Peg Barrett

PEG (MARGARET) BARRETT (1904-1978)

Peg Barrett joined Cumann na mBan as a teenager. This was a women’s organization that supported the Irish Volunteers throughout the War of Independence and Civil War. Peg engaged in routine activities including collecting funds, organising dances, attending First Aid lectures and carrying dispatches.
On one occasion she delivered a dispatch by train from Ennis to Limerick. She recalls ‘I was told whatever would happen I was not to let it [the message] into enemy hands. I was to eat it or burn it…’

Oil on canvas.
60 X 50 cm