Rare Maud Gonne recording released: ‘I couldn’t remain a mere spectator in such a one-sided battle’

Maud Gonne is best known for being the muse of the poet WB Yeats, his unrequited love interest and the mother of Nobel Peace prize winner Sean MacBride.

She was also the widow of Major John MacBride, who was executed for his part in the Easter Rising, and a rebellious woman who repudiated her privileged upbringing.

Yet in 1945 she wondered why anybody wanted to listen to “an old woman”. Gonne, then 79, was interviewed for Radio Éireann by historian Dr Eileen Dixon. Dr Dixon apologised to Gonne for getting her out of bed.

Gonne recalled having a typically privileged Anglo-Irish upbringing, with the accent to prove it, before returning to Ireland as a young woman after eight years living abroad.

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“There was balls and parties every night. It was all such fun that it took me a long time to discover a war was in progress – the land war,” she said.

“And then I didn’t want to go to balls and parties any more. I would have to eat and dance with the evictors.”

She left Dublin and travelled Ireland on a horse, seeking out evictions. She became a radicalised Irish nationalist and remained so until the end of her life. “I couldn’t remain a mere spectator on such a one-sided battle,” she said.

The interview with Maud Gonne is among 5,300 RTÉ radio recordings from 1927 to the 1970s. They were recorded on acetate and have now been digitised and put online.

[ Maud Gonne: the ‘Irish Joan of Arc’, not just an Easter widow ]

The recordings are now preserved for the long term with the support of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland’s Archiving Scheme, which has been incorporated into the recently established, Coimisiúin na Meán.

There are various news bulletins from across the decade often prefaced by SOS messages, which were common at a time when there was no other way of reaching people whose whereabouts were unknown.

“Will Peter McKiernan go at once to the Royal City of Dublin Hospital where his aunt Margaret Clarke is dangerously ill,” prefaced a news report in May 1940 which detailed the second World War in Norway.

There is a report from August 15th, 1945 announcing the surrender of Japan and the end of the second World War, and also an eyewitness account of the riots on August 13th, 1969 in Derry which marked the start of the Troubles.

Head of RTÉ archives Bríd Dooley described it as a “hugely evocative collection” that will be of interest to future generations.

“It will take audiences back to the mores, sounds and voices from 1927 onwards as the new Irish State was emerging, many decades before television itself came along,” she said.

“It provides a unique insight our audiences can now enjoy and will be a source of important discovery for researchers, programme makers, historians and educators alike.