Ellen Ryan was an Irish nationalist, Cumann na mBan organiser and County Councillor. She was a member of the republican Ryan family of Tomcoole. Despite not being involved in the 1916 Rising, she was arrested and imprisoned. On release she joined Sinn Féin and was a regional organiser for Cumann na mBan in Wexford. She was arrested for anti-Treaty activity during the Civil War and went on hunger strike with other female prisoners. She was the first woman elected to Wexford County Council.

Maud Gonne MacBride was an Irish republican revolutionary, suffragette and actress. She was of Anglo-Irish descent and was won over to Irish nationalism by the plight of people evicted in the Land Wars. She actively agitated for Home Rule and then for the republic declared in 1916. During the 1930s, as a founding member of the Social Credit Party, she promoted the distributive programme of C. H. Douglas. Gonne was well known for being the muse and long-time love interest of Irish poet W. B. Yeats.