Lucy Keaveney: Forgotten Women
Published: Monday, May 19, 2014
In April of this year The Women’s History Association of Ireland marked the Centenary of Cumann na mBan with a series of events leading to a two day conference in Collins Barracks. During those four days we heard testimony to the activities of the Cumann na mBan women who have been largely ignored in the narrative of those who contributed to the formation of Ireland. At the unveiling of a Cumann na mBan plaque in Wynn’s hotel on 3 April the Minister for Arts Culture and the Gaeltacht, Jimmy Deenihan remarked: “The role of women in the momentous events leading up to the Easter Rising 1916 is often overlooked. However, women were a huge force behind the historic developments that took place in Ireland from 1912 to the foundation of the Irish Free State”
One such woman was Anna Parnell, founder member of the Ladies Land League, an organisation set up to fill the void left as the men from the Irish Land League were imprisoned after it was declared illegal in 1881. The ladies resisted with force and determination the eviction of tenants with great success. However when the men, including her brother, Charles Stewart Parnell, were released from jail, the Ladies Land League was sidelined. Anna left Ireland disillusioned, changed her name and never spoke to her brother again. She died a lonely death in Illfracombe (Northern Devon) 20 September 1911. Five people attended her funeral, her family being unaware of her death. Later her sister, Theodosia Paget, erected the headstone and a plaque was placed on it in 2002 by the Parnell society with a quote from Anna:
“The best part of Independence,
The independence of the mind”
It took some time to locate Anna’s grave earlier this year and some hours to renovate it by cleaning away weeds and spreading gravel. The headstone is very fragile, a fact which I brought to the attention of the Minister Deenihan during the centenary celebrations. On Friday 4 April he announced that Anna’s grave and that of Eva Gore Booth in London would in future be maintained and would never be let deteriorate again.
One hundred years after the foundation of Cumann na mBan there was great cause for celebration recently when Frances Fitzgerald was appointed as Minister for Justice and Equality. She joins a distinguished list of females in the legal sector which include Máire Whelan Attorney General, Susan Denham, Chief Justice, Claire Loftus, Director of Public Prosecutions, Eileen Creedon, Chief state Solicitor, Marie Cassidy, State Pathologist and Nóirín O Sullivan, Interim Gárda Commissioner.
In 2011 the Countess Markievicz School was formed in memory of Countess Markievicz who was the first female cabinet minister in Europe, holding the portfolio of Minister for Labour in the Irish Republican Government from 1919-1922. It would be another 57 years before a woman was appointed to Cabinet – the appointment of Máire Geoghegan Quinn as Minister for the Gaeltacht in 1979. There are two female cabinet ministers today. According to the latest world ranking of women in politics, Ireland has slipped to 92nd position behind countries such as Afghanistan, Rwanda and Saudi Arabia.
In 1892 Countess Markievicz went to London to train as a painter and 30 of her paintings, completed while she was in Holloway prison, are now stored in Collins Barracks, including a portrait of Maud Gonne, who was also a prisoner with her at the time. She also made an Irish flag in prison, and efforts are being made at national level to have this flag returned to Ireland from the museum where it is being stored in a drawer in London.
The Countess Markievicz School takes place on 24 May in Liberty Hall. The Markievicz lecture will be given by Leanne Lane and will be on Cumann na mBan. Both Bernadette McAliskey and Ailbhe Smyth will talk about life experiences and there will be two panels dealing with “Women and Violence” and “Young Women and Feminism”.
More information can be accessed at the Countess markievicz School website and you can email here to book yourself a place.