25 Facts About Kathleen Browne

Kathleen Anne Browne was an Irish politician, farmer, writer, historian and archaeologist.

Kathleen Browne was arrested after the Easter Rising and held in Kilmainham Gaol.

Kathleen Browne was a member of Seanad Eireann from 1929 to 1936.

Kathleen Browne was a fluent speaker of Yola, an Anglic language of Wexford.

Michael Kathleen Browne was a poor law guardian and a member of Wexford's first County Council.

Kathleen Browne supported Home Rule and had worked with Charles Stewart Parnell.

Kathleen Browne was a romantic nationalist and loved to dress in Celtic clothing and pose with an Irish wolfhound.

Kathleen Browne lectured with the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction.

Kathleen Browne was one of the first farmers in Ireland to grow sugar beet and was on the executive of the Beet Growers Association, as well as the Loch Garman Cooperative Society, the Wexford Agricultural Society and the Irish Farmers' Union.

Kathleen Browne took over the management of the family farm when her father died in 1912.

Kathleen Browne joined Sinn Fein in 1912 and the Irish Volunteers in 1914 and flew a tricolour from her family home, Rathronan Castle, during the Easter Rising.

Kathleen Browne was arrested and imprisoned in Kilmainham and Mountjoy prisons, along with her friend Nell Ryan.

Kathleen Browne took the Pro-Treaty side during the Civil War, joining Cumann na nGaedheal.

Kathleen Browne was elected to Seanad Eireann of the Irish Free State as a Cumann na nGaedheal member, at a by-election on 20 June 1929.

Kathleen Browne was re-elected for three years in 1931 and was re-elected for nine years in 1934.

Kathleen Browne joined the Army Comrades Association, known as the Blueshirts, in 1933.

Kathleen Browne claimed not be a fascist, but had joined ranks with the ACA because she shared their Anti-Communist and Republican viewpoints.

Kathleen Browne served as a senator until 29 May 1936 when the Free State Seanad was abolished.

Kathleen Browne was a member of the Wexford Library committee, the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, the Society for the Preservation of the Memorials of the Dead, and the Ui Cinnsealaigh Historical Society.

Kathleen Browne wrote widely on the history and antiquities of County Wexford, with a particular interest in the Norman period and the castles of County Wexford.

Kathleen Browne was a naturalist and was instrumental in having the Great Saltee Island conserved as a bird sanctuary in 1938.

Kathleen Browne was a fluent speaker of Yola, an extinct English dialect once commonly spoken in parts of Wexford.

Kathleen Browne wrote a number of articles about it, including The Ancient Dialect of the Baronies of Forth and Bargy in 1927.

Kathleen Browne died in a nursing home on 9 October 1943, eight days after her 65th birthday.

The Kathleen Browne Festival is held every year to honour Browne in her hometown of Bridgetown.