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Life in 1916 Ireland: Stories from statistics

Julia Grennan

Julia Grenan

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Julia Grenan (Grennan)

Census 1901 Address: 25.2, Lombard Street (Trinity, Dublin)¹

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Dublin/Trinity/Lombard_Street/1310946/

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/nai003732456/

Census 1911 Address: 17, Hasting's Street (Pembroke West, Dublin)¹

On the night of the 1911 Census, Julia Grenan (aged 27), was staying as a visitor in the Farrell household. The head of the household was Bridget Farrell and the other members of the family were Bridget’s daughter, also called Bridget (3), her son Seagan (1), her widowed mother Mary (69) and her sister Elizabeth (27). Julia is recorded on this Census form as a dressmaker, she was single and was proficient in both Irish and English.

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Dublin/Pembroke_West/Hasting_s_Street/44090/

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/nai000118945/

Julia Grenan lived in Lombard Street, close to her school friend Elizabeth Farrell. They were both members of the Sacred Heart and Total Abstinence sodalities² and they had an interest in Irish and joined the Gaelic League. As we can see in the census report 1911, they were both proficient in Irish.

In 1906 Julia joined Inghinidhe na hÉireann and, along with her friend Elizabeth Farrell, she also joined Cumann na mBan, the women’s branch of the Irish Volunteers. Julia and Elizabeth were sent around the country as couriers delivering important information.

On Easter Monday several women were in the General Post Office in Dublin. Julia served as a dispatch carrier during Easter week and brought information from the GPO to garrisons around the city. On Easter Tuesday, she and Elizabeth Farrell joined Mary McLaughlin in bringing ammunition from the GPO to the Royal College of Surgeons³.Julia and Elizabeth tended to the wounded at the GPO. When the order came to evacuate, the two women decided to remain behind together with Winnie Carney who wouldn’t leave the wounded James Connolly.

After the Rising, both Julia and Elizabeth carried dispatches for the IRA during the War of Independence. They lived together at Lower Mount Street in Dublin and were opposed to the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921. During the Civil War they were involved with collecting funds for families of anti-treaty prisoners.

Julia died in 1972 and is buried in the Republican Plot in Glasnevin Cemetery alongside her friend Elizabeth Farrell (O'Farrell).

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