The secret of Kit Cavenaugh: a remarkable Irishwoman and soldier

Christian - 'Kit' - Cavenaugh, born in 1667 in Dublin, grew up on a Leixlip farm.

A dragoon in the Marlborough Wars, Kit led an adventurous life, courting women, fighting duels and arguing a paternity suit before the truth became known: Kit was a woman.

After her husband and father of her three children, Richard Welsh, was press-ganged into the English army to fight in the European wars of the early eighteenth century, Kit disguised herself as a man and enlisted to find him.

When she finally came face to face with Richard in 1704 she was enraged to find him in the arms of a Dutch woman.

Kit's adventures did not end there ...