{{Short description|American-born Irish republican (1878–1961)}} {{Use Hiberno-English|date=July 2025}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{more citations needed|date=January 2019}}{{Infobox person | name = Nancy O'Rahilly | image = Madame Nancy O'Rahilly.jpg | caption = O'Rahilly photographed after the Easter Rising. In her hand is believed to a photograph of her late husband | birth_name = Nancy Brown | birth_date = 1878 | birth_place = Manhattan, New York City | death_date = {{Death date and age|1961|1878}} | death_place = Herbert Park, Ballsbridge | organization = Gaelic League, Cumann na mBan | spouse = Michael Joseph O'Rahilly <br />{{small|(m. 1899 d. 1916)}} | children = {{Hlist|Bobby|Richard|Aodogán|Niall|Maolmhuire|Ruairí}} }}
'''Nancy O'Rahilly''' (1878 –1961) was an American-born Irish nationalist who was involved in the founding and early activities of several institutions in Ireland in the early 20th century.
==Early life== Nancy Brown, known to her family and friends as Nannie, was born on 5th Avenue, Manhattan, New York City to a wealthy American industrialist family in 1878. Nancy would be better known by her married name O'Rahilly, and her part in the Irish revolutionary period. Her husband, The O'Rahilly, was one of the leaders and the most senior casualty of 1916 Easter Rising.
She was educated in the United States, before visiting Ireland, and later attended an Ursuline convent in Paris.<ref name="WR">{{cite journal |last1=Nic Dhaibheid |first1=C. |title='Schooling the National Orphans': the Education of the Children of the Easter Rising Leaders. |journal=Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth |date=2016 |volume=9 |issue=2 |pages=261–276 |url=http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/101223/3/Caoimhe_JHCY_Revised.pdf |doi=10.1353/hcy.2016.0027 |s2cid=148127487 |accessdate=14 January 2019}}</ref> She first met Michael Rahilly, when he was a medical student in Dublin. Known to him as Nannie, they were engaged, deciding thereafter to move to New York, her fiancé following to be near her. He sold his family business in County Kerry, before moving to America. They were married on 15 April 1899. Rahilly worked for her father's Brown Mills Company. Their first child came soon after on 14 March 1900, named Bobby. They lived in New York until 1902, before moving back to Ireland. Bobby died in June 1903<ref name="WBTM">{{cite web |title=WBTM-18 Madame O'Rahilly |url=http://www.dublincity.ie/image/libraries/wbtm-18-madame-orahilly |website=dublincity.ie |publisher=Dublin City Council |accessdate=14 January 2019}}</ref> but another son, Richard (always known as 'Mac') was born on 3 July 1903. They lived in Paris, and then Brighton, before Egan (from the Irish 'Aodogan') was born in 1904. The family then moved to London. In 1905, they moved again back to New York, and closed the family business, Brown Mills, which had failed. Their fourth son, Niall was born in Philadelphia in December 1906. They lived in New York until 1909.
==Later life in Ireland== Together with her husband, Nancy O'Rahilly returned to Ireland to live near sisters Nell and Anna Humphreys. They joined the Gaelic League and became fluent in the Irish language (gaelic). O'Rahilly contributed to ''Irish Freedom'', editor of An Claidheamh Soluis, the Gaelic League paper.<ref>{{cite web |title=Papers of the O'Rahilly |url=https://www.ucd.ie/archives/t4media/p0102-orahilly-the-descriptive-catalogue.pdf |website=ucd.ie |publisher=University College Dublin |accessdate=14 January 2019}}</ref>
Nancy O'Rahilly joined Cumann na mBan in 1914 and was elected to its founding Executive Committee.<ref>{{cite web |title=Statement by witness Miss Aine O'Rahilly |url=http://www.bureauofmilitaryhistory.ie/reels/bmh/BMH.WS0333.pdf |website=bureauofmilitaryhistory.ie |publisher=Bureau of Military History |accessdate=14 January 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Cumann na mBan leaflets and circulars, 1917. |url=http://catalogue.nli.ie/Collection/vtls000648663/HierarchyTree?recordID=vtls000648664 |website=catalogue.nli.ie |publisher=National Library of Ireland |accessdate=14 January 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Joseph McKenna|title=Voices from the Easter Rising: Firsthand Accounts of Ireland's 1916 Rebellion|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6mQoDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT28|date=2017-06-09|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-1-4766-2916-2|pages=28–}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url = http://www.historyireland.com/20th-century-contemporary-history/cumann-na-mban-by-joseph-e-a-connell-jr/ | publisher = History Ireland (magazine) | website = historyireland.com | title = Cumann na mBan by Joseph E.A. Connell Jr | date = May 2013 | accessdate = 19 June 2020 }}</ref> Two oldest sons joined Fianna Éireann. Her husband Michael Joseph O'Rahilly, was killed during the Easter Rising, having written a note of dying declaration to her.<ref>{{cite web|url = http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/the-orahillys-note-26408814.html | publisher = Independent News & Media | website = independent.ie | title = The O'Rahilly's Note | date = 26 February 2006 | accessdate = 19 June 2020 }}</ref>
Her last child was born, after the Rising, in July 1916. Her house at 40 Herbert Park, Ballsbridge, County Dublin where she lived with her young family was raided by British soldiers in mid-1916.<ref>{{cite web |title=Domiciliary Searches |url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1916/may/31/domiciliary-searches |website=Hansard |publisher=House of Commons |accessdate=14 January 2019}}</ref> After the Rising she was named as a committee officer in an organization founded to assist the families of Irish Volunteers - the Irish National Aid and Volunteers Dependents Fund.<ref>{{cite book |last=McCarthy |first=Cal |author-link= |date=2007 |title=Cumann Na mBan and the Irish Revolution |url= |location=Cork |publisher=The Collins Press |page= 76|isbn=978-1-905172146}}</ref>
In 1920, she joined the White Cross organization, and she was appointed to the executive committee<ref name="Renegades">{{cite book|author=Ann Matthews|title=Renegades: Irish Republican Women 1900-1922|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pzYkTYi3JRgC&pg=PA288|year=2010|publisher=Mercier Press Ltd|isbn=978-1-85635-684-8}}</ref>{{rp|257}} and spoke on a fundraising tour of the US.<ref>{{cite web |title=Sean Nunan to Michael Collins (Dublin) |url=https://www.difp.ie/docs/1920/Lobby-fundraising-publicity-America/28.htm |website=difp.ie |publisher=Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade/National Archives of Ireland/Royal Irish Academy |accessdate=14 January 2019}}</ref> She became a Vice-President of Cumann na mBan,<ref name="Renegades"/>{{rp|288}} but resigned in 1922, during the Irish Civil War, when her son was fighting for the anti-treaty IRA, which she also supported.<ref name="WBTM"/> She also acted on the Winding-Up Committee in 1925.
She lived in Herbert Park, Ballsbridge until her death in 1961,<ref>{{cite web|url = https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/heritage/plans-lodged-for-demolition-of-the-o-rahilly-house-1.4271823 | publisher = Irish Times | website = irishtimes.com | title = Plans lodged for demolition of The O'Rahilly house | date = 6 June 2020 | accessdate = 19 June 2020 }}</ref> and is buried in Glasnevin Cemetery.
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:ORahilly, Nancy}} Category:1878 births Category:1961 deaths Category:People of the Irish War of Independence Category:Cumann na mBan members