Mary Spring Rice

It is an iconic image (above) of the revolutionary period in Ireland showing two women onboard the Asgard as it sailed into Howth in July 1914 carrying weapons for the Irish Volunteers. The women in question were Molly Childers and Mary Spring Rice. With Erskine Childers and Roger Casement, the women successfully landed 1,500 Mauser rifles in Howth harbour for the Irish Volunteers, and which were subsequently distributed all across Ireland.

In February 1965 Denis Gwynn recalled her exploits in the Irish Examiner:

It has long been well known, though the facts have always been rather a mystery, that the Hon. Mary Spring Rice, whose father was a Southern Unionist from near Limerick and whose uncle was then British Ambassador to Washington, sailed with Childers and his wife and their English friend Gordon Shephard when the rides were brought from Holland to Howth. She had never been prominent in any political movement, and she was not even accustomed to yachting. But Fr. Martin makes the startling revelation that she not only sailed on the Asgard and helped to land the rifles at Howth, and that the idea of bringing the cargo by yacht was due to her and was accomplished directly by her efforts and persuasions.

Fr. Martin's book shows how a small committee was formed in London under the chairmanship of the historian Mrs. Alice Stopford Green, and they decided to raise money to buy rifles on the continent for the Irish Volunteers. Plans were to be made for landing the cargo in Ireland, and it was Mary Spring Rice who thought of employing some privately-owned yacht. Her cousin, Conor O'Brien, kept his own yacht largely based at Foynes. on the Shannon, and she knew Erskine Childers as another expert yachtsman. She brought Childers and Conor O'Brien to inspect a French yacht then lying at Foynes, which she suggested that they should buy, to be skippered by Childers. But the yacht was found to be unsuitable for their difficult tasks and Childers then agreed that he would sail his own yacht…

For more information on Spring Rice search the pages of the Irish Newspaper Archive (www.irishnewsarchive.com )