An Irishwoman’s Diary on Barbara Retz, the mystery woman of the Rising

At the age of 31, Barbara Retz was imprisoned following the Rising, along with the other “Sinn Féin” women. She was held until May 8th, 1916, in Kilmainham Gaol. She is in the list of prisoners published in the newspapers and also features in the handwritten list of women in Kilmainham prepared by Máire Comerford in September 1965 and given to the Kilmainham Gaol restoration group. There is no other documentary evidence to link Barbara Retz to the Rising.

For many years following my first reading of the list of prisoners, I assumed “Retz” was perhaps a misspelling or, if correct, a false name. I speculated that it was selected by the prisoner as an unusual name for the amusement of fellow prisoners.

Records

One can imagine and invent all sorts of scenarios by way of explanation. But thanks to the online digitisation of records and material on the web, and the foresight of Barbara’s daughter to give her son the middle name Retz, it was possible to discover her story in time for the centenary. The mystery woman of the Rising has been found.

She was born in Stuttgart as Barbara Boeger, and when they moved to live in Ireland, she and her siblings changed their name to Baker. Then one would assume Barbara (known as Babette) was arrested because of the Rising’s pro-German stance. The authorities knew little of the motives and leadership of the rebellion in early May 1916. The leaders of the Provisional Government of the Irish Republic had mentioned in their Proclamation “our gallant allies of Europe”. Arms from Germany had been intercepted. Sir Roger Casement was in England in early May 1916, awaiting trial for treason.

Nationality

It would seem therefore as if Babette, a German, had been picked up because of her nationality. Records show that her husband George was then in detention as a prisoner of war on the Isle of Man, alongside other Germans residents in the British Isles. He would remain there until 1919. Images in the Imperial War Museum survive of that camp. The family’s story was able to confirm this and also to add that Babette and George were one of the group of 10 Germans who had come to Ireland together. The couple stayed in Dublin while others of the group moved to America.

At the time of the Rising, Babette was maintaining the family businesses, pork butcher shops, one on the South Circular Road and another in Rathmines. Joyce mentions them in Ulysses. At the beginning of the first World War, the Retz butcher shop on South Circular Road had been attacked by a hostile mob.

Times were hard for the young mother, with one child alive, and another having died.

There is nothing on paper to link Babette with the 1916 leaders but the family story is that she knew Patrick Pearse. The other information handed down was that she was caught “behind enemy lines”.

Her daughter’s memory was that throughout the War of Independence, Babette arranged safe houses for men on the run and provided money for medical treatment. She obtained medicines from doctors who had rooms in one of the premises she owned.

Anti-Nazi

In 1938 she had returned to her native Germany, where she was arrested in Berlin for taking part in an anti-Nazi rally. After 14 days of imprisonment, intervention by the British embassy secured her release.

She was a founder member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) in Dublin. Some accounts survive in their records and also a picture.

She died in New York en route to visit Salt Lake City. She is buried in California, where her family had settled in the years after their departure from Ireland.

The “Mná 1916/Women of 1916” exhibition will be on tour around Ireland until December 2016. Dates and details available at ireland.ie

The author wishes to thank Gilbert Retz McCabe, Michael Harvey and Paul Turnell