'A precious boon' in difficult times - Hanna Sheehy Skeffington and her sisters

Following on the heels of the Representation of the People Act (1918) which granted a measure of suffrage to women, came the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act which barred women’s exclusion from professions, societies etc., based solely on gender grounds. Our spring 2019 lecture series ‘Sisters’ celebrates sisterhood and specifically the lives and achievements of five families of sisters who made their mark on Irish life. Including artists, publishers, writers, educationalists, philanthropists, revolutionaries, suffragists — thinkers all — these were independent women with hopes and ideals who made a difference in their own times. Take this opportunity to hear about the diverse backgrounds and motivations of extraordinary sisters from four different centuries. This series accompanies our successful exhibition, ‘Prodigies of learning: Academy women in the nineteenth century’ which continues until 30 April 2019.

Speaker

Dr Margaret Ward is Honorary Senior Lecturer in History at Queen’s University, Belfast. Amongst her many publications are Unmanageable Revolutionaries: women and Irish Nationalism (1983), biographies of Maud Gonne and Hanna Sheehy Skeffington and edited works (with Louise Ryan), Irish Women and the Vote: Becoming Citizens and Irish Women and Nationalism. Her latest book is Hanna Sheehy Skeffington: suffragette and Sinn Feiner, her memoirs and political writings, UCD Press, 2017. Her updated biography Fearless Woman: Hanna Sheehy Skeffington, Feminism and the Irish Revolution is forthcoming UCD Press, 2019.