GPO nursing contingent
The GPO nursing contingent was a group of twelve women, including members of Cumann na mBan - the republican women's organisation for Irish independence - who remained in the besieged G.P.O. building during the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin and removed the wounded to hospital. Many women of Cumann na nGaedheal, the Irish Citizen Army and Cumann na mBan provided support to republicans before and during the Rising. On Friday 28 April 1916, pinned down by the British Army and with a fire encroaching, Pádraig Pearse said that those not qualified in first aid should leave to avoid expected worse fighting. At 18:30, Joseph Plunkett gave the order to prepare the wounded republicans for removal. Volunteers were positioned in lanes and courtyards and passages had been knocked through houses by the hundreds of volunteers. Fr. John Flanagan, medical officer John Doyle and two medical students went with the women. The twelve, who had barely slept for days, carried the blanket-wrapped wounded through on stretchers. Sometimes under fire, they waited for a lull in the gunfire at the Coliseum theatre and passed quietly through an upper balcony. They went through the G.P.O. courtyard, and two volunteers helped them get through to