Mountjoy Prison, Gonne McBride, Despard, McArdle, 1921

Mountjoy Prison, Gonne McBride, Despard, McArdle, 1921

Scene outside Mountjoy Prison, guarded by British soldiers, taken during the period of executions, 1921. The women pictured are Maud Gonne McBride, Mrs Charlotte Despard, and Dorothy McArdle.  Maud Gonne McBride was famously a widow of the executions of the 1916 leaders. Despard was a suffragette, socialist and member of Cumann na mBan. Despard’s brother was Field Marshall John French, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland during the period of the War of Independence. McArdle was a writer of novels and plays, and was the author of the book The Irish Republic, about the Irish War of Independence.