Irish women's history
Short, sourced articles on women in modern Irish history, from the suffrage campaign and the revolutionary period to the restrictions on women's work in the independent state.
The vote and the revolution
Cumann na mBan: the Irish women's council, 1914–1923
Cumann na mBan, the Irish women's council founded in 1914: its aims, its part in the 1916 Rising and War of Independence, the Treaty split and its records.
Women in the 1916 Rising
The women of the 1916 Rising: Cumann na mBan and Citizen Army members, their roles in the garrisons, the arrests, and figures such as Skinnider and Lynn.
Constance Markievicz (1868–1927)
Constance Markievicz from Lissadell to the 1916 Rising: first woman elected to Westminster, Ireland's first woman cabinet minister, and her later career.
The Irish suffrage movement: how Irish women won the vote
How Irish women won the vote: from the Haslams' 1876 society to the Irish Women's Franchise League, the 1912 protests, 1918 and equal suffrage in 1922.
Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington (1877–1946)
Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington (1877-1946): suffrage leader, co-founder of the Irish Women's Franchise League, campaigner after 1916, critic of the 1937 Constitution.
Elizabeth O'Farrell and the surrender of 1916
Elizabeth O'Farrell (1884-1957), the Cumann na mBan nurse who carried Pearse's surrender in 1916 and was later edited out of the surrender photograph.
Women in the new state
The marriage bar in Ireland
The marriage bar in Ireland required women in the civil service and other jobs to resign on marriage. When it began, who it affected, and how it ended in 1973.
Each article lists its sources. For primary material, good starting points are the Military Archives' pension and witness collections, the National Library of Ireland, the National Archives and the Dictionary of Irish Biography; see resources.