Irish Feminisms, 1810-1930, (5 Volume Set)

Co-published by Routledge and Edition Synapse, the History of Feminism series makes key archival source material readily available to scholars, researchers, and students of women’s and gender studies, women’s history, and women’s writing, as well as those working in allied and related fields. Selected and introduced by an expert editor, the gathered materials are reproduced in facsimile, giving users a strong sense of immediacy to the texts and permitting citation to the original pagination.

This new title in the series brings together a unique selection of the multiple feminisms articulated by Irish writers between 1810 and 1930, a ‘long Victorian’ period. The five volumes foreground a multiplicity of beliefs and attitudes from novels, poetry, short stories, newspaper and journal articles, and essays, both by relatively unknown and by more celebrated writers (such as Lady Gregory, Lady Wilde, and the Parnells). While the history of feminism consistently and universally reveals conflicting interpretations of the female role in society, the situation in Ireland was significantly complicated by the backdrop of national uprisings, land war, world war, and the growing hegemony of a strongly religious patriarchy. In particular, the collection makes apparent the disparities of interest as writers confront, or covertly negotiate, the burning issues of education, suffrage, and participation in charitable work or politics.

Female frustrations, and collusion, with societal norms are documented in each of the thematically organized volumes. Volume I (‘Leading the Way’) includes key ideological articulations of Irish feminist beliefs. Volume II (‘Land and Labour’) is a collection of vital materials which show the intermeshing of women’s concerns with prevailing political turmoil. The question mark in the title of Volume III (‘Eire Abú?’ (‘Ireland Forever?’)) hints at the uncertainties facing women in any New Ireland. These fears are reflected in the materials reproduced in this volume, which contains work by the redoubtable Sheehy Skeffingtons, by the strongly feminist Haslams, and by Yeats’s beloved Maud Gonne. Nationalistic and feminist prose and poetry by sisters Countess Markievicz and Eva Gore-Booth - portrayed by Yeats as ‘one beautiful, the other a gazelle’ - is also included in this volume. Bringing together extracts from biography, fiction, poetry and bitter-sweet drama, Volume IV (‘In the Real World’) is a repository of vital work which engaged with education, social and sexual mores, marriage, and religious life and the novel Callaghan is its fitting and concluding text. Finally, Volume V (‘Literary Approaches’) highlights disparate expressions of the evolving Irish attitudes to feminist issues, from the competing spheres of the convent and secular world (George Moore’s ‘The Exile’), to challenges to fixed notions of gender (K. C. Thurston’s Max). The sheer diversity of poetical contributions is fascinating.

Most texts in this collection have either not appeared at all since their first publication, or have never been reprinted in their entirety; the remainder have been extremely difficult to find. Their collocation and juxtaposition in these volumes provides a unique insight into a multiplicity of Irish feminisms, and vividly recreates the literary and historical climate in which they were written. With its comprehensive introductions, (which furnish vital background information), this ground-breaking collection is destined to be welcomed as a treasure-trove by all serious scholars and students of Gender and Irish Studies - as well as those working in Victorian and Literary Studies.

Volume I : Leading The Way

Chapter 1 : Of Female Complaint : The Freeholder
Chapter 2 : The Rights of Women : The British Co-operator
Chapter 3 : Woman and Her Master
Chapter 4 : Womanhood and its Mission : Dublin University Magazine
Chapter 5 : To Drs : Wyville Thomson & M’Cosh : Memoranda of The Principal Points in The Constitution and Management of Alexandra College Dublin for The General Education of Ladies
Chapter 6 : Educational Endowments : Journal of The Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland
Chapter 7 : A Plea for The Ladies
Chapter 8 : Heroic Women : The Celtic Magazine
Chapter 9 - 12 : Lady Wilde, ‘The Bondage of Woman : Social Graces : Venus Victrix’; and ‘American Women : Social Studies
Chapter 13 : The Lady Cyclist : The Shandon Ballads
Chapter 14 : Irish Women’s Education : Irish Weekly Independent
Chapter 15 : Women’s Suffrage from a Masculine Standpoint
Chapter 16 : The Making of Ireland and its Undoing
Chapter 17 : Irish Women and The University
Chapter 18 : Women and The National Movement
Chapter 19 : Women in Scandinavia
Chapter 20 : Sinn Fein and Irish Women
Chapter 21 : Women, Ideals and The Nation : A Lecture Delivered to The Students’ National Literary Society, Dublin
Chapter 22 : Ephedros, The Economic Aspect of Woman Suffrage
Chapter 23 : The United Irishwomen, Part II : Their Work : The United Irishwomen : Their Place, Work and Ideals
Chapter 24 : Tradition in Irish History : The Old Irish World
Chapter 25 : Women Citizens : The Irish Citizen
Chapter 26 : Education and Sex : The Irish Citizen
Chapter 27 : Five Instalments of The Suffragists’s Catechism
Chapter 28 : The United Irishwomen : An Appea
Chapter 29 : Romance of Irish Heroines
Chapter 30 : The Future of Irishwomen : The Irish Citizen
Chapter 31 : Irish Heroines
Chapter 32 : Some Last Words on Women’s Suffrage
Chapter 33 : Women in Ancient and Modern Ireland
Chapter 34 : The Women of Ninety-Eight
Chapter 35 : Review of The Women of Ninety-Eight, The Irish Citizen
Chapter 36 : Helena Concannon, Daughters of Banba

Volume II : Land and Labour

Chapter 37 - 38 : The Lacemakers : Sketches of Irish Character, with some Account of The Effort to Establish Lacemaking in Ireland
Chapter 39 : Frances Power Cobbe, ‘Chivalry of The Period : Cabinet of Irish Literature
Chapter 40 : After Death’ (1880), Popular and Patriotic Poetry
Chapter 41 : The Irish Peasant Girl : Cabinet of Irish Literature
Chapter 42 : Women and The Census : To The Editor of The Freeman
Chapter 43 : The Archbishop of Dublin : Freeman’s Journal
Chapter 44 : The Archbishop of Dublin and The Ladies’ Land League : Freeman’s Journal
Chapter 45 : The Galbally and Aherlow Branch of The Ladies’ Land League, ‘The Ladies’ Land League
Chapter 46 : The Ladies’ Land League : To The Editor of The Freeman : Freeman’s Journal
Chapter 47 : Patrick Sarsfield Cassidy, ‘Fanny Parnell : The Celtic Magazine
Chapter 48 : Obituary of Fanny Parnell, The Celtic Magazine
Chapter 49 : The Tale of a Great Sham
Chapter 50 : The Long Road : Popular and Patriotic Poetry
Chapter 51 : The Return of Mary O’Murrough
Chapter 52 : The Exodus : Popular and Patriotic Poetry
Chapter 53 : Women and Labour : The Irish Citizen
Chapter 54 : Women’s Work and Wages in Dublin : The Irish Citizen
Chapter 55 : Woman : The Reconquest of Ireland
Chapter 56 : The Citizens Bookshelf : The Reconquest of Ireland : The Irish Citizen
Chapter 57 - 58 : Irony Personified’ and ‘Conscription and Women Workers : The Worker’s Republic
Chapter 59 : The Human Touch : The Sad Years
Chapter 60 : Women and Trades Unionism : The Irish Citizen
Chapter 61 : Job-seeking letter
Chapter 62 : Government to Use Utmost Force

Volume III : Éire Abú?

Chapter 63 : The Returned Picture : Irish Lyrical Poems
Chapter 64 : The Patriot’s Bride : Cabinet of Irish Literature : Selections from The Works of The Chief Poets, Orators, and Prose Writers of Ireland
Chapter 65 : Irish Women’s Association membership card
Chapter 66 : M. E. Francis [Mrs Francis Blundell], Miss Erin
Chapter 67 : Reine de la Famine
Chapter 68 : Inghinidhe na hEireann, Leaflet with Rules
Chapter 69 : The Dawn : Lost Plays of The Irish Renaissance
Chapter 70 : Women’s Rights : Poems of Eva Gore-Booth
Chapter 71 : Women’s Trades on The Embankment : The Egyptian Pillar
Chapter 72 : To My Fellow-Women
Chapter 73 : The Woman with a Garden : Bean na hEireann
Chapter 74 : Ought Irishwomen Have Political Equality with Men?
Chapter 75 : A Reply to Some Critics
Chapter 76 : Ten Years of Inghinidhe na hÉireann
Chapter 77 : Constance Markievicz, ‘Love of Country
Chapter 78 : Maud Gonne, ‘Inghinidhe na hÉireann
Chapter 79 : Mary A : M’Laren, ‘Inghinidhe na hÉireann’
Chapter 80 : Parasite Women’ and ‘The Lowest Deep
Chapter 81 - 82 : Political Intrigue’ and ‘Feminine Privilege
Chapter 83 : Is The Law an Ass - or Worse?
Chapter 84 : Are Bachelors Thieves?
Chapter 85 : A Christmas Game for Suffragettes
Chapter 86 : Should Men Have The Vote?
Chapter 87 : Responsibility of our Parliamentary Representatives
Chapter 88 : Man’s Place is The Home
Chapter 90 : The Pioneers of Feminism in Ireland
Chapter 91 : Suffragists and Home Rule : "A Plea for Common Sense"
Chapter 92 : Votes for Women in The West
Chapter 93 - 94 : Women and War’ and ‘The Writing on The Wall
Chapter 95 : The Duty of Suffragists
Chapter 96 : War and Ideals
Chapter 97 : War and Feminism
Chapter 98 : Irishwomen and War
Chapter 99 : An Open Letter to The Bishop of Ross
Chapter 100 : The Modern St Patrick
Chapter 101 : The Chivalry of War
Chapter 102 : Comfort The Women
Chapter 103 : Experiences of a Woman Patrol
Chapter 104 : ‘Women’s Dress : Our Streets : Remedies
Chapter 105 : ‘Thanks, "G. B. S."! : Working Women’s Hostel’; and ‘"Gentlewoman Wanted"
Chapter 106 : To The Oppressor’
Chapter 107 : Straining at The Leash : The Worker’s Republic
Chapter 108 - 11 : Dedication : Eire – After The Storm : Eire – to K : L.’; and ‘Apologia : A Voice of Insurgency
Chapter 112 - 14 : A Song of The Cumann Na MBan’ (Knutsford, June 1916); ‘Hymn on The Battlefields’ (1916); ‘Heroes and Martyrs’
Chapter 115 : Maeve Cavanagh, letter
Chapter 116 : Christmas Eve in Prison : To CM on her Prison Birthday : Broken Glory
Chapter 117 : Maud Eden, ‘Congratulations and Expectations : The Irish Citizen
Chapter 118 : Grace Plunkett, election poster
Chapter 119 : The Listowel Camogie Club, ‘Address from The Listowel Camogie Club to Austin Stack Esquire
Chapter 120 : Grace Plunkett, ‘What he Swallows Now!’
Chapter 121 - 122 : The Queen’ and ‘The Sacred Fire : The Sad Years
Chapter 123 : To The President and Houses of Congress of The United States of America
Chapter 124 : L. A. M. Priestley, First Causes
Chapter 125 : To The Young Women of Dublin!’
Chapter 126 - 127 : Dora Sigerson Shorter, ‘The Tricolour : and ‘The Choice : The Tricolour
Chapter 128 : Albina Brodrick, The NDU Invincible
Chapter 129 : Countess Markievicz Takes Her Place in The Celetial Choir
Chapter 130 : Lament of The Daughters of Ireland : Poems of Eva Gore-Booth

Volume IV : In The Real World

Chapter 131 : The Freeholder
Chapter 132 : Choosing a Wife : Irish Lyrical Poems
Chapter 133 : Flitters, Tatters, and The Counsellor, Cabinet of Irish Literature : Selections from The Works of The Chief Poets, Orators, and Prose Writers of Ireland
Chapter 134 : Introduction : Mary Aikenhead : Her Life, Her Work and Her Friends : Giving a History of The Foundation of The Congregation of The Irish Sisters of Charity
Chapter 135 : Loyalty : Speech at Mrs Russell’s
Chapter 136 - 137 : George Egerton, ‘A Psychological Moment’ and ‘Virgin Soil : Discords
Chapter 138 : Constance Markievicz, ‘Skaters’
Chapter 139 : Memoir : in Sarah Atkinson, Essays
Chapter 140 - 141 : In Hermit’s Garb’ and ‘Men’s Mistakes : Fancies! In Passing
Chapter 142 : Put to The Rack : "The Woman at The Window" and OTher Stories
Chapter 143 : The Magnanimous Lover : Four One-Act Plays
Chapter 144 : The Citizen at The Abbey : The Irish Citizen
Chapter 145 : In The Courts : The Irish Citizen
Chapter 146 : Co-operative Housekeeping : The Irish Citizen
Chapter 147 : The Girl MoTher and Kindred Problems : The Irish Citizen
Chapter 148 : The Amazing Philanthropists : Being Extracts from The Letters of Lester Martin
Chapter 149 : Wife-Beating : The Irish Citizen
Chapter 150 : Wife Beating : The Irish Citizen
Chapter 151 : ‘To The Women of All Countries : The Irish Citizen
Chapter 152 : Irish Lesson VII & Letter, Irish at Home
Chapter 153 : Callaghan

Volume V : Literary Approaches

Chapter 154 : My Treasure : MoTher and Son : Sister Mary of Love of God : Sonnet June : Vagrant Verses
Chapter 155 : George Eliot : Notes on Men, Women, Books
Chapter 156 : Jeanne Bras : Ballads and Poems
Chapter 157 : The Irish MoTher’s Lament : A Treasury of Irish Poetry
Chapter 158 : The Fairy Fiddler : A Treasury of Irish Poetry, eds : Stopford A : Brook and T : W : Rolleston
Chapter 159 : A Vagrant Heart : The Fairy Changeling and OTher Poems
Chapter 160 : Mo Bhuachaill Cael-Dubh’
Chapter 161 : A Memoir of Ethna Carbery : The Four Winds of Eirinn
Chapter 162 : The Exile : The Untilled Field
Chapter 163 : Dervorgilla
Chapter 164 : O No, We Never Mention It : The Abbey Row : Not Edited by William Butler Yeats
Chapter 165 : The Greenlands : The Living Chalice and OTher Poems
Chapter 166 : Review of The Living Chalice and OTher Poems
Chapter 167 : The Red-Haired Man’s Wife
Chapter 168 : Offering : Songs of Myself
Chapter 169 : KaTherine Cecil Thurston, Max
Chapter 170 : Katharine Tynan, ‘The MoTher : New Poems
Chapter 171 : Katharine Tynan, ‘Dora Sigerson : A Tribute and Some Memories : The Sad Years
Chapter 172 : Review of The Years of The Shadow by Katharine Tynan, The Irish Citizen
Chapter 173 : Woman this, and Woman That : The Irish Citizen
Chapter 174 : Ecce Mater : The Irish Citizen
Chapter 175 : Righteous Anger : Reincarnations
Chapter 176 : My Experiences in Prison : The Irish Citizen
Chapter 177 : Sex-Bias in Language, The Irish Citizen
Chapter 178 : The Feminine in Fiction, The Irish Citizen
Chapter 179 : Review of The Feminine in Fiction, The Irish Citizen
Chapter 180 : The Feminine in Fiction