Constance Short

Only recently it was discovered that there was a woman involved in the 1916 surrender. On Saturday 27th April 1916, Commandant Padraig Pearse asked Volunteer Elizabeth O’Farrell to go out with the white flag of surrender to Brigadier Lowe of the British Army.  Lowe refused to negotiate with a woman and asked that Pearse come himself.  Elizabeth O’Farrell then accompanied Padraig Pearse, again carrying the white flag, and there is a formal British Army photograph of the surrender. It contains Padraig Pearse, Brigadier William Lowe and his aide de camp and son John Lowe but no Elizabeth O’Farrell. She had been airbrushed out of the photograph apart from her feet. This photograph is in Kilmainham Jail. My lino-cut takes the photograph quite literally, replacing Elizabeth O’Farrell where she rightfully belongs.