{{short description|Irish Republican activist (1896–1977)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2022}} {{Use Hiberno-English|date=February 2022}} {{Infobox person |name = Fiona Plunkett |image = Fiona_Plunkett.jpg |caption = Plunkett in January 1966 during an interview with RTÉ |birth_date = 11 January 1896 |birth_place = Dublin, Ireland |death_date = 1977 |death_place = Dublin, Ireland |father = George Noble Plunkett |relatives = 6 siblings, including Joseph Mary Plunkett (brother) and George Oliver Plunkett (brother) |education = Mount Anville Secondary School<ref name="National Archives">{{cite web|title=National Archives|url=http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/nai003739878/|website=National Archives|accessdate=27 October 2014}}</ref>
}} '''Fiona Plunkett''' (11 January 1896 – 12 July 1977) was an Irish republican involved in the organisation of the Easter 1916 Rising and a leading member of Cumann na mBan.
==Early and personal life== thumb|right|Birth CertificateFiona Plunkett, born Josephine Plunkett on 11 January 1896, and the name later shortened to Fiona, then Fi, was the daughter of George Noble Plunkett and Josephine Cranny. She grew up on 26 Upper Fitzwilliam Street.<ref>{{cite web|title=Fiona Plunkett Bio|url=http://www.geni.com/people/Fiona-Plunkett/6000000025272354405|website=Geni|accessdate=14 November 2014}}</ref> She was the youngest of seven children: Philomena, Mary, Geraldine, Jack, George and Joseph Plunkett,<ref name="National Archives" /> who all took part in the Easter Rising. Joseph was a signatory of the Proclamation of the Republic and was executed after the Rising.<ref>{{Cite web |title=CAIN: Proclamation of the Irish Republic, 24 April 1917 |url=https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/issues/politics/docs/pir24416.htm |access-date=2025-08-24 |website=cain.ulster.ac.uk}}</ref>
Her father was the curator of the National Museum of Ireland,<ref>{{cite web|title=The Orders and Medals Awarded to George Noble Count Plunkett|url=http://www.adams.ie/9915/THE-ORDERS-AND-MEDALS-AWARDED-TO-GEORGE-NOBLE-COUNT-PLUNKETT-Four-The-Order-of-the-Holy-Sepulchre-Knight-Commander-s-neck-badge-in-silver-gilt-and-red-enamel-a-cross-potent-with-smaller-plain-cro|website=adams.ie/|accessdate=14 November 2014}}</ref> however he was forced to step down and exiled to Oxford following both his and his children's actions during the 1916 Rising. He later became a politician, being a member of the then newly formed Sinn Féin party. Although her family was heavily involved with politics, Plunkett only established her political career at the age of 26 during the Irish Civil War.<ref name="Irish Times">{{cite news|last1=Unknown|title=Miss Fiona Plunkett Dies In Dublin|publisher=Irish Times|date=14 Jul 1977}}</ref> Plunkett was engaged three times but never married, and died at the age of 81, in 1977 in a Dublin hospital of natural causes.<ref name="Irish Times" />
==Education== thumb|upright|26 Fitzwilliam Street Upper Dublin Plunkett sat in on her brothers' lessons, in an attempt to receive an education.<ref name="Unlikely Rebels: The Gifford Girls and the Fight for Irish Freedom">{{cite book|last1=Clare|first1=Anne|title=Unlikely Rebels: The Gifford Girls and the Fight for Irish Freedom|date=2011|publisher=Mercier Press Ltd|isbn=978-1856357128|page=111}}<!--|accessdate=14 November 2014--></ref> She briefly attended the classy Convent of the Sacred Heart in Leeson Street<ref name="Unlikely Rebels: The Gifford Girls and the Fight for Irish Freedom" /> and another of the order's convents, Mount Anville.<ref name="Irish Times" /> She had access to the library of her father, which allowed her to read on various topics.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Clare|first1=Anne|title=Unlikely Rebels: The Gifford Girls and the Fight for Irish Freedom|date=2011|publisher=Mercier Press|isbn=978-1856357128|page=111}}<!--|accessdate=14 November 2014--></ref>
==Political views== Plunkett's political beliefs were influenced by her father and three brothers. Her Irish republican ideals would influence her actions throughout her life. As a girl, she was one of the group that provided food relief to the workers starved by the 1913 Dublin Lock-out.<ref name=McCoole>{{cite book|last1=McCoole|first1=Sinead|title=Easter Widows|date=2014|publisher=Random House|isbn=978-1448171033|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=47iUAwAAQBAJ|accessdate=27 November 2014}}</ref>
In 1916 she served in the women's military group Cumann na mBan,<ref name="Cumann Na Mban">{{cite web|last1=Matthews|first1=Ann|title=Cumann Na Mban|url=http://eprints.maynoothuniversity.ie/5146/1/Ann_Matthews_20140625115113.pdf|website=E. Prints Maynooth|publisher=Maynooth University & St. Patricks College|accessdate=25 November 2014}}</ref> and indirectly participated in the 1916 Easter Rising as an organiser.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Sawyer|first1=Roger|title=We Are But Women: Women in Ireland's History|date=2002|publisher=Routledge|location=London|isbn=1134931255|pages=87–88|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZeKIAgAAQBAJ|accessdate=27 November 2014}}</ref>
Her brother Joseph was executed for his leadership in the Rising; his younger brothers George and Jack were imprisoned in England afterwards.<ref>{{cite web |title=Joseph Mary Plunkett |url=http://www.easter1916.ie/index.php/people/signatories/joseph-mary-plunkett/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190329234426/http://www.easter1916.ie/index.php/people/signatories/joseph-mary-plunkett/ |archive-date=29 March 2019 |work=Easter1916.ie |accessdate=19 October 2019}}</ref>
In 1917 Cumann na mBan began regrouping. Memberships increased as did the membership of Sinn Féin. New branches of Cumann na mBan were created and old ones reformed. Nine executives were chosen to represent Cumann na mBan: Plunkett, Nancy O'Rahilly and her daughter, Margaret Pearse, Áine Ceannt, Kathleen Clarke, Nancy Wyse Power, Mary McSwiney and Madge Daly.<ref>Matthews, Ann (1995). Cumann na mBan 1913–26: Redressing the Balance. (National University of Ireland, St Patricks College, Maynooth)</ref> The mothers, sisters, wives and daughters of the Rising's leaders perceived themselves as sidelined, with Plunkett resisting the move to amalgamate them into Sinn Féin.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Ward|first1=Margaret|title=The League of Women Delegates & Sinn Féin|journal=History Ireland|date=1996|volume=4|issue=3|url=http://www.historyireland.com/20th-century-contemporary-history/the-league-of-women-delegates-sinn-fein/|accessdate=27 November 2014}}</ref> She remained particularly close to her sister-in-law Grace Gifford.
In 1926, Plunkett was tried and imprisoned for her involvement in a raid of the home of Edward Levi, was part of an ongoing campaign against Dublin moneylenders.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Ó Gráda|first1=Cormac|title=Jewish Ireland in the Age of Joyce: A Socioeconomic History|date=2006|publisher=Princeton University Press|location=New Jersey|isbn=0691127190|page=68|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HpzmW5QuDEgC|accessdate=27 November 2014}}</ref> Three IRA members demanded that Levi hand over his account books. Plunkett, Domhall O'Donohue and Mick Price were charged for assisting in the formation of an illegal military force and possession of arms, ammunition and treasonable documents.<ref name="The 1926 IRA campaign against Moneylenders. This campaign would largely be remembered as one of the IRA's more Anti-Semitic campaigns, following O'Donohue's comments in court that Jewish moneylenders' practices in Ireland showed the need for a new code more suited to a Christian country. ">{{cite web|last1=McCord|first1=Rhona|title=The 1926 IRA campaign against Moneylenders.|url=http://www.theirishstory.com/2011/08/24/the-1926-ira-campaign-against-moneylenders/|website=The Irish Story|accessdate=25 November 2014}}</ref>
In 1942, Plunkett stepped onto a platform during a commemoration of the Rising at Arbor Hill church, condemning the Irish government's treatment of political prisoners (her brother Jack being a prisoner at the time, on hunger strike in Arbor Hill Prison, next to the church) under Éamon de Valera's authority. References to this "Plunkett Incident" were censored in the Irish press in the following days.<ref name="FightingMarks North Ireland's ..">{{cite web|last1=Unknown|first1=Unknown|title=FightingMarks North Ireland's Nationalist Day: Police Baltic to EnforceBan on Rebellion Memorials; IRA Protests in Eire|url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/1252720770/|id={{ProQuest|1252720770}}|publisher=Irish Times|accessdate=25 November 2014}}</ref>
In 1971 Plunkett wrote a letter to the editor of ''The Irish Times'' criticising the contemporary truce in Northern Ireland, urging the Irish people to stand up against "British domination". She went on to say that any celebrations for attained peace while Britain remained in Ireland were a "hollow mockery" of the Irish people.<ref name="CELEBRATING THE TRUCE">{{cite web|last1=Bean Ui Dhonnchadha |first1=Sighle |title=Celebrating the Truce |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/526214097/|id={{ProQuest| 526214097}}|accessdate=25 November 2014}}</ref> In 1976, she and her longtime friend and fellow Cumann na mBan leader Maire Comerford were prosecuted for her participation in a banned commemoration of the 1916 Rising at the GPO.<ref name="Marking the 1916 anniversary">{{cite web|last1=Anonymous|first1=Anonymous|title=Marking the 1916 anniversary|url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/347753326/| id={{ProQuest|347753326}}| publisher=Irish Times|accessdate=25 November 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Ó Beacháin|first1=Donnacha|title=Destiny of the Soldiers – Fianna Fáil, Irish Republicanism and the IRA, 1926–1973: The History of Ireland's Largest and Most Successful Political Party|date=2010|publisher=Gill & Macmillan Ltd|location=Dublin|isbn=978-0717151660|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jElfBAAAQBAJ|accessdate=27 November 2014}}</ref>
==Death and legacy== Plunkett died on 12 July 1977 at the age of 81.<ref name="Irish Times" /> She was buried in Glasnevin cemetery, in the Republican plot.<ref name="Irish Times" /> Plunketts's legacy and life is recounted in ''All in Blood: a memoir'' by her elder sister Geraldine Dillon.<ref>Dillon, Geraldine Plunkett (1891–1986). All in Blood: a memoir. Dublin.</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * [https://1916.rte.ie/the-executions/my-father-expected-death-for-himself-and-for-joe/ RTE interview with Fiona Plunkett from 1966]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Plunkett, Fiona}} Category:People of the Irish Civil War Category:Burials at Glasnevin Cemetery Category:1896 births Category:1977 deaths Category:Cumann na mBan members Category:Women in the Irish Civil War Category:People of the Easter Rising Category:Women in the Easter Rising