Page 15 - Greystones Archaeological Historical Society

GREYSTONES ARCHAEOLOGICAL & HISTORICAL SOCIETY JOURNAL VOLUME 8

Women in World War I

Some Personal Perspectives from Bray Co.
Wicklow

Anne Ferris TD

The following paper was presented by Anne Ferris TD at the La
th
Touche Legacy Festival of History event on the 26 September 2014
which had World War I as its main theme. The paper is dedicated to
Mary Brien, Biddy Whelan and Bridget Sherry of Bray and the
thousands of other Wicklow women whose lives were changed forever
by World War I.

Introduction
O
n the 18th of August 1917 the Irish Times reported that a 45
year old woman, Margaret Farrell, appeared before a
Scottish court and was fined the princely sum of one pound and
one shilling for presenting herself at Glasgow Recruiting Office
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in male attire and asking to be enrolled in the Irish Guards.
The message was loud and clear. War is a men-only affair.

Of course in practice that was far from the truth. The Irish and
British men who went to the front left behind mothers and
girlfriends, daughters and sisters. Women ran hospitals and
charities for the fighting and injured. As the war progressed
women populated factories and munitions works, mostly
receiving lower pay than the men they replaced.

When 18 year old Ellen Capon appeared before the London
courts in 1918, again discovered in a recruiting office committing

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