I received a free copy of this book from O’Brien Press in exchange for an honest review.

Kathleen Clarke is more often known as ‘just’ the wife of Irish 1916 Easter Rising leader Thomas Clarke but she was so much more than that. In this book, a memoir written by Kathleen herself and edited by her grandniece Helen Litton, Clarke tells her story from early childhood in a Fenian family, to marrying a man and helping to change the course of Irish history.

I thought this book was just so, so interesting and I feel like I both learned about Kathleen Clarke, a truly extraordinary woman, and parts of Irish history that I had a. forgotten and b. never learned in the first place.

I loved seeing how Clarke talked about particular powerful men in Irish history and her true feelings towards them, and how they also treated her. She dropped a lot of truth bombs about how things went in the Irish Parliament at the time in the years leading up to the Treaty that caused the Irish Free State to come about, and it was really well-written.

Clarke is a really modest woman. She did so much within the Rising and the years afterwards and in the Civil War and she suffered so much, and lost a lot. But she kept going. Yet, she isn’t mentioned in the history books which is so frustrating. I loved that she made pains to mention a lot of other women that were involved at the time and again, were never mentioned in history books. I also loved her weird relationship/friendship with Countess Markievicz.

I cannot recommend this enough for Irish people and those interested in Irish history - Clarke wasn’t a suffragette though she was a wonderful female leader, so don’t go into it if you’re looking for a suffragette book.