Anna Kelly

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Anna Kelly (born Annie Christina Fitzsimmons) was an Irish journalist and the first woman to edit a women's page in Ireland. She was born on 8 January 1891 in Ballysadare, County Sligo, to James Fitzsimmons, a Royal Irish Constabulary constable and later a farmer, and Mary Fitzsimmons (née McDonald). She had two brothers and one sister. The family later changed the spelling of the surname to Fitzsimons.

She moved to Dublin around 1910 to work as a secretary. Her early jobs included typing for writer George Moore, who raised her pay. Through Moore she connected with figures in the Irish literary revival and worked for the Maunsel and Roberts publishing house. She joined Cumann na mBan and helped at the General Post Office during the Easter Rising.

In 1917 she joined Sinn Féin at their Dublin headquarters and worked in the Propaganda/Publicity Department, serving as secretary to Patrick O’Keeffe and later to Michael Collins. She prepared notes for the first sitting of Dáil Éireann on 21 January 1919 and helped publish the Irish Bulletin from 1919 to 1921. She was known as “Miss Fitz.”

During the Civil War she worked on the Republican War News and was imprisoned by Free State forces in late 1922. She went on hunger strike, escaped briefly, but was rearrested in May 1923 and released after the ceasefire.

She freelanced as a journalist in the 1920s. When The Irish Press started in 1931, she became the first women’s page editor in Ireland, wrote features, and had a regular column. She also travelled in the south as a roving reporter and covered meetings in Geneva about the League of Nations, assisting de Valera’s delegation. In 1938 she visited Germany and interviewed Adolf Hitler. She was reproved for a light remark about President Douglas Hyde’s moustache.

She grew disillusioned with Fianna Fáil policies in the early 1940s and was fired from The Irish Press in the early 1950s after criticizing the government. She later worked for other papers, including the Sunday Express, and reported on the 1947 Big Freeze in Dublin.

She married Francis “Frank” M. Kelly, a Sinn Féin staff member, on 23 July 1921. They had two daughters, Nancy and Ruth. Anna Kelly died of cancer on 14 June 1958 at her home in Dublin.