To keep her identity a secret she wrote articles under the pen name ‘John Brennan’ – a name she claimed sounded like a strong Wexford farmer! Pauline Murphy remembers … SIDNEY GIFFORD
Sidney Gifford was born in Rathmines Dublin August 3rd, 1889. She was the youngest of twelve children born to Isabella and Frederick Gifford.
Sidney’s Catholic father was a successful solicitor while her Protestant mother came from an artistic family.
It was in their mother’s faith the Gifford children were raised and politically the household was a unionist one but Sidney and her sisters Nellie, Muriel and Grace rejected unionism.
Sidney received her education along with her sisters at Alexandra College in Milltown, Dublin, before she then enrolled in the Leinster School of Music.
One day Sidney’s music teacher gave her a copy of the nationalist newspaper The Leader. From then on she began reading other nationalist publications and embarked on a writing career when she submitted articles to various papers. To keep her identity a secret she wrote articles under the pen name ‘John Brennan’ – a name she claimed sounded like a strong Wexford farmer!
Sidney attended A.E Russell’s Sunday afternoon gatherings at his home where she met Padraig Pearse, Eva Gore Booth, Roger Casement, Thomas McDonagh, Padraic Column, Joseph Plunkett and James Stephens to name just a few. Her sister Muriel married Thomas McDonagh while Grace married Joseph Plunkett, famously, in tragic fashion at Kilmainham Gaol the night before his execution in 1916.
In 1908, Sidney joined Maud Gonne’s organisation Inghinidhe na hEireann. She helped to launch its monthly journal Bean na hÉireann and became a regular contributor.
Sidney also involved herself in the suffragette movement and joined the Irish Women’s Franchise League.
In 1914 Sidney went to the United States to further her journalistic career. Armed with a letter of introduction from Thomas Clarke, Sidney arrived at the office of the Gaelic American newspaper. The old Fenian, John Devoy, was the editor of the newspaper but, he refused to hire a lady journalist.
Deeply hurt by the rejection, Sidney went off to find another outlet for her writing and she found it in The New York Sun which gave her a stable income to afford a living in the Big Apple.
While in the US, Sidney continued her involvement in Irish affairs. Along with her sister, Nellie, Sidney addressed a meeting in New York in October, 1914, where an American branch of Cumann na mBan was set up. Sidney served as its secretary.
Continue reading in this week’s Ireland’s Own