Unseen Army

Written by Fionnuala Maxwell as part of "The Decade of Centenaries" commemorative programme, "As it Happened" devised and managed by Edwina Guckian, supported by Leitrim Library and Leitrim County Council, this song remembers the work of many of the brave Leitrim Cumann na mBan members whose work often went unnoticed but was an integral part of the War of Independence in Ireland. There are very few first hand accounts from the Leitrim women of their involvement at the time, but two main statements from Margaret and Bridget Sweeney, whose nephew Sean Sweeney provided instrumentals for, arranged and recorded this track with Fionnuala and various other musicans, gave a good insight into their and other local womens' involvement. From these accounts and from information gleaned from various resources including publications and articles from the Leitrim Observer, Dr. Padraig McGarty, Cormac Ó Súilleabháin, Micheal Whelan and Local Studies section, Leitrim Library, Ballinamore, the ideas for this song began to emerge and Fionnuala felt it was time to address the lack of female voices from this period and redress the balance a little.