27 Facts About Kathleen Clarke

Kathleen Clarke was a founder member of Cumann na mBan, a women's paramilitary organisation formed in Ireland in 1914, and one of very few privy to the plans of the Easter Rising in 1916.

Kathleen Clarke was the wife of Tom Clarke and sister of Ned Daly, both of whom were executed for their part in the Rising.

Kathleen Clarke's uncle was released in 1896 and returned home to Limerick.

When Tom Kathleen Clarke, who had been imprisoned with her uncle, was released in 1898 he travelled to Limerick to receive the Freedom of the city and stayed with the Daly family.

Kathleen Clarke joined the Gaelic League while in the US and they returned to Ireland in November 1907.

Kathleen Clarke's husband forbade her to take an active part in the 1916 Easter Rising as she had orders regardless of how the events would unfold.

Kathleen Clarke visited both of them before they were executed.

Kathleen Clarke was pregnant at the time but subsequently lost the baby.

Kathleen Clarke set up the Irish National Aid Fund to aid those who had family members killed or imprisoned as a result of the Easter Rising closely aided by Sorcha MacMahon.

Kathleen Clarke became a member of Sinn Fein and in 1917 was elected a member of the party's Executive.

Kathleen Clarke was elected unopposed as a Sinn Fein Teachta Dala to the Second Dail at the 1921 elections for the Dublin Mid constituency.

Kathleen Clarke argued against the Anglo-Irish Treaty in the Dail debates in December 1921 and January 1922.

Kathleen Clarke was not re-elected at the 1922 general election, however and supported the Anti-Treaty IRA during the Irish Civil War.

Kathleen Clarke was arrested briefly by the Garda Siochana during this time and her shop in D'Olier Street, Dublin was frequently raided.

Kathleen Clarke later applied to the Irish government for a service pension under the Military Service Pensions Act, 1934 and was awarded 7.

Kathleen Clarke was re-elected to the short-lived 5th Dail at the June 1927 election as a Fianna Fail member for the Dublin Mid constituency but lost her seat at the September 1927 election and did not regain it.

Kathleen Clarke was elected as one of six Fianna Fail Senators to the Free State Seanad for nine years at the 1928 Seanad election under the leadership of Joseph Connolly.

Kathleen Clarke would remain a member of the Seanad until it was abolished in 1936.

Kathleen Clarke served as the first Fianna Fail Lord Mayor of Dublin, and the first female Lord Mayor, from 1939 to 1941.

Kathleen Clarke opposed the Constitution of Ireland as she felt that several of its sections would place women in a lower position that they had been afforded in the Proclamation of the Irish Republic.

Kathleen Clarke was criticised by many in Fianna Fail as a result and, while she resigned from the Thomas Clarke Cumann she remained a member of the Fianna Fail Ard Chomhairle.

Kathleen Clarke had previously opposed the Conditions of Employment Bill in the Seanad in 1935.

Kathleen Clarke opposed the perceived centralisation of local government and the increased power of County and City Managers which had been introduced by Sean MacEntee.

Kathleen Clarke declined to stand as a Fianna Fail candidate at the 1943 general election.

Kathleen Clarke contested the 1948 general election on behalf of Clann na Poblachta in Dublin North-East but was not elected, receiving only 1,419 votes.

Kathleen Clarke wanted a central role in the celebrations and said that her husband, not Patrick Pearse, had been president of the Republic in 1916.

Kathleen Clarke preferred to be known as Caitlin Bean Ui Chleirigh and had this inscription on her headstone.