Strokestown Co Roscommon.
Una Sharkey was Office in Command of the North Roscommon Brigade, Cuman na mBán. She defiantly sold republican literature and songbooks from her stationery shop, which she ran with her sister, Lena, in Strokestown. The Sharkey sisters’ premises was raided on a number of occasions by the Royal Irish Constabulary and military forces, and culminated in the business being forced to close along with all their stock confiscated under the Defence of the Realm Act (DORA). Both Una and her sister were interned on three occasions, but the incessant threats, frequent arrests and constant harassment by British forces failed to stymie the sister’s republican activities.
Una served as chairman (sic) of the Strokestown Board of Guardians and later as Vice-Chairman (sic) of Roscommon County Council where she championed the plight of the county’s poor by pioneering the movement which precipitated the dissolution of the workhouse system in Ireland.
She remained an avowed republican after the treaty and she fervently campaigned for the release of republican prisoners by the Irish Free State government. Her efforts towards Ireland’s claim for independence were recognised upon her death when Taoiseach, Eamon de Valera sent a personal message of condolence to her family. Una died on 26 September 1943.