Born: 26 February 1899, Ireland
Died: 14 March 1994
Country most active: Ireland
Also known as: Mary Ellen, Sighle Bean Uí Dhonnchadha
This biography is republished from The Dictionary of Irish Biography and was written by Patrick Maume. Shared by permission in line with Creative Commons ‘Attribution’ (CC BY) licencing.
Humphreys, Sighle (Mary Ellen; Sighle Bean Uí Dhonnchadha) (1899–1994), republican activist, was born 26 February 1899 in Limerick city, only daughter of David Humphreys, medical doctor, and his wife, Nell (Mary Ellen; née Rahilly), sister of Michael Joseph O’Rahilly, ‘The O’Rahilly’; she had two brothers, one of whom was Richard Humphreys. She was named for her grandmother, Margaret Mary, but was always known as Sighle; after her marriage she was also known by the Irish name Sighle Bean Uí Dhonnchadha (O’Donoghue). Humphreys was heavily influenced by the outspoken nationalist and Gaelic League views of her maternal aunt, Áine, who lived with the family at Parteen, Co. Clare, after Dr Humphreys’s death from tuberculosis in 1903.
The Humphreys family moved to Dublin in 1909, renewing contact with the mother’s family, the O’Rahillys. Humphreys was educated by the Sacred Heart nuns at Mount Anville, near Dundrum, Co. Dublin, and Lower Leeson Street, Dublin. In 1919–20 she studied French civilisation at the University of Paris. Humphreys learned Irish in early life, becoming a fluent speaker; all her life she paid regular visits to the Kerry gaeltacht. She admired Frank Ryan for combining republican socialism with concern for the gaeltacht; in her old age she expressed concern that, while the triumph of socialism was inevitable, the language might be lost irretrievably.
Sighle’s brothers joined the Irish Volunteers, and she participated in pre-1916 Volunteer activities. After the 1916 rising her mother remarked that she had previously thought Sighle ‘unwomanly’ but now admired her courage (UCDAD, P 106/384). Humphreys joined Cumann na mBan in 1919 and was active throughout the war of independence, acting as a courier and carrying out organisational work in Kerry in 1921. At this time she made the acquaintance of Liam Mellows, whose socialist republican views she shared. Humphreys opposed the treaty, as did her family; she headed the cortège at the funeral of Cathal Brugha, organised safe houses during the civil war, and went out at night painting slogans on walls.
On 4 November 1922 Ernie O’Malley was captured at the Humphreys house after a shootout in which Áine Rahilly was wounded and Sighle Humphreys fired on the Free State forces. The whole family were arrested. Humphreys was imprisoned in the North Dublin Union, Mountjoy, and Kilmainham, spending three months in solitary confinement after participating in a protest; she was released in November 1923 after a hunger strike. She maintained a lifelong friendship with O’Malley; in a 1928 letter he criticised her for romanticising the Irish as ‘a race of spiritualized idealists with a world idea of freedom, having nothing to learn for we have made no mistakes’ (English, Ernie O’Malley, 145).
From the 1920s until 1975 Humphreys was active in the pro-cathedral branch of the Ladies’ Charitable Association of St Vincent de Paul; exposure to the poverty of inner-city Dublin hardened her socialist sympathies. (Her charity work may also have encouraged her condescension towards those who disagreed with her politically.) She was always critical of the catholic hierarchy (as distinct from individual ‘patriot’ priests) for their conservatism and anti-republicanism.
In 1926 Humphreys became director of publicity for Cumann na mBan, and was its leading Dublin activist for a decade thereafter. In March 1926 she originated the sale of Easter lily badges as a fund-raising device. She participated in the February 1926 republican protest against the Abbey Theatre’s production of ‘The plough and the stars’ by Sean O’Casey. In later life she was somewhat embarrassed by this; she emphasised that she had not believed that all 1916 rebels were saints but thought O’Casey’s portrayal of them unfair. In 1928 Humphreys smashed the windows of shopkeepers who flew union flags during the Tailteann Games, and composed threatening leaflets, which were sent to jurors in political cases as part of an intimidation campaign organised by Cumann na mBan and the IRA. She was imprisoned in Mountjoy for these activities from December 1926 to February 1927 and for six months from May 1928.
In 1931 Humphreys was a founder member of the short-lived republican-socialist group Saor Éire, which criticised conservative republicans who disapproved of class war ‘as if there wasn’t at present an intensive war being carried out by the rich against the poor, whom they regard as a different species’ (English, Radicals, 149). She believed this micro-group had the potential to link republicanism to the concerns of ‘ordinary people’.
Humphreys was jailed for two months by a military tribunal in December 1931, as part of the first group of women to appear before that body. She celebrated the election of a Fianna Fáil government in March 1932. In 1932–3 she was a leading member of the Boycott British League, which orchestrated boycotts of British goods and attacked premises which sold Bass beer (the company chairman was a diehard conservative MP). In April 1934 she was a founder member of the Republican Congress, but left the organisation in July 1934 after the IRA refused it endorsement. She was dismayed when Éamon de Valera, ‘for whom we’d gladly have died a few years previously’ (UCD Archives, P 106/1829, 27 June 1935), cracked down on the IRA, calling him ‘jailer of Ireland’s soldiers’ (UCD Archives, P 106/1794, 25 April 1935). On 19 February 1935 she married the prominent IRA activist Donal O’Donoghue (1897–1957). Their first child, Dara, was stillborn in October 1936, shortly after O’Donoghue was imprisoned for sedition; several friends blamed the de Valera government. Their only surviving child, a daughter (Cróine), was born in February 1939. In the 1940s and 1950s the O’Donoghues were active in Clann na Poblachta.
Humphreys campaigned against Irish entry to the EEC, which she saw as a betrayal of the sovereignty for which Seán MacDermott and James Connolly had died; she was active in the Irish Sovereignty Movement in the 1970s and 1980s. In the 1970s she campaigned for more frequent celebration of the mass in Irish and served on the Dublin Housing Committee, a radical pressure group. She refused to pay her television licence in 1976–7 in protest against poor-quality Irish-language programming, and was fined £8, which she refused to pay. During the 1970s and 1980s she corresponded with republican prisoners and worked for their dependents; she endorsed Sinn Féin and the H-block campaign (though retaining some contact with the Workers’ Party). She was occasionally interviewed for radio and television documentaries, such as Robert Kee’s ‘Ireland: a television history’. (In November 2003 RTÉ broadcast a docudrama about her by her grandsons Manchán and Ruán Magan, in which she was played by Fran Healy.)
Sighle Humphreys died 14 March 1994 in Our Lady’s Hospice, Harold’s Cross, Dublin. Her career reflects the commitment and limitations of a generation of republicans. Her papers are in the UCD Archives (UCDA. I. P 106). The O’Rahilly papers in the same repository (UCDA. I. P 102) contain interviews with Humphreys. The museum at the former Kilmainham Gaol, Dublin, has several Humphreys mementoes.