LEGACY
How Anne Devlin fanned the living flame.... Jean Browne, an administrator for Mandate, writes about how a visit to Kilmainham Gaol one freezing winter’s day sparked a fascination with Anne Devlin, heroine of Robert Emmet’s ill-fated 1803 rebellion ONE winter’s day I was introduced to the story of Anne Devlin. You can read about her online but in kilmainham Gaol you can feel her story and that’s a huge difference. What I will do, is explain the person I was who walked into the gaol that day, the impact Anne’s story had on me and the admiration I have for the man who told her story so beautifully. Since leaving school in the 1980s my life has flown by. I have since learned that Madonna was far from being Like a Virgin and robert Palmer wasn’t really Addicted to Love. I remember my Last Christmas listening to George Michael before he came out of the closet destroying a five year crush. In my early twenties I became a mammy to a little girl, Hannah. It wasn’t until she entered secondary school that something started to wake up inside me. We were approaching our first parent/teachers meeting and I wanted to appear to be positively contributing to her education. Hannah had inherited my apathy in the classroom and doing homework with her was as appealing to me as chewing rusty nails. So I took her to kilmainham with the good intention of telling her history teacher, I was a pro-education parent. One cold grey Sunday Hannah and I took off to kilmainham. Our tour guide was Micheal O Doibhilin. He walked us through the gaol giving us an impressive insight into its political and social history. His delivery was spellbinding. It’s an eerie, atmospheric building and there was so much information to process in one visit. However, that day Michael spoke with feeling about 30
Anne Devlin and his words created a beautiful monument to her. In brief, Anne posed as a housekeeper to the rebel leader robert Emmet. Emmet, for those of you who were snoozing their way through the Leaving Cert (as I was), led a rebellion in 1803 against British rule in Ireland. Her role as housekeeper was to give the appearance of a normal household but she was much more than a housekeeper. She carried crucial secret messages to and from the house. She took part in discussions with Emmet and his supporters on their aspirations for an Ireland of self-rule, equality, and the eradication of poverty. However, Emmet’s rebellion failed and he was arrested. Anne was subsequently arrested and imprisoned in a cold, filthy cell in kilmainham Gaol. She had enough information to lead to the arrest of an-
other 50 men who had supported Emmet yet she choose to stay silent. Emmet told Anne, “Save yourself, I’m a dead man”, but to no avail. She was physically and mentally tortured, kept in horrifically harsh conditions and witnessed her family’s arrest, none of which broke her silence. When torture failed, she was offered and refused a bribe that would have been the equivalent to 40 years wages at the time. I was certain at this stage her courage and strength could only have been due to her being romantically and hopelessly in love with Emmet – but that wasn’t the case. Emmet was romantically involved with Ann Curran and Anne selflessly passed letters between the two lovers with no regard to her own personal safety. Anne survived imprisonment and kept her silence. She went on to marry, have children, before dying in poverty, alone.
Statue of 1803 Rebellion heroine Ann Devlin
But it wasn’t how she died that inspired me, it was how she lived. She was a mother, a daughter, a wife; she was an ordinary woman with an extraordinary character. Her story revealed to me what integrity, clearly defined principles and loyalty actually meant. She went outside herself and found meaning and purpose in cause greater than personal gain or self-gratification. She didn’t die dramatically in front of a firing squad and – unlike Emmet – she didn’t leave behind a charismatic speech but she left a loud message in her loyal silence. As I left kilmainham that day, I knew I had got temporary release from the prison of my own ignorance. Hannah and I took the little book Michael had written homw. The Disney books went under the bed and we read Anne’s story together, both deeply moved. I took more than that book home with me that day. A friend once told me that the role of education is to leave us with more questions than answers. I left kilmainham with many questions and a real sense of excitement. I questioned what the word integrity meant to me? What were my principles? What were the values that underpinned them? What do I stand for with conviction? Would I be willing to snub personal gain in place of what’s right and for a greater good? Am I capable of being half the women Anne Devlin was? My biggest contribution to a cause was sharing a page on Facebook. I only moved my finger over a keypad. robert Emmet got his whole head removed for a cause and Anne Devlin was willing do the same. I was blown away by their bravery and passion. The impact on me has been huge. I
feel like a tourist in my own city now. I now look up while I’m walking the streets at the buildings that could tell a hundred romantic, tragic, courageous stories. Stories that inspire our passion, that shapes our thoughts and actions. Do we really want to read stories about the size of kim kardasian’s behind or what was it that Miley Cyrus smoked on the MTV Music Awards stage? But who wants a nation of passionate, courageous people with integrity? And what better way to medicate that energy than feed them bullshit stories straight into our living room via X Factor and I’m a Celebrity. Are we planting the seeds for the next generation of uninspired, disillusioned nitwits, adults whose values have been shaped by the fashion and music industry? I think it’s a step forward in challenging our apathy when we stand on a picket line in the rain, speak our truth , stand behind what’s right instead of getting ahead ignoring what’s wrong. In a nutshell Anne’s life story makes me want to be a better person. I don’t think I’m quite ready to get tortured in freezing prison cell and I still like the odd Madonna song but I want to know more and be more and most importantly give more. There’s a great quote in the book, it reads: “Is iad a d’aighean an tine beo “ (“It was they who fanned the living flame”) On that note, I am grateful to that wonderful tour guide who fanned the flame of interest in me, I’m grateful for living a beautiful city that I’m looking forward to getting to know better and I’m grateful to Anne Devlin for the sacrifices and hardship she endure for a better Ireland. SHOPFLOOR
y December 2013