connolly, James Larkin, Hanna Sheehy Skeffington and members of the Irish Women's Franchise League setting up school canteens to feed malnourished schoolchildren in the worst slums in Dublin. Through her sister Sidney, an up-and-coming Irish Republican writer, Nellie was introduced to many of the activists spearheading the Gaelic Revival movement. Amongst those were Joseph Mary Plunkett and Thomas MacDonagh, the founders of the Irish Theatre that produced plays by Irish playwrights. Her enthusiasm and willingness to participate in the production process landed her some "bit" parts in several plays.

The Road to Rebellion

After the onset of WWI in July of 1914 the anti-conscription campaign begun during the Boer War became an issue again for young Irishmen in England and Ireland. Although Ireland was exempt from conscription, Irishmen living in England, Scotland and Wales were fair game. To exacerbate the situation pro-British business owners in Dublin put up notices stating that "England needs you we don't" and proceeded to replace conscription-eligible men with older men. In response and on her own volition Nellie set up an Employment Bureau to find work for those terminated and for others returning from England. She used her contacts in Meath and elsewhere as well as labor unions to find jobs for many of them.  As the flow of fired workers increased, she had to move the bureau from her home in Temple Villas to Constance Markievicz’s home and finally to a room in the Irish Volunteers headquarters. One of her clients was Michael Collins. She placed him in a position with Joseph Mary Plunkett to manage Plunkett's business affairs and later, in the lead-up to the Easter Rising, he became Plunkett's aide-de-camp. Over time the cacophony of accents and mispronunciations of 'bureau' Nellie's Employment Bureau became known as Nellie's Employment Burra.

Nellie's dealings with the marginalized people of Co. Meath coupled with her involvement with Laurence Ginnell's Ranch War campaign predisposed her to empathize with the plight of working men and women. To that end she devoted her spare time to the advancement of workers’ rights spearheaded by workers unions including James Larkin's newly founded Irish Transport and General Workers' Union (ITGWU).  On August 31, 1913 during the early days of the  Dublin Lockout Nellie volunteered to participate in a scheme wherein Larkin would address a demonstration of ITGWU members on Sackville St. now O'Connell St. Although the planned demonstration was banned some days earlier by the British administration, Larkin was determined to address the workers as he had promised he would. The scheme devised was for Larkin to be disguised as an elderly and deaf clergyman assisted by Nellie, masquerading as his niece, enter the Imperial Hotel and once inside appear on a balcony and address the assembled workers. The scheme unfolded as planned. Hundreds of Dublin Metropolitan Police and the Royal Irish Constabulary personnel who were on duty to stop Larkin charged the hotel and baton-charged the assembled workers and other innocent passersby. The frenzied attack by the police left three people dead and between 400 and 500 injured. August 31, 1913 became known as the First Bloody Sunday.

Nellie lost her job as a result of her involvement as well as her impeccable record as a daughter of the Anglo-Irish elite.  After that she was known and treated as a rebel by the protectors of the British Empire.

Realizing that the police were acting as agents of the employers Larkin, James Connolly and ex-British Army Captain Jack White formed a workers militia on November 23, 1913 to protect workers' demonstrations. The name given to the militia was the Irish Citizen Army.  Being advocates for women's rights Connolly and Larkin welcomed women into the Army without qualification. Together with Constance Markievicz, Dr Kathleen Lynn, Helena Molony and other women advocates of workers’ rights, Nellie unabashedly donned the uniform of the Irish Citizen Army, a uniform she proudly wore during the Easter Rising at the St. Stephens Green garrison.

On April 23, 1916, the eve of the Easter Rising Joseph M. Plunkett sent a gun to his fiancée, Grace Gifford for her protection. The gun was delivered to Grace in Temple Villas by Michael Collins. On receiving the gun Grace handed it to Nellie who had been ordered to report to Stephens Green on the morning of April 24, for maneuvers. According to Nellie own statement given to the Bureau of Military History, Michael Mallin told her that April 24 was the date set for the Rising. As part of the ensuing preparation Mallin asked her to familiarize Margaret Skinnider with the layout of Stephens Green, the garrison area that would be under his and Constance Markievicz's command during the Rising. On Tuesday, after Stephen's Green became untenable, the Volunteers retreated across the street to the College of Surgeons. Nellie was tasked with providing food and medicine and with running dispatches between garrisons. Food was commandeered from passing delivery vans and from nearby shops. A receipt was always tendered to be paid later.  On a mission to the Jacobs Biscuit Factory garrison to obtain ammunition, Nellie and another Volunteer, Chris Caffrey, were accosted by the heckling "allowance women" who were paid a shilling a day by the British if their men were on the front. They did not want any noble-minded patriots robbing them of their shilling, their drink money. Nellie and Chris made it through the hecklers to Jacob's got the ammunition and returned to the College of Surgeons after bribing the awaiting hecklers with a tin of Jacobs biscuits.

After the Royal College of Surgeons garrison surrendered on Sunday April 30, the women Volunteers were first sent to Ship Street Station and shortly thereafter to Richmond Barracks and finally to Kilmainham Jail where they were lodged four to a cell. During the early hours of May 4, Nellie heard the shots that ended the life of Joseph Mary Plunkett. She was not aware that the shots she heard were aimed at Joseph or that he married her sister, Grace, some hours earlier in the prisons chapel.  On May 8, 1916 most of the women prisoners were released except for Nellie and eleven other women prisoners who were transferred to Mountjoy Prison before been released on June 4, 1916.

Nellie's release was contingent on her voluntarily leaving Ireland and taking up residence in one of three remote locations in England. Instead of relocating as directed she headed for Liverpool where she stayed in the 'safe' home of Peter Murphy, an Irish Republican partisan, while arranging passage to America. Liam Mellows, who had evaded capture after the Rising was also staying there. Murphy who was in the shipping business had arranged for Mellows to be hired as a stoker on a ship bound for America. To hide his identity Nellie dyed Mellow's hair and eyebrows blond. Mellows made it to America without incident. In order to affect her escape Nellie assumed the identity of a consenting young woman to obtain a passport and the sponsorship of an uncle in America. With the passport and sponsorship letter in hand Nellie set sail for America. Her 'uncle' met her on arrival with hugs and kisses. Once out of earshot of customs officials Nellie told him of the ruse.  According to Nellie's own account he took it well,  had a good laugh and was happy to be associated with a veteran of the Easter Rising in the flesh.   

Exile in America

On her arrival in the United States in late October of 1916 Nellie was greeted by her sisters Ada and, Sidney and brother Gabriel, her childhood playmates. Both Ada and Sidney were very much involved in the Irish Freedom struggle since their earlier arrival in the United States.  Shortly after her arrival Nellie undertook a tour of the United States with other Republican women including Nora Connolly and Margaret Skinnider to collect funds for the dependents of the dead and imprisoned Volunteers and to inform the American public of the events surrounding the Rising. On the second anniversary of the 1916 Proclamation Nellie was a member of a delegation from the Irish Progressive League (IPL) who visited Mount Vernon where they laid a wreath on the tomb of George Washington. The card attached to the wreath read "To George Washington, father of the American Republic, half of whose army were Irish, and whose ideals and principles were the inspiration for the men of Easter Week".   The following day, the IPL delegation, which included Dr. Gertrude B. Kelly and Hanna Sheehy Skeffington, attended a mass meeting in Washington DC to commemorate the Proclamation.

In 1918 Nellie Gifford married Joseph Donnelly a young Irish American publisher and printing business owner. They were both friend and admirers of James Connelly and shared a passion for the establishment and recognition of the Irish Republic. Their daughter, Maeve, was born in 1920. 

Back in Ireland

In 1921, shortly after the birth of their daughter Nellie separated from her husband and returned to Ireland. With a child to care for she did not get involved with the Anglo-Irish Treaty or the ensuing Treaty-causative Civil War. She did not support the Treaty, believing that the terms were unacceptable as verbalized by Dr. Gertrude B. Kelly at a meeting chaired by Diarmuid Lynch in New York in December 1920. These were Kelly's words in describing the Treaty “The thing itself is absolutely unthinkable.  We have always been slaves, but unwilling slaves. Now we are subscribing to our slavery. I cannot believe that the Irish people will do this. The whole thing is a fake from start to finish.  Summed up I would say that after 750 years we have given England moral standing in the world when she has none: it’s a tremendous defeat.”

In order to eke out a living in a post-revolutionary Ireland, a hostile place ruled by misogynistic and vindictive men, Nellie found work as a broadcaster for the national radio 2RN and as a journalist for the Irish press. She also wrote plays and stories that were broadcast on 2RN. She managed to survive and hold on to her job by not criticizing the government or anyone in a position of power. She learned that lesson after her sister Sidney was fired as a broadcaster when she questioned a senator’s prejudicial comments regarding the trial of the Volunteers who assassinated Kevin O'Higgins, a minister in the Free State Government in 1927.

A longtime prolific gatherer of artifacts, documents and accounts of political activism in Ireland, in 1932 Nellie set about collecting memorabilia and mementos pertaining to the 1916 Easter Rising and the War of Independence. To help in the overall effort a committee was setup to help collect, authenticate, catalog and help in its presentation.  The collection name, "Pathway to Freedom" was displayed in the National Museum. Neither the government nor the museum authorities supported the effort other than to provide space to display the collection. Over time the collection grew to include an impressive array of artifacts that is now on display in the Collins Barracks in Dublin. No mention is made of Nellie's enormous contribution to its founding or to the artifacts that she collected.  That deliberate omission is a prime example of how women's contribution to Ireland's "Pathway to Freedom" in all its aspects is airbrushed out of history.     

Over the years Nellie was secretary of the National Association of the Old IRA, a commemorative organization made up of members of the Old IRA. She was also a member of the Old Dublin Society founded in 1934 to promote the study of the history of Dublin  and in the 1950s was a founding member of the Kilmainham Gaol Restoration Society.

Helen Ruth "Nellie" Gifford Donnelly died on June 23, 1971 at the Gascoigne nursing home in Rathmines, Dublin. She is buried in Balgriffin Cemetery in Dublin.

Contributed by Tomás Ó Coısdealbha

 CEMETARY

NAME:    Balgriffin Cemetery , Section B, Grave 4

ADDRESS:   Balgriffin, Fingal,  Dublin , Ireland

CEMETERY ENTRANCE