The narrative of the Irish revolution as a chronology of great men and
male militarism, with women presumed to have either played a subsidiary
role or no role at all, requires reconsideration. Women and feminists
were extremely active in Irish revolutionary causes from 1912 onwards,
but ultimately it was the men as revolutionary 'leaders' who took all
the power, and indeed all the credit, after independence. Women from
different backgrounds were activists in significant numbers and women
across Ireland were profoundly impacted by the overall violence and
tumult of the era, but they were then relegated to the private sphere,
with the memory of their vital political and military role in the
revolution forgotten and erased. Women and the Irish Revolution examines
diverse aspects of women's experiences in the revolution after the
Easter Rising. The complex role of women as activists, the detrimental
impact of violence and social and political divisions on women, the role
of women in the foundation of the new State, and dynamics of remembrance
and forgetting are explored in detail by leading scholars in sociology,
history, politics, and literary studies. Important and timely, and
featuring previously unpublished material, this book will prompt
essential new public conversations on the experiences of women in the
Irish revolution.
