Cesca: the diary of a beautiful, radical artist

Sadhbh Trínseach kept detailed diaries of her involvement in the national movement, the Howth gun running and the Easter Rising. Prior to World War One, she studied art in Paris. Cesca's Diary is a beautiful account of this woman's words, sketches and paintings, says Sinéad McCoole

There are a multitude of books on the period of the Rising, and in the coming decade in the approach to 2016 there will be many more. For those without the privilege of accessing original documentation, a book like Cesca's Diary 1913-1916: When Art and Nationalism Meet is invaluable. The reader needs no in-depth knowledge to enjoy this book.

A diary gives the most splendid overview, particularly when it is annotated with sufficient supplementary information as Hilary Pyle has done so successfully with this book. There is pleasure in reading a diary, a secret world of thoughts that is spontaneous and uninhibited; full of first-hand observations and reactions to events as they unfold.

Sadhbh Trínseach was known by so many names that some confusion about her identity could be expected. She was born Frances Georgiana Chenevix Trench in 1891, but known to her family and childhood friends as Cesca. In her youth she espoused the Irish Ireland tradition and became Sadhbh Trínseach and later again she became, officially at least, Mrs Diarmuid Coffey, after her marriage in 1918.

Although born in Liverpool, and having spent much of her life until 1914 out of Ireland, Cesca became immersed in the Celtic Revival, through Irish writers who were collecting Irish folklore and ancient legends and publishing them in the English language. As Pyle writes, she was "reared on Standish O'Grady's epic tales of the past". Cesca's introduction to the Irish language was through her cousin Samuel, better known by his Irish name – Diarmuid Trínseach.

Cesca would not join the Gaelic League until she was 17, and by then she was not some Protestant young lady who was a language enthusiast, but committed to Ireland becoming Irish-speaking and gaining its independence as a nation.

Now an avid reader of publications such as Sinn Féin and An Claidheamh Soluis, she became politicised, and was introduced to a circle of people who wished to obtain freedom from British rule.

Her commitment to the achievement of Irish independence has parallels with other women English birth, Maud Gonne MacBride and, less well known, the Honourable Albinia Brodrick, (who liked to be known as Gobnait Ní Bhruadair). These women, despite their backgrounds, were committed to the cause of Ireland at the expense of their acceptance within the world in which they had been born.

In Cesca's case it was her charismatic character that sustained her closeness to her family, who did not share her passionate beliefs, yet tolerated her often extreme and vociferous political opinions. Cesca's participation in the "movement" was cut short by her untimely death in 1918, before the commencement of the War of Independence, but it is clear that she would have been active in the war as she had already withstood suspicion from activists such as Kathleen Clarke to attain a prominent position in Cumann na mBan before the Rising.

This book's value is that it gives us a different angle on the events of particular interest: the Howth gun running, the split in the Volunteers and the 1916 Rising. During Easter week, Cesca supported Eoin MacNeill's stance and although she went to the GPO she did not take part in the Rising. Two years earlier, in 1914, she had written in her diary: "Aren't I the great patriot, knowing nothing about the art of shooting, or medical matters, or anything at all".

Cesca voiced her objections about the Rising directly to PH Pearse. Louise Gavan Duffy also did this, but unlike Cesca, she stayed and took part in the Rising, running the kitchen in the GPO because she refused to take up arms.

The book is about art and nationalism; the art, which is finely illustrated throughout the book, enhances the narrative. But for Cesca her art was an extension of herself. As Pyle writes "her Sadhbh Trínseach persona had accompanied Cesca to Paris and she continued to regard herself as one of the initiators of the new culture for Ireland". Cesca told her fellow art students that she was at art school to learn to compose pictures of Ireland. She dressed in "New Ireland" fashion (and later submitted costume designs to An Claidheamh Soluis), a version of ancient Irish dress with Celtic embroideries, favored by Nationalists.

Hilary Pyle fluidly interweaves the diary entries, letters and general historical context. While most biographers have to surmount difficulties of handwriting and poor source material, Pyle spent five years translating the seven diaries, which were written in Irish, English and French, on poor quality paper in a difficult hand – she uses the word "decipher" to describe this task.

This book is a valuable resource for historians, students of the history of art, and researchers in women's studies.

My only personal regret is that the subject was not instead Estella Solomons, who deserves a fuller life – the only existing publication on Solomons is Pyle's own catalogue Portraits of Patriots – or that Pyle did not undertake to write the life of Constance Markievicz – her knowledge of the political, social and artistic world of Ireland during the opening decades of the last century would give a dimension to a biography of the Countess hitherto unexplored.

Nevertheless what is importance to the historical record is that a variety of women political activists are recorded. The Woodfield Press back catalogue underscores their commitment to publishing this type of biography.

This book captures something of the life and talent of a 27 year old woman, (once described as "pretty as the virgin"), who died at the prime of her life. Perhaps if she had lived into old age none of this material would have been kept – but because of her untimely death in the 1918 Flu epidemic – we have benefited. So make room on your bookshelf for her story, she deserves to be remembered.

Sinéad McCoole is the author of a number of books including Guns and Chiffon: Women Revolutionaries and Kilmainham Gaol and No Ordinary Women: Irish Female Activists in the Revolutionary Years 1900-1923