Smuggled automatic pistol, 1920-21

Smuggled automatic pistol, 1920-21

This book, a French Dictionary, was left at the Gresham Hotel wrapped in brown paper with the instruction "Miss K. Mullen c/o Mr. P. Kingsbury (To be held"). Inside the book is an automatic pistol concealed in a hollow cut out of the pages. The package was never collected from the Gresham, and came into the possession of an employee of the hotel whose son donated it to the National Museum.

Miss K. Mullen, very probably a false name, was likely to have been a member of Cumann na mBan smuggling weapons and ammunition for use during the War of Independence. Women undertook these dangerous jobs of moving weapons and communications around the city as they were less likely to be searched by the police. However, if ‘Miss Mullen’ had been caught with this package containing a hidden firearm, she would have been subjected to the same violence suffered by many Irish women during this time.