Where are Ireland's Radical Women

History tells us the women in Dail Eireann were anti-treaty and vehemently so! Many of these women TD’S took leftist republican stand points. This at a time when the new Irish state was fractured for once by ideology. I quote, from

Jason K. Knirck.Imagining Ireland's Independence: The Debates over the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921


Most of all, I am still not sure why women TDs all voted against the treaty without exception--and why the most republican organization was the all-female Cumann na mBan. It cannot just have been typecasting.

So we can clearly see a sense of radicalism associated with women going back to the formation of the state. However it is important to note that many Irish women were unable to vote in the 1922 general election. I quote,

Female TDs also raised the uncomfortable issue of the franchise, which left a large number of women without the vote in the 1922 general election.

Whilst the facts cannot be challenged—it is of interest to examine as to how this radical feminism has emerged in modern Ireland. It may be argued that woman have been emancipated—from the kitchen sink to the boardroom. That woman have equal opportunity in the work place—and within the education system.Yet it is not unusual to hear terms like gender balance—when referring to politics and even political debates.So how emancipated have Irish women really become?


Also back in the early twenties, was the watering down of feminism and female influence a deliberate policy by the male led political establishment?


Knirck argues that the government’s portrayal of republicanism as essentially feminine was part of a wider policy of eliminating both the ideology and women in general from public life, in an attempt to 'restore stability and order.'


One wonders who has inherited the radical mantle as presented by these early pioneering female representatives. Whilst we have had some well meaning and hard working—female TD’s and ministers—one struggles to equate them with any sense of radicalism. Is that because since 1922 –we have failed to elect any radical government? Another question that could be legitimately asked is to see examples of male radicalism? Yet at the foundation of the state the radical mantra was female—so I will concentrate on that.


Yes there have been radical women from time to time. Mostly these women were involved with the republican movement. Some were heavily embedded in the armed struggle. Many spent a long time rotting in Irish or English jails. Although many of these women were radical—they were mainly republican. Socialism or feminism was never outwardly part of their ideology.


In modern Ireland socialist TD’S like Clare Daly could well be labelled as radical and feminist. However one wonders how well she is received in the realms of middle Ireland?


So where did that initial radical republican feminism go? Did its dissipation have any co-relation to the boom and bust fiasco that has ruined this country? Where the new credit card—mortgage consumer—who bought into the ideology of private health insurance, two cars, paid childcare. Are these modern day women in anyway responsible for the current mess? One wonders at the effects of coffee morning conversations about house prices,VHI plans. The complete surrender to consumerism and the world as presented by neoliberalism.



Would the original black widows of Dail Eireann have opted for outlets and shopping centres over cradle to the grave healthcare—and educational access? I quote,


The women’s part was to raise the specter of the dead and to claim the right to speak for them. Even the women who were not widows wore black.