[5] Her father died at the young age of 36, a misfortune that Coyle attributed to the pressures of dealing with unscrupulous landlords who evicted her family from their lands.

[6] As head of the County Donegal branch of Cumann na mBan Coyle played a leading role in mobilizing her members to canvass on behalf of Sinn Féin for the 1918 general election.

[9] She noted in her private papers, 'I read a newspaper during the whole comedy and only raised my eyes once to tell the presiding officer that he was wasting his precious time, as I did not recognise his sham court, as I spoke Irish one of the police had to translate my seven words of wisdom.

On 31 October 1921 Coyle and Kearns, along with two other inmates Mary Burke and Aileen Keogh, with help from sympathetic warders, scaled the wall of the prison and escaped in cars driven by republicans who had been instructed to wait outside.

[13] In response to the 1920 large-scale expulsions of Catholic workers from their jobs in Belfast, Coyle worked to enforce Sinn Féins 'Belfast Boycott' of unionist-owned businesses, banks and goods produced in that city.

[16] However, in September 1922 the Provisional Government decided to crack down on the activities of Cumann na mBan renegades and Coyle was the first member to be arrested as part of this move.

Initially held at Ballyshannon she created another first there by becoming the Cumann na mBan member to go on hunger strike, refusing food for seven days as there was no female prison guard.

[17] Later moved to the North Dublin Union internment camp after an infamous night of terror for women transferred from Mountjoy Prison and Kilmainham Gaol.

Coyle noted the terrible conditions at the North Dublin Union, which had previously housed troops: 'without exaggeration you could dig the dirt off the floors with a spade and leave enough behind for worms'.

[4] Coyle, who held socialist opinions, was a founder member of the Republican Congress in 1934 although on 18 July that same year she and fellow Cumann na mBan activist Sheila Humphreys resigned after it became clear that a feud between the IRA factions would follow this move, something both women hoped to avoid.