- The Godfathers of Herstory: Celebrating Father's Day

Herstory has been blessed over the years with some incredible ‘Herstory Godfathers’ – men who have encouraged, supported and promoted the project. Equality is human nature and when we spot it, we have to celebrate it – so this Father’s Day, we want to celebrate all those fathers who have encouraged and supported their daughter’s in their endeavours. 

Mary Ward, illustrated by Adrienne Geoghegan

Mary Ward (neé King) was born in 1827 to Henry King and Harriett Lloyd, in Ferbane, Co. Offaly. Growing up, as she did, in a well-to-do scientific family, Ward developed a great interest in nature. From a very young age, she started collecting insects and using her father’s magnifying glass to study and draw them in great detail. The co-founder of the Astronomical Society of London, James South, took notice of her sketches one day and immediately tried to persuade her father to buy her a microscope. Her father did buy her a microscope, reportedly one of the finest microscopes in Ireland at the time, and microscopy became Ward’s life interest. Similarly, Agnes Mary Clerke, born in 1842 in Cork, developed an interest in astronomy at a young age. Her father, John William Clerke, taught her the basics of astronomy, and she grew up using his telescope for her observations. Clerke became the fifth woman to become a member of the Royal Astronomical Society and her work was internationally recognised.

Oonah Keogh was born in 1903 in Dublin and she went on to become the first woman stockbroker. After some years of study and travel, Keogh was offered a job in stockbroking from her father, who had his own company. As Dr. Angela Byrne wrote, ‘No stock exchange had ever had a woman working in one before […] But Ireland had a new constitution which guaranteed equality and there was no reason to reject Keogh except for her gender. With her education and wealth, she was fully qualified for the role.’ Similarly, Maria Edgeworth, born in about 1768, grew up to work alongside her father, Richard Lovell Edgeworth, as both his assistant in estate management and as a collaborator on a series of educational books for children. From a young age she had been educated on topics such as law, economics, science and politics by her father.

Oonah Keogh. illustrated by Lauren O’Neill

Outside of Ireland, Mary Shelley (neé Wollstonecroft Godwin) was born in 1797 to feminist philosopher Mary Wollstonecroft and writer William Godwin. Her mother died very shortly after her birth and she was raised by her stepmother and father who tutored her and encouraged her education. He had an eclectic library at her disposal and many intellectuals of the time used to frequent their house. At age eighteen, Mary wrote Frankenstein, and it was published when she was just twenty. More recently, Malala Yousafzai was born in Pakistan in 1997. As she said herself, ‘welcoming a baby girl is not always cause for celebration in Pakistan’ but her father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, was ‘determined to give [her] every opportunity a boy would have.’ Ziauddin was a teacher and ran a girls’ school in their village, but when the Taliban took control of their town, girls were no longer allowed to go to school. Malala began to speak out on behalf of girls ‘and our right to learn’ but this made her a target and in 2012 a masked gunman boarded her school bus and shot her in the head. In 2014, Malala and her dad founded the Malala fund ‘a charity dedicated to giving every girl an opportunity to achieve a future she chooses’ and for this, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in December of that year.

Malala and her dad Ziauddin

Some of the women we’ve been championing more recently have told us about the impact their father’s and father-figures have had on their lives. Ellie Kisyombé, co-founder of OurTable, said that while there ‘was no feminism or being feminist’ in Malawi when she was growing up her father ‘raised [her] like [her] brothers’ and raised her to be a go-getter.

Syrian Irish journalist, Razan Ibraheem had two teachers as parents, and according to her, her dad ‘is so pro-women […] he never tried to restrict me…’ She went on to say, ‘…despite my dad's difficult life and poor background in Syria, he worked day and night to educate me and my siblings and dedicated his life to empower us and raise us with values. I would not have been where I am now without his support and his belief in me. I remember his words and carry them everywhere I go:

"Razan! It's your life, your choice."

"Don't ever think you are less than any man on earth."

"Education is your weapon to success."

"Never take anything for granted. Think, question and search."

"Razan! I will miss you, but Go, Go.. explore the world, get new experiences and enjoy the new adventure."

To her dad, Razan said, ‘…daddy, although 4,110.89 km is between us and I have not seen you in five years, you are present in every step in my life.’

Razan and her dad Younes, 2009

Founder of AkiDwA, Salomé Mbugua, grew up in a family of five girls and four boys and she told us that her strong belief in equality came from her father; ‘My father always believed in equality and the way people are treated. He boasted about his daughters and his love towards us was immense. In fact, one day when we were all having dinner, he declared to my mum that he has a very strong love and bond with us, his daughters. Culturally, boys should inherit all from their fathers, but my father declared his wealth to all his children.’ What stayed with her all these years was her father’s ‘kindness and generosity.’ When she was young, he transferred his coffee estate to her mother which made him ‘an extraordinary man’ for in her culture ‘men behave very differently’ and ‘will never transfer any wealth to their wife.’ Salomé was brought up in a rural part of Kenya, about 40 minutes from Nairobi, and talking to us earlier this year she said, ‘…my father believed that people should have equal access to everything. He taught me that you can never hide from the truth. If something is happening and it’s wrong, then speak up! […]My courage and sense of equality, justice and human rights are inspired by my learnings from my father. His words of wisdom and character continue to echo in my head up to today. He was a great man, may his soul rest in perfect peace.’

Salomé and her dad James

Melanie with her dad and siblings

Here at Herstory HQ we’d also like to send our love to our dads who have supported and encouraged us in all of our endeavours. Founder of Herstory, Melanie Lynch, has said: ‘Looking back at my childhood, it’s an anomaly that I founded Herstory. Growing up in our family there was no question that women were equal to men. To be honest, feminism wasn’t even on my radar. I never felt that my gender was a disadvantage. My father had a formative influence on me: gifting my love of music, nature, philosophy and meditation. As a nipper, he would bring me on epic hikes and island escapades to bird-watch and hunt for fossils. Education was paramount and he shaped my worldview with the National Geographic, David Attenborough documentaries and Disney animations. I am the eldest of five and I have three strong, spirited sisters. I confess that my only brother, who is six years my junior, was an outspoken feminist long before me.’

Melanie and her dad

Melanie with her grandfather

Katelyn and her dad Damien, 2018

Project Manager and Researcher, Katelyn Hanna, attributes her love of history to her dad and maternal grandfather; ‘My dad used to always call me his scholar. When I would come home from school he’d ask me ‘How’s my scholar today?’ He was always very encouraging of my education, and still is - to this day if he sees a magazine or article about women’s history he’ll get it for me or show it to me. He introduced me to all the big movies growing up (although I still maintain that I was exposed to Jaws too early!) Last year, when I started to learn Irish again, he got me a handmade framed image that says ‘anam cara’ which means soulmate - it was so thoughtful. We’ve had tough conversations over the years, from the marriage equality and repeal referendums to the more recent Black Lives Matter protests - he will always engage in the conversation with me and I know he reads what articles he can and tries to stay informed, which is very important to me. We’ve influenced each other a lot, and we’re still constantly learning. Just as I see a lot of my dad in my granda, I see a lot of myself in my dad, and I’m now realising how special it is to be able to grow up and become actual friends with your parents and grandparents, and I’m really enjoying that right now. Sláinte, dad.

Katelyn and her dad, 1997

Fiona and her dad

Project Manager in Northern Ireland, Fiona Lowe, said ‘There’s rarely a day goes past when my father doesn’t quote or reference his grandmother. She lived with his family growing up and influenced the admiration he has for strong women. The greatest gift he has imparted to me is a sense of calmness and contentment. I don’t think there is any situation where this can be overestimated. My grandfather (Thomas McGuigan) was a firm advocate of female education. By the time I was born, he was in his eighties and I only had over a year in his arms before he passed. A deep thinker by his very nature, each day he would recite poetry and sing to me on a daily basis. The common denominator that unites the two men is a sense of knowing- knowing unconditional love. It is not derived from words but a knowing smile and a nod. That speaks a lot more to me.

Fiona and her gradad

Jim and his daughter Suzanne

We asked some of Herstory’s Godfathers to tell us about how they’ve influenced and been influenced by their own daughters. Artist Jim Fitzpatrick told us: ‘Of course I would love to think I empowered my daughter but the truth is quite simple enough. My daughter Suzanne was always brought up to believe in equality and the right of women like herself to make their own decisions about their own lives. My own single mother was her inspiration. We have been on the same page on all the important issues relating to women’s rights, LGBTQ rights, abortion rights etc. The only time she threatened to disown me was when Roy Keane (her hero) walked out in Saipan: ‘You’re lucky we agree on this one, Dad, because I would have disowned you if you didn’t support Keano’. Yep, Roy was my hero too...luckily :) Right now we’re separated by the coronavirus (she lives in Italy) but she is and always has been my own guardian angel, always watching out for me and when I had cancer guess who took weeks off to stay with me and look after me? Yep my amazing daughter.’

Jim Fitzpatrick and his daughter Suzanne

Thérese and her dad, John Ennis

Thérese Casey, daughter of poet John Ennis (another Herstory Godfather) told us about her dad, ‘Always a kind, hardworking resilient father with strong beliefs in the value and importance of education, guiding us to believe in what we could achieve. All the family have accomplished a lot academically and in our fields of work. Guiding us in trying to do what is right with a strong sense of morals. Happy memories of home of my Mum and Dad, a happy peaceful home where we enjoyed the early years of our lives. Lovely memories of trips to Ballybunion (Kerry), the Comeragh Mountains, Woodstown beach, happily playing on the family farm in the fields of Coralstown (Mullingar) in my father's birthplace.’

John Ennis’ daughters, Thérese, Fiona and Ann Marie

Szabolcs Kariko, yet another Herstory Godfather who created some gorgeous artwork and illustrations for Herstory over the past few years, shared with us his thoughts on equality, and growing up in the Eastern Block in the 1980s: ‘Perhaps the only advantage of communist rule in Eastern-Europe was the gender equality. After the Russian occupation of Hungary, equal treatment was expected between comrades regardless of sex. To encourage women to take up “manly” jobs, posters inviting “girls” to drive a tractor and to work in a factory appeared in the 1950s. Growing up in the Eastern Block in the 80s, I haven’t asked any questions about feminism. The women of my family were independent, cultivated. My grandmothers both studied before the world war, and my mother was one of the first female computer engineer in the country.

Thanks to them it never occurred to me that women may be less equal than men. […However] Working as a freelance art director, I was once contacted by a client to do a series of posters of inspirational quotes to motivate the employees. I was surprised to learn that between the 50 famous people quoted, there was only one female. When I pointed it out to the client, I got the answer that they couldn’t find enough inspiring women. So I did the research for them and found 50 women worth being quoted : there were activists, artists, Nobel-prize laureates and CEOs. Women who excel in their work and they are still unnoticed and ignored.

Talking to my girlfriends, they often complain about not getting heared. Even though I’m a quiet and introverted person, I never had to face this problem. Society is still trained to listen more to men than to women. That’s why I found it important that as men we lend our voices to talk about existing problems, to make things evolve and to be able to stand together in the sun. And not in the shadows.’

On Father’s Day, Herstory wants to acknowledge and thank Herstory’s Godfathers who have played an instrumental role in the formation and success of Herstory to date. In the true spirit of equality, they have created portraits, penned biographies, opened doors, forged partnerships and funded projects. Herstory simply wouldn’t exist without their support.  

Heartfelt thanks to James Harrold, Stephen Plunkett, John Ennis, Justin Lynch, Szabolcs Karikó, Seán Branigan, Courtney Davis, Jim Fitzpatrick, Bill Felton, Mervyn Greene, Neville Isdell, Patrick Greene, Darragh Doyle, Nathan Mannion, Cormac Bourke, Andrew Simpson, Damien Duffy, Donal Maguire, Sandy Dunlop, Geoff Fitzpatrick, Jeff O’ Riordan, Callum Mathieson, David Clarke, Justin Moffitt, Marty Mulligan, Rónán Nelson, Ruairí McKiernan, Patrick Carton, Conor Plunkett, Conor English, Derek O’ Connor,  Adrian Lynch, Neil Leyden,  Aron Hegarty, Oisín Ryan, Padraic Vallely, Duncan Walker, Derek Dignam, John Mc Cullagh, Christopher Campbell, Simon Coveney,  Cian Connaughton, John Kennedy, Rónán Whelan, Tim Lucey, Paddy Matthews, Lee Breslin, the Lord Mayors of Dublin and President Michael D. Higgins. 

On Father’s Day, Sunday 21st June at 7pm, Herstory invites you to a special online event in honour of the fathers who have empowered their daughters throughout the centuries and Herstory’s Godfathers who have played a pivotal role in co-creating the Irish Herstory movement. Equality is human nature and when we spot it, we have to celebrate it!

Join us for a fascinating evening of storytelling and conversation with poet John Ennis, artist Jim Fitzpatrick, celtic wisdom keeper Mari Kennedy, activists Ellie Kisyombé and Salome Mbugua, co-founder of Bard Mythologies Sandy Dunlop, and more.

Sources and further reading:

Hanna, Katelyn, ‘Mary Ward,’ online at: https://www.herstory.ie/news/2020/2/11/mary-ward?rq=mary%20ward [accessed 10 June 2020].

Byrne, Angela, ‘Herstory: Agnes Mary Clerke - 1842 - 1907: Science writer and astronomer,’ online at: https://www.rte.ie/culture/herstory/2019/0903/1073606-herstory-agnes-mary-clerke/ [accessed 11 June 2020].

Byrne, Angela, ‘Herstory: Oonah Keogh - 1903 - 1989 - the first woman stockbroker in the world,’ online at: https://www.rte.ie/culture/herstory/2020/0127/1111240-herstory-oonah-keogh/ [accessed 10 June 2020].

Keon, Edwina, ‘Maria Edgeworth,’ online at: https://www.ria.ie/news/dictionary-irish-biography/dib-entry-day-maria-edgeworth [accessed 11 June 2020].

Yousafzai, Malala, ‘Malala’s Story,’ online at: https://www.malala.org/malalas-story [accessed 11 June 2020].

Yousafzai, Ziauddin, ‘What Being Malala's Father Taught Me About Feminism,’ online at: https://time.com/5605625/malala-yousafzai-father/ [accessed 11 June 2020].

Pollak, Sorcha, ‘New to the Parish: Observing the Syrian war ‘is like watching your child dying,’ online at https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/people/new-to-the-parish-observing-the-syrian-war-is-like-watching-your-child-dying-1.2675641?fbclid=IwAR2kJ655hM8xR7hHS11XuGUePHV_TbGmP96WMHt67cFIKXXU6pHG7_yD-ek [accessed on 11 June 2020].

Hanna, Katelyn, ‘Interview with Salomé Mbugua,’ online at: https://www.herstory.ie/modern/2020/2/4/salome-mbugua?rq=salome [accessed 11 June 2020].

Thank you to Ellie, Razan, Salomé, John, Therese, Jim, and Szabolcs for sharing with us a few lines on their relationships with their dads/daughters for this photo essay.

- Finding Herstories in your Family Tree

Finding Herstories in your Family Tree

In September 2019, the children of Ireland were asked to nominate their heroines, and this inspired many of them to look to the women in their families and in their family trees. Family tree research can be very rewarding and with every day that passes, more and more records are being made available online – many for free! It is the perfect activity to get into right now as we social distance and remain in our homes.

For those of you interested in conducting family tree research, but not sure where to start, we’ve compiled a list of websites, and advice, that can help you forward.

Who might you find in your family tree?

1.      Talk to your family

This has to be your first port of call. If you’re lucky enough to still have your grandparents in your life, ring them and ask them questions. Here are some useful questions to ask them that could lead you further back in your tree and give you a better understanding of what life was like for your ancestors:

• Where and when were you born?

• Who were your parents?

• When did your parents get married?

• Where were your parents from?

• What occupation had your parents?

• What was life like for you as a child?

• What were your grandparents called?

• Do you remember where your grandparents lived?

• What occupation had your grandparents?

• What do you remember about your grandparents?

Ring your grandparents and ask them about their childhood, parents and grandparents.

Answering these questions should help you when you begin to look for records. You should also ask your grandparents or older relatives to see old family photos as it’s great to be able to put a face to the people you’re finding out about!

2.      The National Census of Ireland, 1901 and 1911

This is a free resource compiled by the National Archives of Ireland and it is really invaluable to family historians. This is where the questions you asked your grandparents (or older relatives) come in handy. To start, you need to know some details of an ancestor who would have been alive in 1901 and/or 1911. I would recommend starting with 1911 - search using the name of your ancestor and the county they lived in. If your ancestor had an unusual surname, then you might be in luck when it comes to narrowing down the results. However, in most cases, you could get multiple pages of results all for the one name – so how do you narrow it down? Knowing the townland or street where your ancestor lived will really help here. If you know the names of other family members who you’d expect to be living with your ancestor, then this will also help you to narrow down the household.

Knowing the names of your ancestors’ siblings can help you to narrow down the households when looking for your family in the Census, particularly if you have a common surname.

Knowing the names of your ancestors’ siblings can help you to narrow down the households when looking for your family in the Census, particularly if you have a common surname.

What information will you get from a Census? Hopefully, you will find out more about your ancestors’ family – who they were living with the night the Census was taken in 1911. You may even get another step back in your tree if your ancestor is living with their parents, or even their grandparents! You will find out the ages of each member of the household – although beware, our ancestors’ ages often fluctuated from record to record and may not have been accurate for a multitude of reasons, so don’t place too much trust in this! You will also find out their religion, birthplace, occupation, whether they could read or write, whether they could speak Irish, their marital status, whether they had any illnesses, how many years they were married, how many children they had and their relation to the head of the household.

When you find your ancestor and click on their name you will be brought into a page that has been transcribed and is very easy to read. But, if you’d like to view the original document, then scroll down to the section ‘View census images’ and click on ‘Household Return (Form A).’ To find out about the type of house your ancestor lived in, click into ‘House and Building Return (Form B1)’ and to find out if your ancestor had out-houses such as a cow house or stable, click into ‘Out-Offices and Farm-Steadings Return (Form B2).’ This last form might seem a bit daunting when you go into it first because there are no names and a lot of numbers – it lists the out-houses of not only your ancestors, but also your ancestor’s neighbours. In order to find out which line relates to your family you must go back and check Household Return (Form A) and on the top right-hand corner you’ll see a number. You then find that number down the left-hand column in Form B2 and follow the line over to see what out-houses your family had.

And now that you’ve found your ancestor in 1911, you should be able to find them ten years before that in 1901. Bear in mind that they may have been living at home with their parents in 1901 or in the case of those living in cities, they may have had a different address. This is where knowing other members of the family can come in handy.

Don’t know when a photo was taken? Pay attention to the clothes and hairstyle of your ancestor and that might give you an idea of when it was taken.

3.      Birth, Marriage and Death Records

Don’t know when a photo was taken? Pay attention to the clothes and hairstyle of your ancestor and that might give you an idea of when it was taken.

Finding the birth, marriage and death records of your ancestors can be really exciting and there has never been a better time to search for these than now because you can access them totally for free on IrishGenealogy.ie. This is where finding your ancestors in the Census prior to this can be helpful. As I said, your ancestors ages aren’t always correct on the Census but if you don’t know when exactly they were born, then the Census can give you a basic idea. On this website I’d recommend clicking on ‘Civil Records’ as the ‘Church Records’ aren’t fully there yet. Once you do that, you’ll be asked to input the name of your ancestor, and the year range of when they were born/married/died. So, if in the 1911 Census your ancestor said they were 30 years old that would make them born in 1881, so I would input a year range of maybe one or two years either side of 1881, effectively searching between 1879-1883. You also have the option of inputting a Civil Registration District, but I tend not to use this.

On marriage certificates, the couple’s father’s names were recorded, so checking this record can be a good way to verify a birth record (which records the child’s mother and father’s names) or vice versa.

There are limits to these sources, in that you can’t access recent records online - this is to protect people’s privacy, and most only go as far back as 1864, but if you get back that far, you’ll be doing well.

The records available are as follows:

Birth records : 1864-1920

Marriage records : 1845-1944

Death records : 1878-1969

4.      Extra Help

Rootschat.com is a very good website if you have questions about your ancestors or the process of family tree research. It is free but you have to create an account. Once you do this, you will have access to over 6 million posts by other family historians and you’ll be able to ask any questions you have, from advice on where to go next to what life would have been like for your ancestor at a particular time.

If you stick at researching your family tree, you’re bound to come across a record/records that are very difficult to read – but you can use this website to ask for help in interpreting handwriting! You can also ask for help in restoring old or damaged photographs (see below). I cannot state enough how useful this website has been to me in my own family tree research. There are over 270,000 people signed up to this website, making it one of the busiest and largest free family history forums out there, so do make use of it!

The photos below are an example of the kind of photo restoration that I was helped with on RootsChat.

Before

After

 5. Military Archives

The Irish Military Archives website is a brilliant resource for anyone with ancestors who were in the military or who may have been involved in the 1916 Rising, War of Independence or Civil War. The Military Service Pensions Collection is particularly brilliant as it contains a lot of handwritten personal accounts of what each applicant did during this time, as well as reports and recommendations from people they worked with. The website is very easy to use, and it’s free!

Even if you don’t have any ancestors included in this resource, it’s still worth perusing because the stories, as told by the people who lived them, are incredible. Some of the herstories on our website are based on the testaments given by women in their pension applications. For example, why not read Helena Hegarty’s application; she was involved in keeping a British spy barricaded in her local workhouse for a number of weeks in 1921. Or read about Donegal girl Mary Kane, possibly the youngest Cumann na mBan member, who joined with her mother when she was just ten-years old. These are the kinds of stories you can find in the Military Service Pensions Collection.

6. Griffith’s Valuation

Another free resource is the Griffith’s Valuation which was a valuation of every taxable piece of agricultural or built property in Ireland and was published county-by-county between the years 1847 and 1864. All you need to know is your family name and the area your family lived - and you could find out about the type of land/amount of land your ancestor had. Unfortunately with this source, only the head of the household is named, so where you have a common surname in an area, it can be difficult to pinpoint your ancestor.

7. Further Research…

Go through old photo albums and when it’s safe to spend time with your grandparents again, ask to see their old photos

If you’ve got this far and you’re eager to find out more about your ancestors, I would suggest signing up to Ancestry.co.uk and FindMyPast.ie - both of which are quite expensive, but really worth it if you’re very interested in continuing your family tree research and wanting to understand more about your ancestor’s lives. You can also physically create your family tree on both of these sites, making it easier to follow different lines.

Laura Geraldine Lennox was nominated by her great-great grand niece Kate as part of the Who’s Your Heroine? project on RTÉjr.

Photo cred: Karen Fitzgerald

Ancestry has millions of records, from military and church records to the Census records of the UK and USA. You can also connect with other people who may share common ancestors with you. Ancestry also do DNA tests. I had my own grandfather do a DNA test because his father was an orphan and we did'n’t know where that side of our family came from. Through DNA, we have managed to track our family tree back many more generations and confirm where my grandfather’s father came from. Doing a DNA test can be a very personal decision, but in my particular case it was vital to confirm where we came from. If you’re interested in doing a DNA test, or want to further understand how a DNA test can help in family tree research, then you can read my own story here.

FindMyPast is brilliant for newspapers. And newspapers are brilliant for understanding your ancestor’s life beyond what’s recorded in official records (if they made it into the newspapers). For example, one of my own ancestors was very active in the tenant right movement of the 1850s and through newspapers I was able to find speeches he made at demonstrations, letters he wrote to the public discussing the problems etc. It was incredible to be able to read the words he spoke and wrote all those years ago, and that was thanks to the newspapers. Newspapers can also hold information on deaths, marriages and funeral information - all of which could add a personal touch to the information you might already have.

Figuring out old occupations…

Have you found your ancestor in a Census but are unsure what their occupation means? This list can help you figure out what old or unusual jobs your ancestor held.

8. Your local library

When it’s safe to do so again, you should take a trip to your local library for further advice on how to proceed with your family tree. They can often point you in the right direction and sometimes they will have historical records that they can show you as well! The library was a great help to Kate and her mammy Karen when they were researching their ancestor Laura Lennox for the RTÉjr Who’s Your Heroine? project!

9. 1921 Census release for England & the 1939 Register

As of January 2022, the 1921 Census records for families living in England and Whales have been made available through FindMyPast! These records, at the minute, are pay-per-view so you don’t need a subscription to the website, but you will need to pay €4.10 for every Census record you view. This is a great resource and well worth the money if you did have family in England or Wales at this time. These records will give you your family’s names, ages, occupations and address of occupation, birthplace, and information on how many children a couple has.

Similarly, if you had family living in England in 1939 - the 1939 Register will be of interest to you. It was similar to a Census, taken on the eve of the second World War to get an idea of the demographics of the country. The information you’ll find on these records include: Name, Full date of birth, Address, Marital status and Occupation. You can find these records on FindMyPast.

10. Scottish Ancestors

Scottish ancestors? Then ScotlandsPeople is the place for you. On this site you can search Statutory Registers (Birth, Marriage, Civil Partnerships, Divorce and Death records) for Scotland as well as Scottish Census’ (1841-1911), Valuation Rolls, Church Registers, Poor Relief and Migration Records and Legal Records (Wills, Military Tribunals etc.) This is a fantastic site however, it can be costly. Each record is pay-per-view. You buy ‘credits’ (the fewest you can purchase is 30 credits for £7.50, the most is 160 credits for £40) and the ‘cost’ of records varies, however to view things like birth, marriage or death records will cost you 6 credits per record (so be sure the record you want to view is one relevant to you before you buy it!)

The 1921 Scottish Census will be released on this site in the second half of 2022.

Trying to find LGBTQ+ ancestors?

Because being LGBTQ+ was criminalized in many countries until very recently (and is still illegal in many countries) LGBTQ+ people had to be careful and secretive. But gay people have always existed and there are some tips and tricks available to maybe help you discover the LGBTQ+ members of your family tree.

Tips from Ancestry can be accessed here.

Tips from FindMyPast can be accessed here.

Other tips can be found here.

Common obstacles to be aware of:

• Spelling. The spelling of a surname can differ from record to record and this can be very difficult when you’re trying to find an ancestor. This happened mainly because a lot of people used to be illiterate and so the person recording the information would spell the name however they thought it should be spelled, while another person may have spelled it another way again. For example, my ancestors had the surname ‘Donoghue’ but I’ve found records of it spelled as ‘Donohue', ’Donohoe', ‘Donahue’ and ‘Donaghue.’ It’s also worth keeping in mind that given names too could be spelled differently than what you might expect to find. For example, a person may have went by ‘Kitty’ or ‘Kate’ but used her official name ‘Catherine’ in official documents, or vice versa. Nicknames are not always obvious either. A common name in Ireland used to be ‘Nora(h)’ which actually derived from the name ‘Honora.’ So if you’re unsure, a quick google, for example ‘Nicknames of Sarah’, should give you ideas of what to search in records if you’re struggling to find your ancestor.

• Ages. As already outlined, it’s quite common to see irregularities when it comes to our ancestors ages. There are many reasons for this, but it is important you keep it in mind when you’re looking through records. It is not completely uncommon, for example, to see your ancestor age twenty years in the space of ten years between the 1901 and 1911 Census! It’s also common to see some white lies when it comes to recording ages on marriage certificates.

Doing your own family history research is so rewarding. You’d be amazed by the stories you could uncover. It is also a fun activity to do with your children/parents and as outlined above, you can do a lot of it these days completely for free! So why not get started now, and maybe you’ll uncover a herstory like suffragette Laura Lennox!

List and photos by Katelyn Hanna.

- THE POWER OF STORYTELLING: CESSAIR VS. EVE

The Power of Storytelling: Cessair vs. Eve

Not many people know that the first person ever to come to Ireland was a woman. But that’s what we’re told in the Lebor Gabála Érenn (The Book of the Taking of Ireland, also known as The Book of Invasions), which was written in medieval times to provide Ireland with a history stretching back to the beginning of the world, as well as to reconcile stories and beliefs from native pre-Christian mythology with the new church’s view of history.

 The people who were led to Ireland by a woman named Cessair, so the story goes, were the first of six different peoples to settle here (the others are the people of Partholón, the people of Nemed, the Fir Bolg, the Tuatha Dé Danann, and the Milesians, or Gaels). Cessair was the daughter of Bith, a son of the Biblical Noah. In one of several different versions of the story, Noah tells her to take her people and sail to the western edge of the world to escape the oncoming Flood, because there is no more room on the Ark. And so Cessair leads 150 women and just three men out of Egypt along the River Nile, across the Mediterranean Sea, up the west of coast of Europe and, after losing two ships and a hundred women in a storm, lands with the survivors in the south-west of Ireland just forty days before the Flood. Cessair takes Fintán as a husband, Barrfhind takes Bith, and Alba takes Ladra; the rest of the women divide themselves up evenly among the three men. But after Bith and Ladra die, Fintan finds himself left alone with all the women, and flees. Cessair then dies of a broken heart, and when the Flood comes, Fintán is the only one to survive.

It’s likely that the story of Cessair has pre-Christian origins, because a similar story is contained within the much older Book of Druimm Snechta. In this case, the first woman in Ireland is Banba, who declares herself to be older than Noah, and to have escaped the Flood because she took herself up to the peak of an Irish mountain. 

But does all of this really matter? After all, when we talk about ‘myth’ today, more often than not we use the word to mean a falsehood. And at best, isn’t mythology just a bunch of stories? 

That may be true, but stories are powerful things. The stories we tell ourselves about our origins reflect how our culture views the world, our place in it, and our relationship with the other living things which inhabit it. The stories contained in the oldest Irish literature tell us that women were important. Women – or goddesses – settled the land, personified the land, shaped the land, and represented the moral and spiritual authority of the Otherworld. These old stories contrast dramatically with the way women are represented in later, more patriarchal traditions. In the Biblical story of Eve, for example, the First Woman was the cause of humanity’s sufferings, bringing death to the world, not life. This view of women paved the way for centuries of repression, and there are many examples of that repression continuing today.

Maybe it’s time to look back at those old stories, and remember who women once were in our native traditions, and can be again.

Sharon Blackie is a writer, psychologist and mythologist. Her most recent book is If Women Rose Rooted, a nonfiction book about the inspiration which women can derive from Celtic mythology. For more information, visit her website at www.sharonblackie.net

Discover more fascinating mythic stories from Bard Mythologies, master storytellers and keepers of ancient Irish wisdom. The Bard hosts a fascinating event series throughout the year, with a website full of epic mythic stories.

Click here to read the myth of Cessair, retold by Karina Tynan from the perspective of the feminine. 

- Progressive Leadership around the world

There are a number of progressive leaders and countries across the globe today who demonstrate an ambition for social reform, an urgency to combat the climate crisis and compassion toward their citizens. For example, in Sweden, politicians live like every other citizen of the country, and not a life of luxury and privilege like is so common elsewhere. Aside from the Prime-Minister, Swedish politicians use public transport, and do not have private drivers. Some other progressive leaders and countries include:

Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand

Jacinda Ardern with her daughter Neve at the UN general assembly. Credit: Extra.ie

Credit: Egypt Independent

New Zealand’s Prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, has been praised as one of the most powerful women in the world for her global outreach, leadership skills and tolerance. She was just the second person ever to give birth while in office, in 2018, and has since become the first world leader to bring an infant to the UN general assembly. She did this because she was still breastfeeding her three-month old daughter, so baby Neve had to travel with her mother to New York for the six-day trip. A frugal leader, Ardern froze MPs salaries in 2018 for a year and insists on them carpooling to events. She received global praise for her response to the 2019 Christchurch terrorist attack in that following the incident her government introduced strict firearms regulations. She also gained worldwide admiration for her compassion for the victims and victims’ families. A photo of her hugging someone from the Christchurch Muslim community with the word ‘peace’ in both English and Arabic was projected onto the world’s tallest building and seen around the world.

New Zealand is considered one of the most progressive countries in the world as it has been known to be a trailblazer in terms of women’s rights, employment rights and in taking action against the climate crisis. New Zealand was the first country in the world to give all women the right to vote – in 1893! It wasn’t until 1918 that SOME women in Ireland got the right to vote, and it was 1945 before women in Italy were allowed to vote! In terms of the environment, New Zealand is working towards attaining 90% of its power from renewable sources by 2025. The country was the 13th in the world to legalise gay marriage in 2013, and in 2016 it made 0-hour contracts illegal which means that companies must guarantee a certain number of hours to its employees per week. There is a great respect for indigenous culture in New Zealand and it was also ranked the second safest country in the world in 2017.

Sanna Marin, Finland

Li Andersson, Katri Kulmuni, Sanna Marin, Anna-Maja Henriksson, Maria Ohisalo. Credit: Foreigner.fi

Snna Marin. Credit: Yle

In December 2019, 34-year old Sanna Marin became the world’s youngest sitting Prime-Minister, in Finland. As well as this, four of the five parties in the coalition government are led by women. Political Science professor, Anne Holi, says that this isn’t surprising because there has been a strong representation of women in politics in the country for decades. In February 2020 Finland’s women-led government introduced equal paid family leave for parents – 7 months for each parent, with the pregnant parent also able to receive one month of pregnancy allowance on top of that. This new policy will allow for more equality among parents.

On the centenary of the country’s independence in 2017, Finland was ranked the second most socially progressive country in the world as well as the safest and most stable. It was the third most gender equal country in the world in 2017 and has the cleanest air in the world. Finland is the second-best country in which to be a girl, and in 2015 Finland’s mother’s and children’s’ wellbeing was the second best in the world.  

Katrin Jakobsdottir, Iceland

Katrin Jakobsdottir. Credit: WHO/Europe

At just 43, Katrin Jakobsdottir is one of the youngest women to lead a European country. Jakobsdottir is regarded as honest by the citizens of Iceland, and she was voted the most trusted politician in the country in 2016.  In 2019 Iceland was ranked the best country in which to be a woman and this has been helped by Jakobsdottir’s government introducing the world’s strongest equal-pay legislation. As one of the only government heads of an environmentalist party, her government are also following an ambitious plan, launched in September 2019, which sees a fully funded 34-step plan to cut emissions by 40% by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2040 – 10 years before the target set for continental Europe. 

Good leadership is built on personal power, commitment, collaboration and connection, and a progressive leadership today is all about inclusivity, combating climate change and social reform. The governance portrayed by the leaders above is just a sample of how progressive leadership can achieve gender and employment equality and much more, to bring a country’s people forward into the future.

Sources:

New Zealand

Ainge Roy, Julia, ‘Jacinda Ardern makes history with baby Neve at UN general assembly,’The Guardian, online at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/sep/25/jacinda-ardern-makes-history-with-baby-neve-at-un-general-assembly [accessed 12 Feb 2020].

McCrickard, Josie, ‘13 reasons why NZ is the most progressive country in the world,’ Stuff, online at: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/95787199/13-reasons-why-nz-is-the-most-progressive-country-in-the-world [accessed 13 Feb 2020].

Finland

Wamsley, Laurel, ‘Finland's Women-Led Government Has Equalized Family Leave: 7 Months For Each Parent,’ npr, online at: https://www.npr.org/2020/02/05/803051237/finlands-women-led-government-has-equalized-family-leave-7-months-for-each-paren?fbclid=IwAR2ZZsA3jXhtiG8m5j3qcyZlxZY-mbuGAMqUlXhTCniQQTb8Ji1SWtkk2yc&t=1581033241382

Henley, Jon, ‘Safe, happy and free: does Finland have all the answers?,’ The Guardian, online at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/12/safe-happy-and-free-does-finland-have-all-the-answers

Statistics Finland, online at: http://www.stat.fi/tup/satavuotias-suomi/suomi-maailman-karjessa_en.html [accessed 12 Feb. 2020].

Iceland

Nugent, Ciara, ‘Iceland's Prime Minister Talks Climate Change and Gender Equality Over Ice Cream,’ TIME, online at: https://time.com/5634790/iceland-prime-minister-climate-change-interview/

Sweden

Omatayo, Joseph, ‘Swedish politicians have no official cars, offices, titles, use public trains,’ Legit, online at:  https://www.legit.ng/1241309-swedish-politicians-official-cars-offices-titles-public-trains.html?fbclid=IwAR2ygY-lt-XY_E5JcUmFxTWRtaVDKhqdvu3hX5isVV7nsAFVfu-kj5452v8

- Blazing a Trail: Lives and Legacies of Irish Diaspora Women by Angela Byrne at EPIC: The Irish Emigration Museum

‘Blazing a Trail: Lives and Legacies of Irish Diaspora Women’ highlights the lives and legacies of twenty-one Irish diaspora women in the fields of politics, humanitarianism, women’s suffrage, the arts, the sciences and sport. They represent just a fraction of the many women who made lasting contributions in their areas of work, but who have rarely received recognition.

The exhibition was launched at EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Herstory in November 2018, to coincide with the centenary of partial women’s suffrage. From its inception, the movement for gender equality was a global one. It was fought not only by suffrage campaigners, but also by individual pioneering women who defied convention and resisted social expectations. Collaborations and partnerships were crucial, with many of these women benefiting from the support of a partner, family member or colleague. Emigration offered many women access to education and careers that may not have been available in Ireland. They blazed trails across the globe, innovating in every field and paving the way for others to follow, strategically navigating a male-dominated society on their own terms.

Eva Gore-Booth, 1870–1926

A trade unionist, suffragist and celebrated poet, Gore-Booth collected 30,000 signatures for a suffrage petition in 1901, campaigned for the rights of barmaids and acrobats, was a conscientious objector during World War I, and was an animal rights advocate. She was also responsible for radicalizing her now more famous sister, Constance Markievicz. Gore-Booth’s activism was inspired by her partner, Manchester suffragist Esther Roper. They met in an Italian olive grove in 1896, remained devoted to each other for 30 years, and were buried in the same grave. They founded Urania magazine in 1916 with transgender lawyer Irene Clyde, advocating for a genderless society.

Cynthia Longfield, ‘Madam Dragonfly’, 1896–1991

Respected entomologist and world traveller Cynthia Longfield’s aristocratic grandparents encouraged her as a child to spend time outdoors. In 1924, she bought a place on the St George expedition, a recreation of Charles Darwin’s Beagle voyage, where her passion for entomology was born. She worked, unpaid, as an entomologist at the British Museum for the next 30 years. She continued to make expeditions and travelled alone through east Africa in 1934. She recorded many new species of dragonfly and had two species named in her honour. Her book, Dragonflies of the British Isles (1937) became the standard textbook in the field.

Eileen Gray, 1878–1976

An icon of modernist design, Eileen Gray was born into comfortable circumstances in Co. Wexford. In 1905, she enrolled in London’s Slade School and became the finest Western exponent of Japanese lacquer technique. When, in 1972, her lacquer screen le destin attracted a record price, she self-effacingly responded, “c’est absurde.” She lived most of her life in Paris, where in 1923 a room full of her work was exhibited to critical acclaim. She was encouraged to take up architecture and, assisted by Romanian architect Jean Badovici, designed and built her pioneering home, E.1027, and all of its contents, on the Côte d’Azur in 1926–9.

Sarah ‘Fanny’ Durack, 1889–1956

In July 1912, Irish Australian Fanny Durack won the first gold medal in women’s Olympic swimming and caused a stir by rejecting a thick, woollen swimsuit in favour of a close-fitting costume. Durack’s early success in Australian state competitions from 1906 motivated a public campaign to allow women to compete in the presence of male spectators. In 1912–19, she broke twelve world records. Her 1918–19 tour of Europe and the USA was dogged by controversy over her amateur status, and she withdrew from the 1920 Antwerp Olympics due to illness. She dedicated herself to coaching children after retiring from competitive swimming in 1921.

Annie Besant, 1847–1933

The secularist, Indian nationalist and theosophist Annie Wood Besant was born to an Irish couple in London in 1847. At 19, she married Reverend Frank Besant, more out of duty than attraction. The marriage was unhappy, and they separated. Besant forged a new life as an activist, beginning as a women’s rights campaigner in 1874, and quickly moving into socialism, trade unionism, and secularism. She was the first woman in Britain to publicly support the use of birth control. Suddenly rejecting her atheism, she became a leader of the Theosophist movement and, exposed to the realities of life in colonial India, a leading Indian nationalist and the first woman president of the Indian National Congress.

Dr Isabel ‘Ida’ Deane Mitchell, 1879–1917

Belfast-born Ida Mitchell was inspired to study medicine in Glasgow with the aim of becoming a medical missionary, after learning that the Presbyterian missions in China needed women doctors. Ida travelled to China alone, but her sister and brother-in-law later joined her. She jokingly referred to her colleague and friend, Sara MacWilliams, as her ‘husband’. When she arrived at Fakumen 1905, the mission was a small operation, covering 5,000 square miles and a population of 500,000. By the time of her death from diphtheria in March 1917, the region was served by the hospital and dispensary she had founded, and six Chinese women she had trained as dispensary assistants, securing her vital legacy.

This exhibition is a joint collaboration of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum and Herstory. Research by Dr Angela Byrne, DFAT Historian-in-Residence at EPIC. Original artwork by Szabolcs Kariko, www.skariko.com. You can find out more about these women and many more emigrant stories at EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum in The chq Building in Dublin.

“It was an honour to work on this exhibition and I’ve learned so much from these twenty- one women’s stories. To paraphrase Eva Gore-Booth’s love poem to Esther Roper: their stories, and their example, “make glad the gloom” of the former shape of Irish history, no longer to be dominated by the deeds of ‘great men’ but to be more receptive to other voices.” - Dr. Angela Byrne, curator

- [In]Visible: Irish Women Artists from the Archives by Catherine Sheridan at the National Gallery of Ireland

The National Gallery of Ireland holds important archives associated with the development of Irish Art.  The ESB Centre for the Study of Irish Art and the Yeats Archive contain rich collections relating to Irish women artists of the early twentieth century.

Focusing on various aspects of the life, education and work of artists including Mary Swanzy, Sarah Purser, Mainie Jellett and Elizabeth Corbet Yeats we explore important role women played in the development of modern art in Ireland.

Dun Emer Industries embroidery room, Dundrum, Dublin, 1905.

Family

In the early twentieth century, the majority of women studying or practising art in Ireland, shared similar social backgrounds. They came from a relatively privileged sector of Irish society, predominately upper middle class professional or mercantile families, where artistic pursuits formed part of their education.

Often rejecting contemporary social conventions, these women pursued their own goals as artists, educators and entrepreneurs. For such women their privileged social and financial backgrounds played a central part in facilitating their careers.

Susan Mary Yeats (neé Pollexfen) and Elizabeth Anne Pollexfen. Carte de visite, c. 1863.

Elizabeth Corbet “Lolly” Yeats (1868 – 1940) educator, designer, and landscape painter. She trained as an art teacher as well as a printer, and was a member of designer William Morris’s circle in London before her family returned to Dublin in 1900. She was a founder member of the Dun Emer Guild and the first commercial printer in Ireland to work exclusively with hand presses.

Elizabeth Corbet Yeats, Brush Work, London, 1896

Watercolour manual for children to teach the technique of painting flowers and plants.

Elizabeth Corbet Yeats, hand painted fan, 1905

Watercolour on silk and engraved tortoiseshell.

Features a decorative landscape superimposed by a design of pansies and crocuses, which frames woodland on the left and an inscription taken from the poem ‘Anashuya and Vijaya’ by William Butler Yeats.

Education

Women benefited from the gradual opening up of art institutions and increased access to formal art training in the latter half of the nineteenth century. The Royal Dublin Society, a precursor to the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art, admitted women from 1849. In 1893 women were permitted to attend the Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA) schools. Enrolment figures for the period from 1895 to 1905 highlight the number of students who attended the RHA schools with an average of six men and seventeen women during each academic year. Access to formal art education, in particular classes in life drawing and human anatomy, were essential for women’s artistic training.

Female artists from the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art, c. 1910.

Helen Lillias Mitchell MRDS MRHA (1915-2000) founder of The Irish Guild of Weavers, Spinners, and Dyers, and of the Weaving Department of the National College of Art and Design. She was awarded an Honorary Life Member of the Royal Dublin Society in 1993 and elected an Honorary Member of the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1995.

Lillias Mitchell, Snowdrops, 1929.

Watercolour on paper, painted at Elizabeth Yeats’s art class, when Mitchell was aged fourteen.

Travel

Women artists with the financial means often travelled abroad in order to continue their artistic training and to study new Modernist trends. Sarah Purser, Mainie Jellett, Evie Hone and Mary Swanzy all studied in Paris. Jellett and Hone studied non-representational art under André Lhote and Albert Gleizes. In 1923, Jellett brought back her first Cubist works to Dublin and she is recognised as one of the first artists to introduce abstract painting to Ireland. At the same time, Swanzy was creating and exhibiting figurative compositions that incorporated abstract elements associated with Cubism and Futurism.

Mainie Jellett, The Virgin of Éire, c.1940s.

NGI4319. Oil on canvas.

Mary Harriet "Mainie" Jellett (1897-1944) painter and early proponent of abstract art in Ireland. She studied at the Metropolitan School of Art in Dublin, the Westminster Technical Institute in London, and worked in Paris where she encountered Cubism.  She was a leading figure of the modern art movement and a co-founder of the Irish Exhibition of Living Art in 1943.

Postcard to from Mainie Jellett to ‘Miss H. Clarke’ [Margaret Clarke], 25 August 1937.

Mary Swanzy HRHA (1882-1978) was a landscape artist and one of Ireland’s first abstract painters. She painted in many styles reflecting her interests in cubism, fauvism, and orphism.  She studied at May Manning’s studio, the Metropolitan School of Art, as well as in Paris.  Independent wealth allowed her to travel extensively to develop her practice and in 1949 she was made an Honorary Member of the RHA. 

Mary Swanzy, painting palette.

Painting palette last used in Mary Swanzy’s studio in Blackheath, London.

Arts & Crafts

In 1902 Evelyn Gleeson, Elizabeth Corbet Yeats and Susan Yeats founded the Dun Emer Guild. This Irish female craft cooperative was based on the ideals and aesthetics of the English Arts and Crafts movement and the Irish Cultural Revival. The Guild, which was run by women and only employed women, specialised in printing, book binding, weaving and embroidery. It would later split and become the Dun Emer Guild, under Gleeson and Dun Emer Industries, overseen by the Yeats sisters. While her sister ran Dun Emer Press, Susan Yeats was responsible for the embroidery workshop which designed and produced ecclesiastical textiles such as church banners, vestments and altar cloths. In 1904 the cooperative gained international exposure at the Arts and Crafts Society Exhibition in St Louis, Missouri, where they exhibited needle work, cushions, and portieres made from Irish linen, wool and silk thread.

Susan Mary "Lily" Yeats (1866-1949) embroiderer associated with the Celtic Revival. She studied and taught embroidery in the style propounded by William Morris, working under his daughter May in London. She was a founder member of the Dun Emer Guild and in 1908 established the embroidery department of Cuala Industries, with which she was involved until its dissolution in 1931.

Lily Yeats, embroidered cushion cover, silk thread and wool embroidery on blue poplin, c.1902. (detail)

Exhibitions

A number of women artists were active in the establishment of art societies and exhibitions that enabled them and their peers to showcase their work. One of the most influential of these was the Society of Dublin Painters, founded in 1920. The Society aimed to provide an alternative public exhibition space to the RHA due to the Academy’s continual resistance towards the display of modern Irish art. In 1923, Mainie Jellett exhibited Decoration (NGI.1326), one of her earliest Cubist works, at a Society exhibition. The painting was greeted with general antagonism by the art establishment, the influential critic George Russell describing it as ‘a late victim to Cubism in some sub-section of this artistic malaria’. Jellett continued to champion Modernism in Irish art and in 1943 she was a co-founding member of the Irish Exhibition of Living Art, one of the most significant exhibitions of contemporary Irish art until the 1970s.  

Mainie Jellett, Decoration, 1923.

NGI.1326. Tempera on wood panel.

Sarah Purser HRHA (1848-1943) portraitist and stained glass artist.  She studied at the Metropolitan School of Art and in Paris and exhibited in the RHA throughout her life.  She financed An Túr Gloine (The Tower of Glass), a stained glass cooperative and was extremely active in the Dublin art world.  She was on the Board of the National Gallery of Ireland from 1914 to 1943.

Members of the Board of Governors and Guardians of the National Gallery of Ireland, Sarah Purser seated, Brinsley McNamara, Registrar, standing and Dermod O’Brien, seated, on right, photograph, c.1925-1935.

An Túr Gloine

As both artists and entrepreneurs, women made significant contributions to the development of art cooperatives in Ireland. These focused on the professionalization of design and craft disciplines such as stained glass, embroidery, tapestry, and letter press printing. In 1903, Sarah Purser established the cooperative An Túr Gloine (The Tower of Glass) to train Irish artists in stained glass which they produced for Irish churches, schools, and convents. Among those to benefit from this initiative were Evie Hone, Wilhelmina Geddes, and Catherine O’Brien. An Túr Gloine sought to improve stained glass production in Ireland and provide an alternative to importing commercially produced stained glass from abroad. The cooperative gained international success receiving commissions in Europe, Canada, and America.

An Túr Gloine stained glass studio, photograph, c.1904.

Dun Emer Press

Elizabeth Corbet Yeats managed the Dun Emer Press with her brother William Butler Yeats as editor. Printing began in 1903 and the press concentrated on publishing new Irish literature, often by writers associated with the Irish Literary Revival. It also produced an illustrated monthly series of Broadsides between 1908 and 1915. Edited by Corbet Yeats’s younger brother, Jack B. Yeats, the eighty-four issues include two hundred and fifty-two hand coloured illustrations.

The cobweb cloak of Time has dropped between the world and me,
The Rainbow ships of memory have drifted out to sea.
P.C.S.

Pamela Colman Smith (Broadsheet 7, July 1902)

Recognition

Art critics, commentators and administrators did not always recognise women artists in the same way as their male counterparts. In a 1922 article in the Irish Independent Thomas MacGreevy, later appointed Director of the National Gallery of Ireland, observed that within the Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA), some of the members ‘apparently only titter at the idea of a woman artist’. In 1924, over one hundred years after its establishment, the RHA elected Sarah Purser as its first female member. She was followed three years later by Margaret Clarke. Despite such challenges and low visibility, women played a key role in the development of modern art and the decorative arts in Ireland.

[In]Visible: Irish Women Artists from the Archives

National Gallery of Ireland

19 July – 3 March 2019
Curators
Leah Benson, Emma O’Toole and Tanya Keyes, Library & Archives, National Gallery of Ireland

For further information on our Library and Archive collections go to: https://www.nationalgallery.ie/what-we-do/library-and-archives

Reading room open Monday to Friday 10am – 5pm.

Story edited by Catherine Sheridan

- Making Her Mark by Anna Liesching at the Ulster Museum

© National Museums NI

Making Her Mark, an exhibition at the Ulster Museum, recognises the impact of women artists on the history of printmaking. It explores how they used the art form to expand their practice, gain financial independence and bring their art to a wider public. The exhibition opened in October 2018 and closed 20th October 2019. https://www.nmni.com/whats-on/making-her-mark

Lady Mabel Annesley (1881–1959) The Lake (Frontispiece to County Down Songs) c. 1925 Wood-engraving BELUM. Pt93 © With the kind permission of the descendants of Lady Mabel Annesley

The exhibition includes 22 women artists covering nearly 200 years of print making; working across wood-engraving, lithograph, etching and screen-print. Some worked exclusively in the practice, many used the technique to promote women’s liberation and social issues and others simply used it as another means of expression. There are multiple Irish women in the exhibition, or artists who had a connection to Ireland.

Lady Mabel Annesley (1881-1959) I’m O’er Young (illustration for Robert Burns’ Poems) c. 1925. Wood-engraving BELUM.Pt86 © With the kind permission of the descendants of Lady Mabel Annesley

Lady Mabel Annesley (1881-1959) was at the centre of the wood-engraving revival of the 1920s and 30s in Ireland. As well as practising herself, she championed her fellow wood-engravers. We can thank Annesley for many of the works in this exhibition; she gifted 100 wood-engravings to what is now the Ulster Museum in 1939.

Lady Mabel Annesley (1881–1959) Flax Dam c. 1939 Wood-engraving BELUM.Pt92 © With the kind permission of the descendants of Lady Mabel Annesley

Annesley grew up in County Down on her family’s Castlewellan estate, which she inherited at thirty-three and saved from financial disaster. A keen artist from an early age, she trained at the Frank Calderon School of Animal Painting. Following her husband’s death in 1913, she studied wood-engraving under Noel Rooke at the Central School of Arts and Crafts.

Lady Mabel Annesley (1881–1959) Yon’s the Rare Jewl o’ a Wee Pig (Tailpiece for Apollo in Mourne) c. 1926. Wood-engraving BELUM.Pt390 © With the kind permission of the descendants of Lady Mabel Annesley

Despite being a member of the Anglo-Irish aristocracy, the land and the working life of the Mourne Mountains was central to her work. As well as making many engravings of the area she illustrated books on local traditions including Richard Rowley’s Apollo in Mourne and County Down Songs.

Doris Violet Blair (active 1940 -1980) Interior c. 1940 Etching BELUM.Pt232 © Estate of Doris Violet Blair

Doris Violet Blair (active 1940 -1980) is known for her work as an official war artist during the Second World War, recording women’s impact on the war effort in Belfast. This domestic scene, created during wartime, reminds us that while women took on more responsibility during the war they were often still expected to continue to be homemakers.

Margaret Clarke (1884 -1961) Irish Free State butter, eggs and bacon for our breakfasts (Commissioned by Empire Marketing Board (1926-1933) and printed for HM Stationery Office by Waterlow & Sons) c. 1930 Lithographic poster BELUM.Pt828 © Estate of Margaret Clarke

Margaret Clarke (1888 -1961) was the second woman to be elected as full academician to the Royal Hibernian Academy and received many awards, commissions and exhibitions. One of her most important commissions was for the Empire Marketing Board. Clarke’s posters were displayed in English towns to promote the idea that buying goods from Ireland further encouraged the Irish to buy from Britain.

Kate Greenaway (1846 -1901) Girl Spinning while a Fairy Appears on a Dove c. 1875 Ink drawing BELUM.U1194 © National Museums NI

Kate Greenaway (1846-1901) was inspired by characters she met growing up in London and these faces appear in her work as an adult. She started by designing Christmas and New Year cards, going on to illustrate books and eventually writing and illustrating her own in the 1870s. Her cards were the most successful designs sold by Northern Irish printing firm Marcus Ward.

Elizabeth Rivers (1903 -1964) Winter Skies 1960 Wood engraving BELUM.Pt762 © Estate of Elizabeth Rivers

English-born Elizabeth Rivers (1903 -1964) first came to Ireland in 1935, eventually settling here permanently. She exhibited widely throughout the 1940s and 1950s and was central to the rise of Modernism in Ireland.  One of her most successful publications, Stranger in Aran, which described her time living on the island, was published by Cuala Press (a later development of Dun Emer Press).

Elizabeth Rivers (1903 -1964) Saint Alone Mid 1900s Wood-engraving BELUM.Pt858 © Estate of Elizabeth Rivers

Rivers saw the disruption and violence of the Second World War echoed in Christopher Smart’s Rejoice in the Lamb, which he wrote when in Bedlam psychiatric hospital between 1756 and 1763. She used his manuscript to give titles to her engravings in one of her most famous works Out of Bedlam.

The niece of Lily Yeats, of Dun Emer Press, it is fitting that Anne Yeats (1919 - 2001) turned to print later in her career. She was a founding member, with Elizabeth Rivers, of the Graphic Studio Dublin, set up in 1960 to teach traditional printmaking skills and support artists. The studio is considered to have been at the forefront of Irish printmaking and gave Ireland an international reputation for the art.

Lady Elizabeth Thompson Butler (1846 -1933) A Despatch-Bearer, Egyptian Camel Corps 1888 Lithographic Poster BELUM.Pt1132© National Museums NI

Lady Elizabeth Thompson Butler (1846 -1933) produced this print for The Graphic, a magazine associated with social and political reform, where Butler was a staff artist.  Despite their titles and her husband, Sir William Francis Butler’s, rank in the military, they were both anti-imperialist and outspoken about the treatment of the Irish people during the famine, which Sir Butler witnessed as a child.

Ann Bailey (active 20th Century) Quai d’Anjou, Paris Early 1900s Etching BELUM.Pt500

Very little is known about this work, or the artist – only that this etching was once exhibited at the Belfast School of Art, where Ann Bailey (active 20th Century) may have studied. While lack of information can be an issue with any artist, it is women artists who most frequently become ‘invisible’ in art history. Although in the last two hundred years over thirty percent of professional artists have been women, historically they have been excluded from academy and gallery systems, leading to their work being less often recorded and written about. When no information can be found on an artist it may mean that they did not pursue an artistic career. Throughout the 1800s and 1900s, as education opened up for women, many from privileged backgrounds attended classes, creating art for themselves and their friends.

Agnes Miller Parker (1895 -1980) The Challenge 1934 Wood-engraving BELUM.Pt13 © Estate of Agnes Miller Parker

For any further information please contact anna.liesching@nmni.com

Thanks to Anna Liesching of the Ulster Museum, the National Museums NI, and the copyright holders of the above images, for facilitating this photo essay.

- (A)Dressing Our Hidden Truths by Alison Lowry at the National Museum of Ireland

The exhibition (A)Dressing our Hidden Truths opened at The National Museum of Ireland in March 2019. It is the brainchild of curator Dr Audrey Whitty and artist Alison Lowry. The exhibition is an artistic response to the legacy of Magdalene Laundries and Mother and Baby Homes in Ireland.

The Magdalene Laundries operated in Ireland throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. It is estimated that 30,000 Irish women went through the laundry system in that time. To begin with the idea was to rescue and rehabilitate ‘fallen’ woman, but quickly the laundries became commercially driven and women and girls were committed to the laundries as ‘inmates’ for no real reason and used as free labour by the religious orders who ran them. The regime was harsh and unrelenting. On entering a laundry your name would have been changed, possessions removed and a uniform given. Women were expected to work long hours in awful conditions with very little food. Talking was forbidden and punishments were frequent.

The Irish State enabled the Magdalene laundries to continue running all those years. But in February 2013, Enda Kenny acknowledged this wrong and apologised publicly in the Dáil to all those affected. Here is an excerpt from his speech:

The Magdalene Women might have been told that they were washing away a wrong or a sin but we now know, to our shame, they were only ever scrubbing away our nation’s shadow. Today, just as the State accepts its direct involvement in the Magdalene Laundries, society too has its responsibility. I believe I speak for millions of Irish people all over the world when I say we put these women away for too many years because we put away our conscience. We swapped our personal scruples for a solid public apparatus that kept us in tune and in step with a sense of what was ‘proper behaviour’ or the ‘appropriate view’ according to a sort of moral code that was fostered at the time, particularly in the 1930s, 40s and 50s. We lived with the damaging idea that what was desirable and acceptable in the eyes of the Church and the State was the same thing and interchangeable. Therefore, I, as Taoiseach, on behalf of the State, the government and all our citizens deeply regret and apologise unreservedly to all those women for the hurt that was done to them and for any stigma they suffered, as a result of the time they spent in a Magdalene Laundry.

These are their names, Numbers 13:4.

The real names of the women, taken from the 1911 census, that were incarcerated in the Waterford laundry at the time

Reproduced with kind permission of ‘The Magdalene Names Project’ from JFM Research.

Punishments in the Laundry were frequent and cruel. Women and girls would have been held down whilst their hair was hacked off by the nuns or orderlies.

Since Irish Independence 10,000 women were forced into servitude in the Laundries. The last Laundry closed in 1996.

Here, 10,000 paper dolls spill out of church offertory plates. The paper dolls have been cut from (replica) £5 notes, that happen to bear the image of Catherine McAuley – the founder of the Religious Sisters of Mary.

A Nations Shame

Sheets embroidered with an inscription from the ‘Magdalene Seat’ at St Stephens Green in Dublin.

Connie Roberts, the author of ‘The Cardigan’, grew up in an Industrial School in Ireland. The industrial school system was heavily criticised in the Ryan Report in 2009.

Here we see Brigid Dolan’s admission form into the Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home, Tuam, Co Galway. These homes housed unwed mothers until they had delivered their babies. The babies were frequently adopted, often without any consent being given by their mothers.

Home Babies, 2017

There also includes an installation of 9 glass Christening Robes with audio, commemorating the 796 children ‘buried’ in a disused septic tank on the Tuam Mother and Baby Home site.

A New Skin, 2017

A sculptural piece that explores ‘rape culture’ in today’s society. Leatherwork by Úna Burke.

This collaborative video piece with artist Jayne Cherry is a performance work in which Cherry attempts to take 35 steps in heavy glass slippers to illustrate how hard it is for women to leave abusive relationships. It attempts to illustrate the statistic that on average a woman will be assaulted 35 times by her partner before she will call the police.

(A)Dressing Our Hidden Truths runs at the National Museum of Ireland until May 2020. For further information see here.

Thank you to the National Museum of Ireland, Alison Lowry and Brian Houlihan for facilitating the creation of this photo essay for Herstory.

- Women and the Northern Ireland Peace Process

The Troubles – or the Northern Ireland conflict – was an ethno-nationalist conflict which began in the late 1960s and is generally accepted as having ended with the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. Fuelled by historical events, the conflict was largely political and sectarian with the main point of contention being the constitutional status of Northern Ireland. Unionists or loyalists – who were mostly Protestant – wanted to remain a part of the UK however the nationalists/republicans – who were mainly Catholic – sought a united Ireland. 3,532 people were killed during the conflict, with approximately 50,000 total casualties over the three decades. Women from all walks of life in Northern Ireland, in particular, played a vital role in the peace process and continued this cross-community dialogue long after the Good Friday Agreement was signed. They did everything from supporting victims of sectarian violence and victims’ families, to lobbying politicians and organising mass protests.  

Isabella Tod by Victoria Subirats Figueras

Women are ‘citizens of the state, inheritors with men of all the history which enobles a nation, guardians with men of all the best life of the nation; bound as much as men are bound to consider the good of the whole; and justified as much as men are justified in sharing the good of the whole.’ – Isabella Tod

From as far back as the 1860’s, women in the North of Ireland had been working together to assert their civil rights and challenge various laws that restricted their freedoms; issues regarding women’s education, married women’s property rights and voting rights. In 1872-3, Isabella Tod, a Scottish-born Presbyterian living in the North of Ireland since the 1850s, founded the North of Ireland Women’s Suffrage Society in order to campaign for a woman’s right to the parliamentary vote. Because Ireland was under British rule at the time, there was a certain collaborative effort on the part of women from both the north and south of the country, as well as with the women in England, Scotland and Wales, in their efforts to establish these common goals. This cooperative characteristic of the women’s movements continued into the 20th century with suffragism, trade unionism and eventually, the peace movement of the 1960s on.

‘Peace won’t be the end of the movement – more likely the beginning.’ – Monica Patterson

Perhaps the first women’s group to seek peace was Women Together, set up by Ruth Agnew, a Protestant, and Monica Patterson, a Catholic Englishwoman, in the autumn of 1970. It came from a meeting called ‘Women Together,’ organised by PACE (Protestant and Catholic Encounter), which encouraged women from trouble spots across Belfast ‘to discuss ways in which women could bring their influence to bear for better community relations.’ Local groups were set up across Northern Ireland and from then on, the members of Women Together were a constant on the streets stopping rowdyism and vandalism between gangs of youths and removing burnt out cars as well as publicly supporting peace and victims of intimidation.

‘There was a big risk in doing cross-community work. You were threatened but when you get a group of very strong women together who have a real aim in life, there’s very little that stops them, even a threat.’ – May Blood

May Blood, groupwork by students at Hazelwood College, Belfast

At the same time as Women Together were organising, so were women at a much more local level. May Blood, for example, became involved in voluntary work within her own housing estate. At a meeting of the residents – both Catholic and Protestant – they decided to put aside the constitutional issues and work together on issues that affected them all such as poor housing, low education attainment and high rates of teen pregnancy. Students, too, had a real role in the peace movement. Queen’s University Belfast elected their first female president of their SU in 1974, a woman named Bronagh Hinds, who had attended the Civil Rights march in Derry two years prior with her classmates. During her presidency she was a strong advocate for women and equal rights and went on to co-found the Northern Ireland Women’s Right’s Movement in 1975 where she advocated for consumer rights and single-parents families. Similarly, many women religious ‘organised creches, mum and toddler groups, pensioner lunches, cookery, beauty, dancing and a host of other classes that opened doors in the walls dividing the communities through which the women walked but which the men didn’t see.’ These women ‘worked to maintain some semblance of normality for the working-class communities that bore the brunt of the Troubles.’

Bronagh Hinds by Emma Doran

‘Fear is the main problem we have to cope with in our community but all it takes is just one person to say, ‘I won’t stand for this.’ – Eileen Semple

Derry Peace Women, 1972

In Derry, five women from the Bogside and Creggan areas came together following Bloody Sunday in 1972 to campaign for peace. They had no specific title and were known simply as the ‘five Derry peace women.’ The Belfast Telegraph credited them with having ‘played an important part in the moves for an end to violence’ before the ceasefire of 29 May 1972, and stated that ‘without the women’s movement, Mr Whitelaw’s task of obtaining a ceasefire would have been impossible.’ The women moved throughout Ireland and Northern Ireland lobbying politicians, consulting military chiefs and ‘putting the cause of peace to militant republicans.’

Sunday News, 5 Sep 1976

‘This is not an organisation it is just a collection of mothers from the areas affected.’ – Betty Williams

In August 1976, Betty Williams helped to collect over 6,000 signatures on a petition for peace when she witnessed a car crash into a young family after the driver had been fatally shot by the British Army. Three children had died, and their mother was seriously injured. ‘What happened to the Maguire family […] could have happened to any one of us women out walking with our children,’ Williams said of her motivation. Aunt of the children, Mairead Corrigan, soon reached out to Williams and together the two organised peace rallies. While many thousands attended these rallies, it was also the geography of the demonstrations which made them historic – one in particular was held on the Shankill road – the heart of Protestant Belfast – where they reached out to welcome thousands of Catholics over the peace line. The two women, along with co-founder Ciaran McKeown – travelled the world giving speeches and encouraging peace work and even won the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts.

Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan, 1976

‘What keeps me going and helps me deal with the stress is the fact that over the previous twenty years lots of people in Northern Ireland have given year after year of their life to try and get a peaceful settlement. They so desperately want it […] and I just think – I’m in this position, the least I can do for those who don’t have the power that I have is to do everything I can to get a settlement…’ – Mo Mowlam

In 1997 Mo Mowlam from the Labour party was the first woman to be made Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, and her main priority was finding a solution to the troubles there. She was eager to attain an IRA ceasefire so that they could join the all-party peace talks, and eventually, she did. Towards the end of 1997, negotiations in Northern Ireland ‘had reached an impasse’ so in January 1998, Mowlam took ‘an audacious gamble’ and entered the Maze prison to address loyalist prisoners in an attempt to get them to reverse their opposition to the peace process. Of the visit she said ‘putting my case face-to-face, arguing it through with them, I thought, was the best way of doing it, so I’m here. No gun, no metaphorical gun, just a very constructive, informed debate.’ Following this, representatives of the prisoners said that they would re-join talks.

Mo Mowlam

‘One of the reasons the Women’s Coalition stood was because we noticed that there was going to be very few female voices around the table that was negotiating the future landscape for Northern Ireland. I think there was a recognition that more female voices could bring new perspectives and a positive dynamic. It was a momentum for change.’ – Bronagh Hinds

In 1996, some women upon discussing the upcoming multi-party peace talks, lamented the fact that due to the lack of women in politics, women’s voices would not be considered by the politicians negotiating plans; for the future of Northern Ireland. A meeting of many different women’s groups was held in April of that year and the Northern Ireland Women’s Coalition was founded shortly afterwards. They would go on to take two constituency seats which were taken by Monica McWilliams and Pearl Sagar. Of the Coalition’s legacy, Hinds stated that ‘had it not been for women we would not have seen any reference to integrated education, to integrated communities, to the advancement of women in political and public life, and particularly the issue in relation to supporting victims.’

Saidie Patterson by Jasmine Elliott

 ‘I believe the women of Ulster will create a society in which ignorance, fear and hate shall give place to liberty, justice and peace.’ – Saidie Patterson

The Good Friday Agreement was signed on 10 April 1998, but the peace movement continued. Women Together ‘were at the heart of the moving forward together campaign,’ with an important emphasis placed on community dialogue and cross-community support. Women’s centres such as the Shankill and Falls Women’s Centres respectively, continue to work together on funding applications and courses which may benefit women in both centres and from both areas.

‘I should not be saying I want round the table – the men round the table should be saying ‘where’s the women?’’ – Eileen Weir

These women faced daily threats to their lives and the lives of their families, and many overcame personal struggles with poverty, poor education and personal tragedy, to work together for peace in Northern Ireland. They have not been written out of history, because most of them were never written in in the first place. Even twenty years on, it’s been said that the women’s movement is rising once again to hold the peace in Northern Ireland today.

In 2019, we asked students across Northern Ireland to share with us their artwork inspired by the women involved in the peace process. We were blown away by the response we got. One of our themes at the 2020 Herstory Light Festival was the Northern Ireland Peace Heroines, wherein we lit up Belfast City Hall with the students’ artwork. The result was a powerful light show illuminating the women whose work has largely been ignored. An exhibition of these beautiful images will be launched in Stormont soon, but in the meantime, check out the gallery below (and for more, see here).

Eileen Weir by Rebecca Lively

Lyra McKee by Beth Corner

Bronagh Hinds by Emma Doran

Mo Mowlam by Louise O'Boyle

It’s time we heard Herstory – and while the above is a highly simplified overview of the peace work carried out by some, dedicated biographies of the women mentioned above, and others, can be found on our website and at https://www.rte.ie/culture/herstory/

Sources:

Research paper given at King’s College London to the Contemporary British History Society on 14 November 2018 by Dianne Kirby. The paper is based on an oral history project, ‘Women religious and the Northern Ireland Peace Process: Breaking the Silence.’

Belfast Telegraph, 28 June 1972.

Sunday Tribune, 24 Jan. 1988.

Meban, Alan, ‘Bronagh Hinds on role of women in political discourse at home & abroad #msconversations,’ 9 Oct. 2017 online at sluggerotoole.com,  https://sluggerotoole.com/2017/10/09/bronagh-hinds-on-role-of-women-in-political-discourse-at-home-abroad-msconversations/ [accessed 11 July 2019].

Bios, History, online at https://www.history.co.uk/biographies/mo-mowlam [accessed 27 May 2019].

The Guardian, 10 Jan, 1998.

Irish Independent, 10 Jan. 1998.

Anne Carr, ‘Women in Northern Ireland should be leading peacebuilders again,’ openDemocracy, online at https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/women-in-northern-ireland-should-be-leading-peacebuilders-again/ [accessed 4 June 2019].

Special thanks to Caoimhin O’Dochartaigh and family for their help exploring the life of their mother Margaret of the Derry Peace Women.