Volume II of Irish women’s speeches is a continuation of Sonja Tiernan’s invaluable collection in Voices that rocked the system. That volume showcased thirty-three groundbreaking speeches by women who challenged existing hierarchies, calling for radical changes in the political and economic systems and making demands for gender equality, political self-determination and peace. A delighted Mary Robinson, who undoubtedly rocked the system as Ireland’s first female president, beams out from the book’s front cover. As Tiernan concluded, it was ‘a record of Irish women whose words continue to shake people out of apathy and enthuse new generations’ (p. 6). In the appropriately named A rich chorus of voices, a red-haired Maureen O’Hara, in flame-red dress, the most successful Irish woman in the Hollywood film industry, confronts a black and white John Wayne. It is an arresting image, indicating the colour and drama that women’s inclusion can bring to our lives.
Inspired by the feminist response to the Abbey Theatre’s unfortunate commemorative programme ‘Waking the nation’ of 2015, Tiernan provides us with a strong cast of seventeen women from the arts, culture and heritage sectors, beginning with Charlotte Stoker, whose writings inspired her son Bram to write the gothic novel Dracula, and concluding with Lian Bell, who in spearheading the ‘Waking the feminists’ movement, continued a rich tradition of artistic protest on the stage of the Abbey Theatre. Tiernan accompanies each speech with substantial biographical information, providing an absorbing contextual framework which both informs the content of the speech and provides authoritative material regarding the concerns of the times.
In the cases of the well-known figures of Maud Gonne and Gretta Cousins, the speeches chosen are not particularly well known, which makes them the more valuable. The historian Alice Stopford Green was renowned for her books on Irish history but unknown as a speaker, so the example of a speech given during a dinner in her honour in London in 1908 is most welcome as a vivid example of why her determination to restore ‘a true Irish history’ was so influential in the years leading up to the Easter Rising. The artist Sarah Purser was an extraordinary woman who pursued art as a career following the bankruptcy of her father. For many decades she was at the centre of cultural activity in Ireland, a generous supporter of neglected artists and founder of An Túr Gloine (The Tower of Glass), which provided new outlets for artists such as Harry Clark, Michael Healy and Wilhelmina Geddes in designing stained-glass windows for cathedrals and churches. Purser’s speech, given on the twenty-fifth anniversary of An Túr Gloine, reflected upon the importance of the co-operative while regretting that they were forced to look abroad for work due to lack of patronage from the Irish churches.
Maureen O’Carroll, first female T.D. for the Irish Labour Party, demonstrated the additional qualities women can bring to the public sphere with a speech in the Dáil in 1956 which ‘shattered a culture of silence’ when she spoke out against the illegal adoption of Irish children abroad. Máirín de Burca, one of the founders of the women’s liberation movement, is well known for her activism, particularly in challenging women’s exclusion from juries. Her speech on Merriman’s ‘The midnight court’ considers the equation of liberation of women with free love as a ‘curiously male notion’ (p. 86). As Tiernan concludes, the speech ‘is a reminder of how Irish feminists offer a broader re-evaluation of Ireland’s cultural heritage’ (p. 84).
Not every woman is a role model. Norah Dacre Fox, a suffragette with the Women’s Social and Political Union, ended her political career as a convinced fascist, but the book remembers the bravery of the journalist Veronica Guerin; the determination of transgender activist Lydia Foy; the contribution to cinema made by Brenda Fricker; the devotion to the Irish language exemplified by poet Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill; the courageous autobiography and death of Nuala O’Faolain; the tireless work of Salome Mbugua in enabling migrants to participate in all aspects of life in Ireland; and a typically graceful contribution from Edna O’Brien, reflecting on key influences on her writing career.
Taken together, these lives do much to illuminate how women have shaped Irish culture. Their speeches provide welcome sources for those looking to include women’s experiences in their studies of literature, history, and the arts. However, the omission of northern voices is regrettable. Eight women from the north of Ireland were included in Volume I. This time, the notion of Irishness is exclusively from a twenty-six county perspective.
