Nell Humphreys

Humphreys visited the GPO during the Rising to give the volunteers medals of the Mother of Perpetual Succour.^[8] Following the death of Humphrey's brother The O'Rahilly in combat she was arrested and detained in the aftermath of the Easter Rising.^[9] On 9 May 1916 and imprisoned in Mountjoy Prison. While detained, she led nightly prayer vigils and took part in a hunger strike.^[8] Her daughter claimed that before this her mother was a widow who was "only interested in caring for her family, tending to her garden and saying her prayers." After the death of her brother and the imprisonment of her son,^[10] she joined the Ranelagh Branch of Cummann na mBan in 1919^[11] and was elected as a republican member of Pembroke Urban District Council in 1920.^[12]

During the Irish War of Independence her home became a centre of Irish Republican activities and was often used as a safe house.^[13] During the Civil war she was detained for the period November 1922 to July 1923,^[14] and her home was a safe house for Anti-Treaty fugitives such as Ernie O'Malley. Alongside her sister, Humphreys represented her brother at Easter Rising commemorations.^[15]

Shortly before her death in 1939 she commissioned a Harry Clarke stained glass window in Mountjoy Prison where she had previously been detained. The window remains in place in the prison chapel.^[10][16]

Humphreys died on 8 June 1939, and is buried with her husband in Abington, Murroe, County Limerick.^[17] Through her daughter, Humphreys was the great grandmother of Manchán and Ruán Magan.^[18]