Brass cap from a Pratt’s Motor Spirit canister, 1920
This brass cap from a Pratt’s Motor Spirit canister frames a headshot of eighteen-year-old Margaret ‘Peg’ Broderick of Prospect Hill, Galway.
Peg was an active member of Cumann na mBan during the War of Independence. On the night of 8/9 September 1920, following a shootout at Galway Station, in which a ‘Black and Tan’ was killed, Crown forces attempted to burn the Broderick family home in reprisal. The house was saved thanks to the heroic efforts of neighbours.
Days later, Crown forces revisited the Broderick home and forcibly cropped Peg’s hair. She recalled: “I came down in my nightdress, and took a coat from the hallstand which I put on. My mother called to me to be brave. They took me outside, treating me gently, and cropped my hair close, using electric torches to give them light as the street was in darkness.” This photograph of Peg with her hair shorn, kept in the cap of one of the canisters used to torch her home, is a powerful reminder of the suffering of Irish women during the War of Independence.
On loan, the cap is on display as part of the Revolution in Galway, 1913-1923 exhibition at Galway City Museum.