In 1918 Irish women were given
the right to vote; but not every woman, only women over 30, who had property
rights or a university education. To commemorate
the hundredth anniversary of women been given the opportunity to vote The Old
Tuam Society and Galway County Council have joined forces to present a
conference on Pioneering Women in Irish
History.
This very important
conference will be held in the Corralea Court Hotel, The Square, Tuam, Co.
Galway on Saturday 3rd November, 2018 and will commence with
registration at 9.30am and finish at 4.30pm.
Over the
course of the day there will be 6 very informative and varied lectures. Mary
Clancy, will provide an insight into Local Politics and Women's
Suffrage: Women in Rural Galway. This
lecture will examine
women’s suffrage campaigning in rural Galway in the context of the existing
public visibility of women, especially in poor law and local politics. It will
consider how life-stories of forgotten pioneering women throw light on forms of
political power associated with the daily lives of women, children and the
destitute. It will also consider the place of well-known local public figures,
such as Edith Drury (Eibhlín Ní Choisdealbha), Alice Perry and Ada English.
Finally, the talk will discuss how the women’s suffrage campaign was able to operate
in rural areas through the work of visiting speakers.
Geraldine Curtin will then speak about, Dealers,
dressmakers and secret agents: Women prisoners in Galway, 1917-1921. Geraldine will present the story of Winifred O’Brien,
a young English woman, incarcerated in Galway Gaol as a political prisoner in
1920. Winifred’s occupation is recorded in the gaol register as ‘Journalist and
secret service agent’. She was one of a number of women who were in the gaol
between 1917 and 1921. Geraldine will look at both political and non-political
women prisoners
in Galway in this period, their crimes and punishments, and their treatment
while in gaol.
The title of Mary J. Murphy’s lecture is “I am a
Galway woman!” Maureen (née McHugh) O’Carroll T.D. Mary J will
examine Maureen’s roots in the north Galway parish of Caherlistrane
where her father was born in 1873. It will explore how her devotion to him - and to his home place
- was vitally influential in her own evolution as a politician. Maureen’s
‘public’ life has been well documented but little is known about her Galway
story, or her Gaelic League activist journalist father and 1916 combatant,
Michael McHugh,
who died when she was eleven. He worked in the Tuam Herald before
leaving for Dublin in 1900, where Maureen was born in 1913, one of four
surviving children. This talk will attempt to set her relentless drive,
which brought her to the seat of power in Dáil Éireann in 1954, in context with regard to the
profound influence her Galway born father had on her.
Dr. Micheline Sheehy-Skeffington will talk about her
grandmother, Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington who was a feminist, socialist,
nationalist and pacifist. On marriage, Hanna Sheehy and Francis Skeffington each
took each other’s
name and both were very active in the early 20th century campaigning for women’s suffrage.
Hanna co-founded the Irish Women’s Franchise League and was jailed twice for suffrage
actions and
went on hunger strike there. After Francis was murdered by a British army officer
during Easter Week 1916, Hanna embarked on an 18-month tour of the US to tell
the truth about British brutality in Ireland and campaign for Irish independence.
She was the only Irish activist to meet with President Wilson.
Meanwhile,
Alison Titley will speak about Irish
Women Artists in Tuam. The women who exhibited in the Tuam Art Club
Exhibitions 1943-1959 included local amateur artists, members of the Galway Art Club
and well
known Irish artists with both national and international reputations. Many of them were
pioneers and were well-known for their struggle to gain recognition and
inclusion in modern art in Ireland.
The final
lecture of the day will be by Dr. John
Cunningham who has an intriguing title for his lecture: “Don't iron while
the strike is hot!” exiled Irishwomen and the fight for workers'
rights. John will talk
about the high
levels of emigration from Ireland in the Famine and post-Famine periods meant that many pioneering
Irishwomen made their contribution
outside their native country. His paper will focus on three such women who played dynamic roles
in early labour unions. Roscommon-born
Kate Mullany (c.1838-1906) sailed to America with her family in 1850, finding employment in the collar-making
industry in Troy, New York. There,
in 1864, she established the Collar Laundry Union, considered to be the first women’s trade union in the
United States. Another Famine
emigrant to North America was Cork-born Mary Harris (1837-1930), known as Mother
Jones, who is remembered as an organiser for the United Mineworkers Union, and
as a founder of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). Also associated with
the IWW was Wexford-born Mary Fitzgerald, née Sinnott (1882-1960),
publisher of labour newspapers, feminist and militant trade unionist, and the
first woman to be elected to public office in South Africa.
There will also be a display by the
Irish Workhouse Centre, Portumna on the lives of women of the workhouse.
This conference is part funded by
Galway County Council, Galway Decade of Commemoration 2013-2013 and Creative
Ireland under Galway County Council Cultural and Creativity Strategy. The
conference fee of €10 includes tea and coffee and a two course lunch.
A pdf of the conference information brochure is available here.
Or for further information please contact one of the
following:
MARIE MANNION
Heritage Officer,
Galway County Council
Phone 091 509198/087 9088387
Email: mmannion@galwaycoco.ie
GRÁINNE SMYTH
Forward Planning,
Galway County Council.
Phone 091 509121
Email: gsmyth@galwaycoco.ie
ANNE TIERNEY, Old Tuam Society,
4 Bishop Street, Tuam, Co. Galway.
Phone 086-3431266
Email journalots@gmail.com
