Dorothy Macardle (1889–1958) was a historian, humanitarian and novelist, whose political activism and creative output positioned her as a significant yet marginalised figure in 20thcentury Irish history. A committed republican, Macardle was imprisoned without trial in 1922 for her anti-Treaty writings. Her incarceration in Mountjoy, Kilmainham Gaol, and the North Dublin Union, and the repeated destruction of her manuscripts by Free State soldiers, in the Abbey Theatre fire, and later by her own brother, contributed to the erasure of her legacy from dominant historical and cultural narratives. This study investigates how artistic practice can engage with such silenced histories, focusing on Macardle’s prison diaries as texts of creative and political resistance. These diaries offer rare access to her inner voice, charting her thoughts on politics, philosophy, class and religion. They also reveal the evolving consciousness, dreams, and psychic experiences of an emerging Gothic writer whose contribution to modern Ireland is yet to be fully acknowledged. They are central to the Dorothy Macardle Archive and Performance Project (DMAPP), a creative research initiative that uses theatre, radio and film to explore how performance can respond to gaps in the archive, confront historical erasure, and amplify marginalised voices. Framed by feminist performance theory, archival theory, and memory studies, this project engages with the prison diaries as both historical documents and living texts that invite reinterpretation. Drawing on the work of theorists such as Peggy Phelan, Jill Dolan, Michel Foucault, and Giorgio Agamben, the research explores key themes, including the spectral return of women erased from history, the symbolic violence of lost archives, and the incarceration of the female imagination. Through the lens of Practice-as-Research (PaR), DMAPP investigates how embodied creative practice can generate new knowledge, animate forgotten stories, and contribute to a more inclusive cultural memory. Set within the broader context of the Decade of Centenaries, this work contributes to the growing efforts by historians, artists, and communities to reframe the revolutionary period through a more gender-inclusive lens. By reclaiming Macardle’s voice and legacy through performance, the project invites public reflection on the politics of memory, the ethics of archival engagement, and the potential of artistic practice to reshape our understanding of the past.