Search Results for 'Constance Markievicz'

Conradh na Gaeilge, also known as the Gaelic League, was founded by Douglas Hyde and Eoin McNeill in July 1893. Their aim was to keep the Irish language alive and preserve the Gaelic elements of Ireland’s culture. It was open to all creeds, was non-political, and accepted women on an equal basis. It used a broad approach, organising classes and competitions in Irish music, dancing, literature, and games. After a sluggish six years in existence, it suddenly morphed into a mass movement.

A century ago, women had to fight for the right to vote to ensure that their voice was heard. There was no democracy when half the population had no say in who represented them, no say in decision-making in most jurisdictions throughout the world.

GERRY GALVIN’S No Recipe, Where’s Katie by Elaine Feeney, Invitation To A Sacrifice by Dave Lordan, and In Other Words by Mary Madec are all evidence that the Irish poetic revolution of the last 20 years has now reached something like completion.

International Women’s Day, celebrated throughout the world on March 8, will soon be upon us. It was first nominated as a national holiday for women in 1908 to highlight a strike by New York women clothing workers against the sweatshop conditions in the factories. From its beginning it has been rooted in years of struggle and used as a rallying point to demand women’s rights and women’s suffrage. Here in Ireland, something we can be proud of is that in the First Dáil on January 21 1919, a woman, Constance Markievicz, was appointed to the cabinet as Minister for Labour. This was truly historic when you consider that Constance Markievicz was the first female cabinet minister in western Europe and that Irish women didn’t gain the right to vote until 1928.