Marie Perolz
Aged 23 at the time of the 1901 Census
Address: 54.5, Mountjoy Square (Mountjoy, Dublin)1
The 1901 Census records Marie’s father Richard, a widower and a Protestant, and two sisters Anna aged 26 and Delia aged 18. Marie is recorded as Mary aged 23. All can read and write, though only the girls are proficient in both English and Irish. All the girls are Roman Catholic. Marie is recorded as a Fruit Shop Assistant.
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Dublin/Mountjoy/Mountjoy_Square/1326126/
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/nai003757506/
There is no record of Marie Perolz in the 1911 Census, though we can see from the Witness Statement pg. 22 that she lived in North Great Georges Street2.
The family of Marie Perolz
The 1911 Census records of Marie’s two sisters.
Address: 10.8, Great Georges Street, North (Rotunda, Dublin)1
This 1911 Census return records Marie’s two sisters, Delia (27) and Anna (30). Delia was recorded as the wife of Matthew McNamara3. (See Biography of Rose McNamara for Mathew McNamara Census Return 1901). Matthew was a Commercial Clerk, and a brother of Rose McNamara who was a Vice Commandant of the women’s battalion stationed at Marrowbone Lane. Matthew and Delia had 2 daughters, Mary Josephine (6) and Bridget (4). Anna Perolz’s occupation was recorded as an unemployed Dress Maker. Anna and both of Delia’s daughters are recorded as proficient in Irish and English, (although the girls are a young age).
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Dublin/Rotunda/Great_Georges_Street__North/32386/
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/nai000073231/
Marie Perolz, who was also known as Mary or Máire, was born in 1877 in Limerick. Later the family moved to Cork where her father worked for the Cork Examiner. They moved to Dublin because her aunt objected to her Cork accent and wanted her to meet more genteel people. She was a member of Inghinidhe na hÉireann from 1900 where she was the secretary for a while. She joined Cumann na mBan and also joined the Irish Citizen Army in 1914. She was friends with Connolly, Mallin and Countess Marckievicz. She was mainly involved in intelligence work. During the Easter Rising Perolz took a vital message from Patrick Pearse to Waterford, Cork, Limerick and Tipperary calling out the troops. She was sent to Cork to contact the McCurtains as she was familiar with Cork. She returned to Dublin and spent the next few days looking in hospitals and prisons for her comrades. She found Helena Molony, Dr. Kathleen Lynn and others marching through the street on their way to Richmond Barracks. She wanted to go with them, but they would not let her. She was arrested on the 3rd of May, the same day Tom Clarke was executed, and she was interned in Kilmainham, Mountjoy and Lewes Prison in England but was released in Autumn 1916.
“At Kilmainham I was very depressed when I knew the men were being executed. I could neither eat nor sleep. Only for Brighid Foley I would have died. She kept up my courage and tried to force me to eat. I was let home before the others, I don't know why4”.
Perolz married James Michael Flanagan, a socialist known as 'Citizen Flanagan', in 1919. They lived at St. Lawrence Cottage, Strand Road, Sutton, Co. Dublin where she continued her work for women's rights in the labour movement.
Sources:
Go to Maud Gonne