Cork's Nora wins national film award for family story in Civil War

A Cork film-maker’s documentary telling the story of her great grandmother’s exploits during the Civil War has earned her the prestigious Radharc Award at the Fresh Film Young Film-maker of the Year Awards.

Nora Twomey, who hails from Baile Mhúirne and is a Leaving Certificate student at St Mary’s Secondary School in Macroom, was commended by the judges in the competition for the ‘excellence in research, use of a range in production techniques, including dramatic reconstruction and use of archives’ evident in her film, Devil May Care.

The judges also remarked on how personally relevant to Nora the film was.

Dramatic

The 14-minute film, in which Nora herself plays the part of her great grandmother in the dramatic reconstructions, tells the story of May Casey who was an active IRA member in Dublin during the War of Independence and the Civil War.

“I wanted to highlight the activities of women during the Civil War which, for a long time, was never talked about, not even in schools,” said Nora.

“It was very important for me to make this documentary to write her back into history.”

The story of the film began in October 2023 when Nora’s family discovered May’s application for a military pension, an application which was adjudged to be ‘unsuccessful’ at the time it was made.

According to Aoife Torpey, an archivist in Kilmainham Jail interviewed by Nora, May’s pension application details how she was arrested in February 1923, at the height of the Civil War, though the application doesn’t specify why she was arrested, it does give details as to what activities she was involved with during the conflict.

“This included dispatch work (carrying messages), moving arms and ammunition around Dublin and also being involved in keeping safe houses for IRA men,” said Aoife.

The film illustrates how May moved arms and ammunition around Dublin in babies’ prams.

Funds

She also collected funds for the IRA, using the cover story that she was collecting for the Peadar Macken Literary Society.

She met her future husband, Frank Casey, at this time and he was also active in the IRA and who was imprisoned in Mountjoy Prison and went on hunger strike.

Nora also interviewed her grand aunt, May Breen, the daughter of May and Frank, who recalled how her mother kept up her activism throughout her life, volunteering with the Red Cross and helping refugee children from who came to Ireland at the end of the Second World War.

May Casey died 70 years ago in 1954.

“In this tribute to my greatgrand mother, I hoped to shine a light on the activities and political life of a person who we never knew anything about,” said Nora.

“Although she fought tirelessly on the Anti-Treaty side during the Civil War, May’s pension application was unsuccessful because she was a woman.

“To me, May Casey was once just a face in an old picture frame but now she will be commemorated by our family for her commitment to the cause she believed in for years to come and her story will never be forgotten.”

Nora is hoping to study film at third level.