They originally met on Easter Sunday after noon Mass, she wrote, with the intention of presenting an inscribed blackthorn stick to (an unnamed) Arthur Griffith, who had thrashed a newspaper editor for maligning Maud Gonne.

As they had no money, they raised subscriptions all over Dublin, coming together in an association named Daughters of Ireland, or (in deliberately antiquated spelling) Inghinidhe na h-Éireann.

[7] Maud Gonne was elected President of the association; Vice-Presidents were Alice Furlong, Jenny Wyse Power, Annie Egan, and Anna Johnston (Ethna Carbery).

Among the founders were Helena Molony, Sinéad O'Flanagan (later wife of Éamon de Valera), actors Maire Quinn and Molly and Sara Allgood, physician Kathleen Lynn and Mary Macken, a leading member of the Catholic Women's Suffrage League.

[12] The Inghinidhe's objects were defined as follows:[13] They sponsored classes and entertainment for children and adults, and protested at the British army recruitment centre in O'Connell Street.