Born: 28 February 1875, Ireland
Died: 20 September 1957
Country most active: Ireland
Also known as: Katie Gifford
This biography is republished from The Dictionary of Irish Biography and was written by Lawrence William White and Patrick Long. Shared by permission in line with Creative Commons ‘Attribution’ (CC BY) licencing.
Katherine Anna (‘Katie’) Gifford Wilson (1875–1957), republican, civil servant, and teacher, was born 28 February 1875 at 12 Carlisle Avenue, Donnybrook, Co. Dublin, second child of Frederick and Isabella Gifford. She graduated from the RUI with an honours BA (1898), one of the first generation of Irish women to receive university education. A gifted linguist, she was fluent in several languages. She married (1909) Walter Harris Wilson, six years her junior, and went to live with him in his native Wales; they had no children. She converted to Roman catholicism on her marriage. After his death in the 1918 influenza epidemic, she returned to Ireland and became active in Sinn Féin and Cumann na mBan. As registrar of the first dáil loan, she worked closely with the finance minister, Michael Collins. She stood unsuccessfully in a north Dublin ward in the 1920 municipal elections. She was arrested in early 1923 during the civil war, because, according to family tradition, she was mistaken for her better known and more politically active sister Grace; however, she continued to be detained after Grace’s arrest. Imprisoned in Kilmainham jail and the North Dublin Union, Katie, probably owing to her education, maturity of years, and skills in negotiation, was appointed a prisoners’ CO, serving on the Cumann na mBan prisoners’ council. She was released in September 1923, one month after Grace’s release.
She was secretary to J. J. Walsh, Free State minister for posts and telegraphs, on the organising council of the 1924 Tailteann games; whether this service pre- or post-dated her incarceration is not certain. Hired unofficially on a temporary clerk’s wages to the administrative staff of the new broadcasting station, Radio 2RN, by the first station director, Seamus Clandillon, shortly before the service’s official opening (1 January 1926), she fulfilled the duties of assistant director and woman organiser pending formal appointments to these posts. Within months she was discharged on order of the finance minister, Ernest Blythe, amid a row between the departments of finance, and posts and telegraphs, over the station’s staffing requirements and control of appointments; her political background may have been a factor. In ensuing years she was active in the Irish White Cross, and taught French in the City of Dublin Technical School, on Parnell Sq. Residing for many years on Philipsburg Avenue, Fairview – where she provided temporary home for Sydney on her return from America in 1921, and Grace on her release from prison in 1923 – in later life she lived at 34 Lower Baggot St. Remembered for her warm, loving personality, and beautiful voice in conversation, she was a soothing and binding influence among the strong-willed, volatile, and opinionated individuals of the Gifford family. She died in St Monica’s private nursing home, Belvedere Place, on 20 September 1957, and received a republican funeral in Glasnevin cemetery.