Bríd óg Norrby

Cesca  Chenevix Trench was born in 1891 into a Unionist clerical family. She became a staunch Nationalist and changed her name to Sadhbh Trínseach.

She studied art in Paris and began to draw political cartoons in

support of Home Rule. She also designed Celtic costumes and posters for the Gaelic League, saying that she was in art school “to learn to compose a picture of Ireland”. 

Sadhbh was swept into an active role in Irish Politics and Cumann na mBan. When the Easter Rising began on April 24, 1916, she joined the other auxiliaries in St. Stephen’s Green. The following day she delivered First Aid supplies to the headquarters at the GPO, and then withdrew to Killiney Hill.

In her diary, she wrote of the Easter Rising as a tragic mistake. She gives an authentic idea of the confusion and lack of information that characterised the event. She feared that she would be arrested for her involvement, but nothing happened, despite the enormous numbers being arrested. After the Rising, Trench continued her spirited

support of Nationalism.  She was a prolific artist in oil and pastel and painted many portraits of nationalist figures. Tragically, the October after marrying Diarmuid Coffey in April 1918, she caught the

Spanish flu and died aged only 27. 

This is Sadhbh's view of Dublin as she looked back from Killiney Hill on that day in 1916."