Stories of the revolution: Woman sent to Rome to brief Benito Mussolini on Civil War

Mary Louise O’Brien travelled to Rome to brief Italian dictator Benito Mussolini on the Civil War in Ireland less than one year after he had taken power in Italy.

In August 1923, O’Brien travelled to Geneva to an International Red Cross conference to highlight the treatment of republican prisoners who were still in jail.

In her typed pension application she leaves a blank where the name of Mussolini should go; his name is then included in pen. It is unclear from her file why she did this.

“From Geneva, I went to Italy, and in September 1923 I interviewed Mussolini in Rome in order to acquaint him with the Civil War situation,” O’Brien wrote.

Her credentials were signed by PJ Ruttledge, the acting president of the government of the Republic of Ireland – the shadow government to the Free State – and a future Fianna Fáil minister for justice.

Propaganda work

O’Brien was living in Spain at the time of the Easter Rising and immediately began propaganda work. She also collected funds for prisoners’ dependents in Dublin.

She also claimed to have been arrested in 1917 by the British for her activities in Spain.

In August 1920, during the War of Independence, O’Brien visited the IRA and offered her services to Comdt Robert Brennan, who “gave me every encouragement”.

In 1921 she took charge of propaganda and fundraising in Madrid on behalf of the IRA.

She ensured that the address, adopted by Dáil Éireann in January 1921, to acquaint foreign politicians with British activities in Ireland, was circulated to every Spanish member of parliament. She was recognised as the Irish representative in Spain.

She resigned her position after the signing of the Treaty in December 1921 and took the anti-Treaty side in the Civil War.

She returned to Ireland and worked as secretary to Comdt Brennan, now the director of publicity for the anti-Treaty side.

Clearing-house

Her home on Mespil Road in Dublin was raided several times, as was her flat on Herbert Street, which was used by the IRA as a headquarters.

“It was used as a clearing-house for despatches and guns, as it was considered a very safe house,” she wrote in her application.

“In both these houses there were guns and field telephones and IRA files and documents for safe-keeping. These were never captured.”

In March 1923, Éamon de Valera asked O’Brien to go to Australia to organise support for the anti-Treaty side but she had problems related to her passport and the arrest of Irish republican representatives in Australia at the time.

O’Brien received grade D for her service for the IRA between April 1st, 1920 and September 30th, 1923 during the War of Independence, truce period and Civil War.

She was awarded 3¾ years’ service for pension purposes in 1946 following an appeal against an original award of just over two years’ service at grade E which had originally been awarded to her in 1944.