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The Wallace Sisters
Growing up I always remember my mother talking with great respect and affection about her two spinster aunts – Sheila and Nora Wallace. She would tell us they were in Intelligence Officers in the old IRA and they had a small shop in the centre of Cork City which was some way connected some secret activities they were involved in. It sounded interesting and mysterious but I didn’t realise the significance of what she meant. But I began to show some interest in two items my mother kept – Sheila’s War of Independence Medal and a very old stock taking ledger from the shop. As the years went by I realised more and more the significance of what my mother was saying about them and I decided to do more research an eventually make a documentary RTE radio's Documentary on One series.
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Sheila and Nora Wallace
The Wallaces Shop
Sheila's Medal with Service Bar
In the early decades of the last century two sisters, Nora and Sheila Wallace, ran a small book shop and newsagents in Brunswick Street just off the Grand Parade in the shadow of the large granite edifice of St. Augustine’s Church, in the centre of Cork City.
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They sold mostly Irish history and patriotic books, with sweets, cigarettes and newspapers which did a great trade catering for the mass goers of St Agustine’s church across from the shop. However, a great deal more was going on behind the scenes at the shop as I discovered it was the HQ for the Cork No. 1 Brigade – IRA.
Ledger entries - rifles
Present day - St. Augustine street
Ledger - Inventory of arms
By researching and making the documentary I have found out how deeply they were involved in the War of Independence – from deciphering codes, delivering intelligence dispatches, organising meetings for the planning of raids and ambushes as well as handling spies and keeping the inventory for the armaments the Brigade.
They were involved closely with local figures such as Terence McSwiney, Tomas McCurtain as well as national figures such as DeValera, Countess Markieviech and James Connolly.
Nora Wallace
Sheila Wallace
New York Festivals - award
The shop was effectively the HQ for counter intelligence in the city and Sheila’s title was Staff Officer or Brigade officer making her possibly one of the highest female rank holders in the Republican movement at the time
Meetings of Cork IRA leadership regularly met in kitchen in back room of the shop for planning of raids and ambushes
Dispatches went through the shop for the volunteers
Crown forces codes were deciphered in the shop and intelligence was passed from spies
Tomas McCurtain murdered Lord Mayor of Cork had called into the shop the night he was killed.
His successor Terence McSwiney was known to go behind the counter and serve members of the public
Both sisters sided with the anti-treaty side and the shop was frequently raided by Treaty forces in the early 1920s
Sheila died tragically from a fall in 1944, her funeral was one of the biggest in the city since the death of the two martyred Lords Mayor
Telegram - Eamon de Valera
Letter - Countess Markieviecz
