Joan of Arc of Irish Revolution has memoir published - almost 40 years after her death

ON DANGEROUS Ground: A Memoir of the Irish Revolution by Máire Comerford has just been published by Lilliput Press almost 40 years after her death.

Described as the last comprehensive witness account of the revolutionary period, it is an absorbing read. In 1923, a Daily Mail report called her the Jeanne d’Arc of the Republican cause, the most daring woman working for the Republican movement.

Máire Comerford’s name might not resonate with the general public today, but she had a front row seat to the main historical events of the revolutionary era from 1916 to 1922. Her memoir details her experiences of the foundation of the Irish State and her interactions with many of the major political figures of the day.

In the years following the Civil War, Máire became a champion for the many women who, like herself, found themselves excluded from the historical narrative; the women whose contribution to the fight for Irish freedom became less than a footnote when it came to recording their participation in the history of the Irish War of Independence and the bloody Civil War that followed.

Read the full feature in this week's edition of The Tuam Herald