The opening of the Guns and Chiffon exhibition in Kilmainham Gaol on Wednesday was an emotional time for 98-year-old Teresa O'Connell. Not only did she realise that she was the last surviving female prisoner from the Civil War days, but she met the children and relatives of many of her sisters-in-arms. Anna McBride White, whose grandmother was Maud Gonne and whose mother was Kid Bulfin, another Kilmainham veteran, came along as did Eilis McDowell, daughter of Eoin Mac Neill and mother of Micheal McDowell TD.
Louie O'Brien, sister of May Coghlan, another Kilmainham prisoner, popped in and chatted about her recent appearance on Trish McAdam's Hoodwinked for RTE. Grace Plunkett was remembered by her two grand-nieces, Muriel McAuley and Iseult Guinness.
Curator and author Sinead McCoole was kept busy signing the book that accompanies the exhibition and was quite the most suitably dressed in a blue-toned chiffon dress by Sheena in the Design Centre. She decided against adding a gun to the ensemble and also rejected her favourite Cumann na mBan boots in favour of a touch of glamour.