Women of 'Ninety-Eight

In 1798, Ireland rose in rebellion against British rule. The history books remember the men who led it. This book remembers the women who made it possible. Written in 1919 by a scholar who gathered testimonies from survivors and descendants, Women of 'Ninety-Eight resurrects the forgotten voices of mothers, wives, sisters, and lovers who fed rebel armies, carried secret messages through British lines, and watched their men march to execution. Anne Devlin, who was brutalized while refusing to betray her comrades, stands among them, alongside countless unnamed women who faced torture, imprisonment, and poverty for the cause. Concannon Thomas does not idealize her subjects. She records their suffering with unflinching clarity, their courage with quiet pride. The result is not a celebration but a reckoning: a testament to women who gave everything and received nothing but memory. More than a century after its publication, this remains an essential corrective to histories that render half the population invisible.