Sidney Gifford Czira (1889 – 1974)
Irish Republican, Suffragette, Writer, Journalist, Radio Broadcaster
Sidney
Madge Gifford, the youngest of twelve children,
was born to Frederick Gifford and Isabella Gifford (née Burton) in Rathmines,
Dublin on August 3, 1889. Her Catholic father
was a successful solicitor who practiced law
within the confines and constructs of British
Imperial Statutes. Her Protestant mother was a
niece of Frederic William Burton the
renowned painter who, during his tenure as
director of the National Gallery in London, was
responsible for acquiring many of its most
prized works of art. Despite his very British
credentials Frederic was an ardent admirer of
the men and women of the Young Ireland
movement of the 1840s.
Politically the Giffords were conservative and Unionist and supported British rule in Ireland. In what could be considered a symbolic act of affirmation of their Britishness they raised their children in the mother’s Protestant faith. That decision was also a clear and defiant rejection of the Catholic Church’s Code of Canon Law that mandates the children of mixed marriages be raised Catholic.
Despite their wealth and privileged lifestyles the Giffords failed to instill in their six female children, Katherine, Helen, Ada, Muriel, Grace and Sidney an appreciation for the system that made their lifestyle possible. On the other hand their six male children fully embraced the system and in their adulthood served it faithfully.
The degree to which the Gifford sisters rejected British rule in Ireland and embraced Irish Independence was best demonstrated by two of the sisters, Muriel who married Thomas MacDonagh and Grace who married Joseph Mary Plunkett. Both MacDonagh and Plunkett were amongst the executed leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising.
All the sisters were educated at the prestigious Church of Ireland’s Alexandra College, a private girls' school located in Miltown, Dublin. After finishing her education at Alexandra College, Sidney went on to study music at the Leinster School of Music in Harcourt Street.
One day on her way home from school Sidney met the poet Séamas O'Sullivan at his family’s pharmacy. O'Sullivan noticed that she had a copy of the Nationalist newspaper The Leader in her possession. After a brief discussion regarding her literary interests and political views he gave her a copy of the Sinn Fein newspaper, explaining that it was edited by Arthur Griffith, the founder of the namesake political party.
During subsequent wide-ranging discussions, O'Sullivan suggested that she should submit articles to the newspaper for publication. Believing that her ideas and opinions were valued and validated by O'Sullivan whom she greatly admired for his literary genius and political insights, she started submitting articles to Sinn Fein and other publications under the pen name "John Brennan". Her use of a pen name kept her Nationalistic-leaning views shielded from her Unionist family and friends, thus avoiding unnecessary conflict.
In one of her submissions Sidney critiqued a book of humorous verse by the writer Susan Mitchell. Not quite sure what the function of a critic was, she in her own words "slated it". Curious to know who criticized her work, Mitchell, with the help of the poet O’Sullivan, discovered that it was Sidney. Instead of admonishing Sidney for her "no-holds-barred" criticism, Mitchell invited Sidney to accompany her to the home of the renowned poet and Irish Nationalist George William Russell, where many members of the Irish Literary Revival movement met on Sunday afternoons. It was there that she met many of Ireland's historic figures including Padraig Pearse, Thomas MacDonagh, Joseph Mary Plunkett, Padraic and Mary Colum, Eva Gore Booth, James Stephens, Roger Casement and many others.
In 1908 Sidney joined Inghinidhe na hÉireann (Women of Ireland) an organization founded by Maud Gonne, whose agenda was political, Socialist and feminist. It opposed Home Rule for Ireland, opting instead for full independence. It promoted national self-awareness, organized local chapters and taught Irish language, literature, history, music and art classes.
At that juncture (1908) in its evolvement, Inghinidhe na hÉireann was in the process of launching a monthly journal titled Bean na hÉireann (Woman of Ireland) that would advocate for the "freedom for Our Nation and the complete removal of all disabilities to our sex." Sidney's first assignment was to help Helena Molony, Maud Gonne and others, launch the journal. After its launch Sidney, under the pen names Sorcha Ní Annláin and John Brennan, Helena Molony, Padraig Pearse, Thomas MacDonagh, Maud Gonne and Constance Markievicz became regular contributors to its pages.
In 1910, concerned with infant mortality rate in Dublin, one of the highest in Europe, and the rampant poverty in its teeming tenements, Maud Gonne and other political and labor activists along with the Women’s Franchise League setup school canteens to feed malnourished schoolchildren in the worst areas in Dublin.
As a member of Inghinidhe na hÉireann, Sidney was an active participant in the anti-establishment movement that challenged the political and social status quo in Ireland under British rule. The hot-button issues in play included Home Rule, the ongoing recruitment of young Irishmen for the British Army, disenfranchisement of women, poverty and high infant mortality rate, child labor and predatory labor laws, and the pending Royal visit to Dublin designed to reinforce the Royal prerogative in Ireland.
The outcome of her involvement in the anti-establishment movement brought her in contact with many of the activists spearheading its various facets in common cause to make life better for the Irish people. By virtue of the articles she wrote and had published dealing with all the hot-button issues mentioned above, she became a well-known and proven "commodity"' placing her in the company of Ireland's historic figures at the dawning of the 20th century.
Another less known campaign that Sidney took part in was the Promotion of Home Industries where activists such as Sidney would employ various tactics to force stores to carry Irish goods and convince fellow Irishmen and women to wear and use Irish-manufactured items whenever possible. She was also involved with the Irish Women's Franchise League and their suffrage campaign. In April 1914 she appeared as "Anne Devlin" in a pageant at the first Great Daffodil Fête at the Molesworth Hall organized by the suffragettes in cooperation with Cumann na mBan.
To advance her journalist career Sidney decided that a short stint in the United States would help her in that regard. The broader and more varied canvas the United States offered would allow her to explore other aspects of journalism not possible in Ireland because of the many government restriction and religious impediments put in place to maintain ''order". Despite Thomas Clarke's plea not to go --- bemoaning the loss of badly needed talent at home --- she nonetheless departed for New York in June of 1914, unaware that she would never again see Clarke and so many other dear friends who gave their lives for the emblematic Irish Republic in the 1916 Easter Rising.
One of Sidney's first ports of call on arriving in the United States were the offices of John Devoy's Gaelic America newspaper with a letter of introduction in hand from Clarke who was a close friend of Devoy during his years in America. She was taken aback by Devoy's negative response to her offer as a writer for the newspaper. Of the impression that they were working towards the same objective, an Irish Republic, she could not understand why he did not give her a job considering her experience writing for Bean na hÉireann and Arthur Griffith's the United Irishman.
Shortly after having been refused a job by Devoy, Sidney landed a job with the New York Sun -- a job that afforded her a living. Once she got familiar with her surroundings and the politics that shaded the various journalistic spheres she was able to find work with other outlets and later in 1920 with Joseph McGarrity’s Irish Press newspaper in Philadelphia.
Some months after Sidney's arrival in the U.S., Padraic Colum and his wife Mary Maguire Colum also arrived there for what was to be a combined lecture tour and short vacation, a commonplace pursuit that turned into a lifetime sojourn. Padraic Colum, a preeminent scholar and a leading figure of the Irish Literary Revival was a well-known and respected personage amongst his peers in America. Having known the Colums in Ireland, Sidney was a welcomed guest at social gathering they hosted at their home for prominent literary peopleliving in or visiting New York. What was important about the gatherings was that the situation in Ireland was always a topic for discussion and a way to counter the British propaganda machine in America by enlisting the support of prominent Americans to the Irish cause. One of the well-known individuals who advocated for Ireland as a result was the renowned poet and journalist, Joyce Kilmer.
In October of 1914, Sidney was invited by Dr. Gertrude Kelly to address attendees at a meeting in the Hotel McAlpin in New York to set up a Cumann na mBan chapter. Sidney explained to those in attendance that the prime function of the organization was to raise funds and garner support for the Irish Volunteers formed in 1913 in response to the formation of the Ulster Volunteers the previous year. The declared aim of the Volunteers was "to secure and maintain the rights and liberties common to the whole people of Ireland". Sidney served as the chapters secretary until mid-1916.
Sidney's negative experience with Devoy on her arrival in America was a rude awakening to the fact that the Nationalist/Republican movement in America was fragmented with no one individual or group holding sway. That realization was reinforced when the Devoy group tried to undermine the formation of Cumann na mBan chapters. As she came to know and understand the different factions and their foibles, she took time to document the pitfalls and how to navigate a safe passage for those arranging and participating in the many lecture and fund-raising tours out of Ireland to promote and support the declared Irish Republic.
In October of 1915 Nora Connolly was sent to the United States on a secret mission for her father, James Connolly. Nora had a letter from Constance Markievicz for Sidney in which she asked her to help Nora with the task at hand, which was to inform the German Ambassador in Washington DC that the British were rigging dummy warships in Belfast to block the Kiel Canal, thus rendering it inoperable for use by the Germans. After making some enquiries Sidney and Nora were informed by someone in Clan na Gael that they first needed to contact the German government representative in New York. Sidney accompanied Nora to that meeting which took place somewhere in the suburbs. With a letter of introduction in hand from the representative, Nora proceeded to Washington D.C. where she informed the Ambassador what was afoot in Belfast. Having accomplished her mission Nora returned to Ireland.
Shortly after the onset of the First World War (WW1) John Redmond, the Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP) leader made a speech in the British House of Commons in which he intimated that Irishmen would fight for the Empire if only England would grant Ireland Home Rule when the war ended. Much was made of that speech in British newspapers. The Liverpool Post on September 12, 1914 carried an article that suggested "300,000 Irishmen could be recruited to the British Army if King George signed the Home Rule Act and made a triumphant tour of Ireland -- enabling the English young men to continue "Business as usual". With a copy of the Sinn Fein leaflet in hand that quoted the article, Sidney offered it together with clippings from other Irish publications to Devoy for publication in the Gaelic America. He refused stating that "he would not touch them with a forty-foot pole".
Unwilling to submit to Devoy's rejection she brought the documents to John Ford the editor of the Irish World who despite being the mouthpiece for the IPP in the United States did publish the documents. After a discussion on the state-of-affairs in Ireland Ford asked Sidney to write a series of articles describing the prevailing situation in Ireland, and the organizations and personalities involved. The outcome of that collaboration was that the Irish World's circulation increased substantially and Ford, better informed, changed his mind about the IPP and threw his support behind the Irish Volunteers.
By 1916 the British propaganda machine in the United States was well established and concentrating on getting the U.S. to forego its neutrality stance and enter the war on the side of the British Empire arguing that "after all" England was America's mother country. With skin in the game Clan na Gael (CNG) and other Irish organizations in the U.S. founded a new umbrella organization, the Friends of Irish Freedom (FOIF) to advocate for continued U.S. neutrality and Irish Freedom. The organization to all intents and purposes was controlled by the leadership of CNG, i.e., John Devoy and Judge Daniel Cohalan. One of its first campaigns was to deny Woodrow Wilson the presidency in 1916. Having failed to do that the FOIF lowered its profile fearing retaliation by the Wilson administration for having cooperated with the Germans during the campaign and for having financed the procurement of German arms used by Irish Volunteers against the British during the Easter Rising.
The anti-British and neutrality campaign undertaken by Irish groups and individuals was credited with having kept the U.S. out of the war through 1917 by none other than the British Ambassador, Sir Cecil Spring Rice, in a statement sent to his government. Sidney was in the forefront of that campaign using her knowledge, writing and oratory skills and tenacity to challenge every statement or assertion made by British government officials and their agents provocateurs.
In the Autumn of 1917 the Irish Progressive League (IPL) was founded in New York by Padraic and Mary Colum, Gertrude B. Kelly, Peter and Helen Golden and other leading Irish-American activists to promote the Sinn Fein program and the Irish Republic proclaimed in 1916. By then the U.S. had abandoned its neutrality stance and declared war on Germany. FOIF was deemed pro-German by the Wilson administration and many of its members were on the government's watch list. With FOIF silenced the IPL, by default took over responsibility for representing Ireland's interests in the United States. Sidney was put in charge of the organization's premises in New York which, included a shop and meeting rooms. She also managed the organization's operations, communications, fund-raising, publicity and lecture tours. Because of her high profile in the anti-British propaganda campaign and her close connection to the executed leaders of 1916 (two sisters widowed as a result) she was blacklisted by the British and, consequently, denied a passport to return to Ireland.
In 1919 after the Sinn Fein victory in the all-Ireland General Election in December of 1918, the convening of the First Dail Eireann on January 21, 1919 and the simultaneous onset of the Irish War of Independence, FOIF came out of the shadows to stake its claim in the new dynamic taking root in Ireland. The relationship between FOIF and Sinn Fein supporters in the U.S. was contentious from the beginning with both parties vying for control over the associated fund-raising, political and diplomatic undertakings in the U.S.
In October of 1920 matters came to a head when Sinn Fein severed ties with FOIF. That development caused a split within the ranks of CNG when Philadelphia-based Joseph McGarrity sided with Sinn Fein. After the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 the chasm widened further with Devoy and his faction siding with the Treatyites (Free Stater’s) and McGarrity siding with the anti-Treatyites (Irish Republicans). Sidney, a die-hard Irish Republican, opposed the Treaty that settled for a convoluted version of Home Rule in a partitioned Ireland -- not the sovereign Irish Republic proclaimed in 1916.
After the breakup of Clan na Gael into factions corresponding to the Sinn Fein/FOIF breakup, Sidney relocated to Philadelphia to work for McGarrity's Irish Press newspaper. Philadelphia was also the home base for the McGarrity faction of Clan na Gael. Apart from the political and diplomatic aspects of the Sinn Fein/FOIF dispute, monies already collected and in the process of being collected for the Irish Republic were being claimed by both factions. Sidney was very much involved in that dispute by attending meetings and writing articles explaining why the money should be sent to Ireland to support the fledging Irish Republic. The Devoy faction believed that the funds belonged to FOIF and should be spent in the United States as they deemed appropriate.
In 1921, Sidney set about returning to Ireland with her son, Finian, whom she had as a result of a short-lived marriage or liaison with Hungarian émigré Arpad Czira who by then returned to Hungary. Having been denied a passport by the British for her anti-British activism, Sidney managed to borrow one from an Irishwomen who had arrived in the United States with no plans of returning to Ireland. Despite obvious differences between her and her son appearance and the passport pictures she managed to make her way back to Ireland sometime in 1921, though most accounts had her returning in 1922.
Back in Dublin she resumed her career as a journalist, albeit a career stymied by her opposition to the Anglo-Irish Treaty and her long-standing Republican ideals. Her involvement with the Women's Prisoners’ Defense League founded by Charlotte Despard and Maud Gonne to highlight and prevent the ill-treatment of Republican prisoners during the Treaty War, was grounds for surveillance, intimidation and, oftentimes, imprisonment by the Free State. Nonetheless, she prevailed. In 1926 she became a broadcaster wit 2RN the precursor to Radio Eireann. In 1927, she lost her job with 2RN for having written a letter to the Irish Times critical of a government official whose remarks jeopardized the possibility of a fair trial for those accused of the assassination of Kevin O'Higgins. She was reinstated in 1932 after Fianna Fail took control of the government.
After WWII she took part in Operation Shamrock, a humanitarian initiative that brought refugee children from mainland Europe to Ireland in the aftermath of the Second World War. It was organized by the Irish Red Cross, and involved about 500 children, mostly from Germany, who stayed for three years before returning home.
Sidney Gifford Czira died in Dublin on September 15, 1974. She is buried in Deansgrange Cemetery in Dublin.
Contributed by Tomás Ó Coısdealbha
Deansgrange Cemetery
Dean's Grange Rd, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland
DEANSGRANGE CEMETERY
