Ella Hassett: “Sharing Stories of women in history”

Published: Thursday, March 12, 2015

In Mary Robinson’s inauguration speech in 1990, she mentioned her wish to bring the stories of Irish women back into history, “finding a voice where they found a vision” to quote Eavan Boland. This is the basis for my own research into Irish women in history.

My journey began a year ago, with a male colleague asking me defiantly ‘I bet you can’t name ten remarkable Irish women in history!’ and to my shame, I could not. Aside from the Marys (McAleese and Robinson), a few suffragettes, Constance Marciewicz and Grace O’Malley, I was stumped. I knew that there had to be many great stories out there waiting to be told.

From that day on I attempted to track down the remarkable stories of women who should be acknowledged for their contribution to the history of Ireland and the rest of the world. Women who were famous, infamous and relatively unknown. I include women from both sides of the border, if they were born on the island of Ireland, I am interested to tell their stories. I have found politicians, poets, singers, actresses, suffragettes, adventurers, scientists, explorers, doctors, criminals and everything in between.

Some of my work has already been posted on the website of the Women’s Musuem of Ireland, an organization run by a wonderful group of young women helping to tell the story of Irish women in history through a series of exhibitions and online displays.

In collaboration with the National Women’s Council of Ireland, I will endeavour to share these stories with you, the reader, on a regular basis. If you have any suggestions of women you would like to see here, get in touch with NWCI and let us know!