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Cover of Irish Feminisms, 1810-1930

Irish Feminisms, 1810-1930

Edited by Mary S. Pierse

  • Published: 14 Dec 2009
  • DOI: 10.4324/9780415475297
  • Set ISBN: 9780415475297

Set Contents

Land and labour


In this volume, the speeches, magazine articles, pamphlets, newspaper reports, a novel and a short story, all connect with aspects of land and labour. The sum of their parts depicts the harshness of the times for women workers both in town and in country. The determined efforts of mid-nineteenth-century activists, and their varying degrees of success with establishing lace schools, occurred in the wake of the hardship and disaster of the famine years and the failure of the Young Ireland Rising, and just before prevailing conditions would lead to the Fenian Rising in 1867 and then on to the land war. The horror of the famine in particular would long resonate right through the fabric of Irish society and its impact is evident in the demands of the Land League for land security – their cry is for fair rent, fixity of tenure and freedom to sell. Obviously, the crises impacted on women; perhaps more unexpectedly, they had considerable consequences for the freedom of women and for pursuit of women’s rights. Formation of the Ladies’ Land League was a dramatic illustration of the urgency of the situation at one juncture; to draw women into politico-social turmoil and action could only be done in exceptional circumstances as, in the climate of separate spheres, such a course could not otherwise have received even minimal acceptance from male politicians or from society at large. The combination of political purpose, humanitarian concern and a degree of public support provided an invaluable opportunity for League members to display their considerable abilities. Anna Parnell’s caustic account of the movement’s birth and demise portrays the women’s clear analyses, sharp learning curves and decisive interventions. Even the circumstances of the League’s dissolution contributed to progress in advancing the cause of women; the experience and political skills acquired were subsequently put to good use in suffrage and nationalist activity. In celebrating the bravery of Anna’s sister, Fanny, the poetry dedicated to her memory and mourning her passing may be taken as a recognition of all Land League women, as tribute to the legion of female co-workers who laboured alongside the Parnell sisters in the early 1880s.

Volume Contents

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    Front Matter
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    Introduction to Volume II By Mary S. Pierse
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    Extracts from The Lacemakers: Sketches of Irish Character, with some Account of the Effort to Establish Lacemaking in Ireland, London: Jackson, Walford, and Hodder, 1865, pp. 1–8, 27–45, 48–52 [By kind permission of Cork City Libraries] By Mrs. Meredith
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      Preface
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      I
      Lace-Making in Ireland
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      II
      Needlework v. Domestic Service
  • ‘The Redeemed Estate’, The Lacemakers: Sketches of Irish Character, with some Account of the Effort to Establish Lacemaking in Ireland, London: Jackson, Walford, and Hodder, 1865, pp. 117–202 [By kind permission of Cork City Libraries] By Mrs. Meredith
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      I
      Chapter I
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      II
      Chapter II
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      III
      Chapter III
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    39
    ‘Chivalry of the Period’, in Cabinet of Irish Literature, vol. 4, ed. T. P. O’Connor, M.A., London, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dublin: Blackie and Son, Old Bailey, 1880, pp. 121–2 (The essay originally appeared in her book Re-Echoes in 1876.) By Frances Power Cobbe
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    40
    ‘After Death’ (1880), Popular and Patriotic Poetry (Part III), Dublin: Catholic Truth Society of Ireland, n.d., pp. 80–1 [By kind permission of Cork City Libraries] By Fanny Parnell
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    41
    ‘The Irish Peasant Girl’, in Cabinet of Irish Literature, vol. 4, ed. T. P. O’Connor, M.A., London, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dublin: Blackie and Son, Old Bailey, 1880, p.153 By Charles Kickham
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    42
    ‘Women and the Census: To the Editor of the Freeman’, Freeman’s Journal. January 3, 1881, p. 5 [By kind permission of Cork City Libraries] By Anna M. Haslam
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    43
    ‘The Archbishop of Dublin’, Freeman’s Journal, March 12, 1881, p. 2 [By kind permission of Cork City Libraries] By Anon
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    44
    ‘The Archbishop of Dublin and the Ladies’ Land League: To the Editor of the Freeman’, Freeman’s Journal, March 16, 1881, p. 5 [By kind permission of Cork City Libraries] By A. M. Sullivan
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    45
    ‘The Ladies’ Land League’ ,Freeman’s Journal, March 21, 1881, p. 3 [By kind permission of Cork City Libraries]
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    46
    ‘The Ladies’ Land League: To the Editor of the Freeman’, Freeman’s Journal, March 25, 1881 [By kind permission of Cork City Libraries] By John Gallogly
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    47
    ‘Fanny Parnell’, The Celtic Magazine 1. 2. 1882, pp. 290–1 [Image courtesy of the National Library of Ireland] By Patrick Sarsfield Cassidy
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    48
    ‘Fanny Parnell, Obit., July 20, 1882’, The Celtic Magazine 1, 2, 1882, p. 291 [Image courtesy of the National Library of Ireland] By Mrs. Mary Locke
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    49
    Extracts from The Tale of a Great Sham, National Library of Ireland, Ms 12, 144, pp. 117–20, 121–8, 135–8, 179–80, 197, 231–9 By Anna Parnell
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    50
    ‘The Long Road’, Popular and Patriotic Poetry (Part I), Dublin: Catholic Truth Society of Ireland, 1906, p. 18 [By kind permission of Special Collections, Boole Library, University College Cork] By Nora Hopper Chesson
  • The Return of Mary O’Murrough, Dublin: The Phoenix Publishing Company, Limited, 1908 By Rosa Mulholland
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      I
      A Cross-Roads Dance
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      II
      At the Forge
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      III
      A “Woman of Three Cows”
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      IV
      Not Asleep, but Dreaming
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      V
      Shan’s First Bad Mark
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      VI
      The Remorse of Owny
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      VII
      “I wouldn’t ha’ Let her Go”
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      VIII
      A “Big Emigration”
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      IX
      The Outrage
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      X
      ‘I’m Mary O’Murrough from America”
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      XI
      “What’s Left of Her”
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      XII
      “Why Wouldn’t it be a Comfort to him to See Her?”
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      XIII
      “It’s Somebody that’s Come in her Place”
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      XIV
      “It Wasn’t done when the Message was Sent”
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      XV
      “She Hasn’t Come Back!”
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      XVI
      “I’m not the Wife for Him”
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      XVII
      “That Won’t be Clearing his Character”
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      XVIII
      Shan’s Release
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      XIX
      A Duty Done
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      XX
      “They Give Leave for what Never Can be Done”
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      XXI
      “So it’s Endin’ Well After All!”
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      XXII
      “It Was the Years that Come Again’ Her”
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      XXIII
      Conclusion
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    52
    ‘The Exodus’, Popular and Patriotic Poetry (Part V), Dublin: Catholic Truth Society of Ireland, 1909, pp. 43–5 (Previously published in Poems by Speranza (Lady Wilde), Dublin: J. Duffy, 1864; and in Poems by Lady Wilde, 2nd edn, Glasgow: Cameron & Ferguson, 1871.) [By kind permission of Cork City Libraries]
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    53
    ‘Women and Labour’ (I & II), The Irish Citizen, December 28, 1912, p. 251, January 4, 1913, p. 259 [Image courtesy of the National Library of Ireland] By Margaret K. Connery
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    54
    ‘Women’s Work and Wages in Dublin’, The Irish Citizen, August 9, 1913, p. 91 [Image courtesy of the National Library of Ireland] By E. A. Browning
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    55
    ‘Woman’, The Reconquest of Ireland, Dublin: ITGWU, 1915, pp. 42–8 [By kind permission of Cork City Libraries] By James Connoly
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    56
    ‘The Citizen’s Bookshelf; The Reconquest of Ireland’ [review article], The Irish Citizen, April 3, 1915, p. 354 [Image courtesy of the National Library of Ireland] By Margaret K. Connery
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    57
    ‘Irony Personified’, The Workers’ Republic, December 11, 1915 [By kind permission of Cork City Libraries] By James Connery
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    58
    ‘Conscription and Women Workers’, The Workers’ Republic, December 18, 1915, p. 8 [By kind permission of Cork City Libraries] By James Connoly
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    59
    ‘The Human Touch’, The Sad Years, London: Constable & Co., 1918, pp. 9–11 By Dora Sigerson
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    60
    ‘Women and Trades Unionism’, The Irish Citizen, January 1918, pp. 594–5 [Image courtesy of the National Library of Ireland. By kind permission of the copyright holders] By Louie Bennett
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    61
    Job-Seeking Letter, January 18, 1923 [By kind permission of the Allen Library, Dublin, and of the copyright holder] By Grace Plunkett
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    62
    ‘Government to Use Utmost Force’, Irish Times, February 12, 1923 By Anon
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    Back Matter