Before the Rising As a founding member of the
Irish Volunteers, Frank Fahy played an active role in events leading up to the Rising, including the
Howth gun-running. Anna accompanied her husband as he took over drilling Volunteers in
Galway during the school holidays, following the deportation of
Liam Mellows. In 1915, the couple took Mellows into their house after his escape from prison in England, after he returned to Dublin disguised as a priest. On Holy Thursday of Easter Week 1916, Anna brought news to Galway that the Rising was to commence, under the orders of
Éamonn Ceannt. The coded message was written by
Padraig Pearse to
Larry Lardner, Captain of the Athenry Company, and stated to “collect the premiums at 7pm on Easter Sunday evening”. However, when she arrived in Galway, she was told that Lardner had already left for Dublin, and entrusted the message to
Eamon Corbett in his place. From there, she was sent to the Four Courts, where her husband Frank was Captain of C Company, 1st Dublin Battalion under Commandant
Ned Daly. She joined fellow Cumann members at Father Matthew Hall, where a post had been established to tend to the wounded. On Thursday of Easter week, she returned to the Four Courts, noting that “I was not long there when the
Helga [a British ship] started to shell the place. I couldn’t get back to Father Mathew Hall, the rifle firing was so great.” Unable to return to her First Aid work, she instead turned to cooking for the fighters, milking a goat that had strayed into the Courts for tea. She would stay there until the surrender on Saturday, 29 April, before escaping by mingling with the crowd attending Sunday mass the following morning. Anna returned to her native Kerry until her husband was released from prison in June 1917. Anna Fahy died on 25 September 1974 and is buried alongside her husband at
Deans Grange Cemetery, Dublin. == References ==