They also kept meticulous records of the armaments and equipment held by the Brigade, effectively acting in the role as quartermasters. Spies in the Crown forces were recruited and handled by the Wallaces and British Army codes were deciphered by them. Dispatches went through the shop for IRA operations. 1 Brigade leadership were held in the kitchen at the back of the shop, where raids and ambushes were planned. Records show that Sheila became a Staff Officer in the IRA, making her one of the highest female rank holders in the organisation at the time. It was essentially the Brigade headquarters where the intelligence and communications activities in the city and county were co-ordinated during the War of Independence. After the shutting down of the Cork Volunteers headquarters in Sheares Street in 1917, the Wallaces’ small shop became more than a meeting place for the leadership of the Cork Volunteers. Because of their deep-rooted sense of nationalism, they also came to know prominent local nationalist figures in Cork such as Tomás McCurtain, Terence MacSwiney, Florence O’Donoghue, Seán O’Hegarty, as well as Michael Collins.Īs the nationalist movement gained more popularity throughout Ireland, the Wallace Sisters became deeply involved with the Irish Volunteers. Interested in nationalist and socialist ideals, Sheila and Nora became friendly with figures such and James Connolly and Countess Markievicz.

Over the shop the sisters lived in small, meagre quarters. On the very narrow street in the shadow of the large St Augustine’s Church, the shop sold newspapers, sweets, cigarettes, magazines and religious items such as statues and rosary beads. Sheila and Nora Wallace grew up in rural north Cork, before coming to live and work in Cork City in the 1900s where they rented the premises on Brunswick Street (now St Augustine’s Street) in the centre of the city.

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