Born: 11 October 1885, Ireland
Died: 16 March 1961
Country most active: Ireland
Also known as: Kathleen Murphy
This biography is republished from The Dictionary of Irish Biography and was written by Marie Coleman. Shared by permission in line with Creative Commons ‘Attribution’ (CC BY) licencing.
O’Callaghan, Kate (Kathleen) (1885–1961), teacher and politician, was born 11 October 1885 in Crossmahon, Lissarda, Co. Cork, daughter of Cornelius Murphy , farmer. Educated at St Mary’s Dominican College, Dublin, she obtained a BA from the RUI and a diploma in education from Cambridge University. In 1912 she moved to Limerick, where she succeeded her sister, Mary O’Donovan, as senior lecturer in education at Mary Immaculate College of Education, a position she held until 1914, when she was replaced by another sister, Eilis Murphy. On 30 July 1914 she married Michael O’Callaghan, who served as mayor of Limerick in 1920 and who was shot dead at his home on 7 March 1921, probably by members of the Black and Tans or Auxiliary Division of the RIC. His successor as mayor of Limerick, George Clancy, and a Volunteer, Joseph O’Donoghue, were also killed the same night. Mrs O’Callaghan refused to attend the military inquiry into their deaths, believing it to be a farce; she wrote back to say that she would only appear at an inquest conducted by her own countrymen.
Elected unopposed to Dáil Éireann as Sinn Féin candidate for Limerick City–Limerick East in 1921, she was one of six women TDs in the second dáil, all of whom voted against the Anglo–Irish treaty. In her speech against the treaty, delivered on 20 December 1921, she stated that she had been a separatist since girlhood and wanted to see an independent Ireland, outside the British empire. Reelected as a republican candidate for Limerick City–Limerick East in 1922, she was a member of the anti-treaty council of state formed by Éamon de Valera in late 1922. De Valera wanted her to undertake propaganda work in Australia in 1923, but she was arrested and imprisoned in Kilmainham jail, where she joined a republican hunger strike. Defeated as a republican candidate in the Limerick constituency in 1923, she retired from active involvement in politics. She returned to Mary Immaculate College (1924–8) as part-time supervisor of student teaching practice in schools in Limerick city.
A suffragist and supporter of women’s rights, in the dáil she opposed the demotion of the labour ministry, under Countess Markievicz, from the status of a cabinet post. In 1937 she opposed the new constitution, principally on the grounds that it was based on the ‘acceptance of the British crown and membership of the British group of nations’, but also because she felt the articles relating to women were ‘a betrayal of the 1916 promise of “Equal rights and equal opportunities guaranteed to all citizens” ’ and posed ‘a grave threat to the future position of women’ (Ward (1995), 166).
A fluent Irish-speaker and a member of the Gaelic League, in later life she was very active in cultural circles in Limerick, as a founder member of Féile Luimní and chairperson of its drama section, and a member of Thomond Archaeological Society. She had no children and lived at St Margaret’s, O’Callaghan’s Strand, Limerick. She died 16 March 1961 in Limerick, leaving an estate of £22,767.