Though short-lived, Cumann na mBan placed equality for women on the political agenda and demonstrated women could be as politically active and capable as men. This fascinating history covers their participation in the 1916 Rising, their underground support of the IRA that followed, and their eventual dissolution after the Irish Civil War. "Independent scholar McCarthy has written an accessible survey of the group from its inception through the Easter Rising of 1916, the Anglo-Irish War, and the Civil War from the perspective of nationalism and republicanism."-Choice.