In her introduction Dr Pašeta outlines her intention to explore the range of activities experienced by politically active nationalist women during this period including ‘the context in which the competing discourses of nationalism and feminism met, interacted and sometimes clashed’. She notes that the many chronicles, memoirs, and reminiscences left by such women show the vibrancy of the world in which they lived, and their belief that they had a stake in the development of modern Ireland.

Pointing to the significance for women of new literary societies which emerged during the 1890s, particularly the Gaelic League, she argues that in addition to promoting the Irish language and culture, by opening their doors to women and men, such organisations provided intellectual and social outlets for women which would empower their further involvement in cultural politics into the twentieth century. The formation of Inghinidhe na hÉireann by Maud Gonne in 1900 as an all-female nationalist organisation would play a key role in the development of nationalist politics during the early years of the new century. In addition the author notes the practical example given Inghinidhe by the activities of a number of women’s groups outside Irish nationalism, in particular the campaign for Irish Women’s Suffrage and the politicisation of Unionist women in reaction to the possibility of Home Rule. While suffrage groups in existence from the later years of the nineteenth century were conservative by nature, the formation of the Irish Women’s Franchise League (I.W.F.L.) in 1908 saw a more militant and definitively Irish stance adopted.

The eighteen-year chronological span of this work covers key developments in the political structure of Ireland north and south. From 1912, in particular, events developed at a somewhat roller-coaster pace, sometimes lurching from one crisis to another. In 1912 Ulster Unionists formed the Ulster Volunteer Force in opposition to the Home Rule Bill; this was followed by the establishment of the nationalist Irish Volunteers in 1913, which in turn led to the formation of Cumann na mBan in 1914. While executive members of the latter stated it to be an independent body rather than a ‘ladies’ auxiliary’, its first task of setting up a fund for arming and equipping the Volunteers unleashed a flood of criticism from the I.W.F.L. which deplored this ‘slavish attitude’. Pašeta notes that despite the efforts of its more feminist and activist members, Cumann na mBan never achieved equal status with the Volunteers.

The formation of the Irish Women Workers’ Union (I.W.W.U.) in 1911 was an important radical development. In working to improve the conditions of women workers, Pašeta observes it drew many socialist leaning women from both the Inghinidhe and the I.W.F.L. together. This would be particularly evident during the 1913 Dublin Lockout when, under the leadership of Delia Larkin. both groups along with I.W.W.U. members set up a food kitchen in Liberty Hall to provide food for thousands of women and children. She also notes that the more radical women gravitated toward the Irish Citizen Army, formed in late 1913 by James Connolly to protect workers at public meetings.

The start of the First World War in August 1914 would cause division between pro- and anti war-support suffrage groups on the correct stance to be adopted. Often based on political allegiance, increasingly a pacifist argument came to the fore against the war. This would be evident also during the years 1914–16 when nationalists planned an uprising against British rule. Women’s role in the Easter Rising of 1916 and its aftermath is covered comprehensively by Pašeta. She makes some interesting observations on the ‘inclusive and bluntly feminist language’ in parts of the 1916 Proclamation, commenting on the fact that such an emphatic declaration of equality of the sexes made it into the document is remarkable, given all the other considerations its authors had to consider. Pointing out that Irish suffragettes had provided the most openly advanced political movement ahead of any subsequent volunteer force, undertaking militant action, imprisonment and hunger-strike, she notes their actions were admired by the 1916 leaders. While Connolly alone of the signatories was a socialist, all but one of the other signatories were active suffragists. She argues ‘historians have largely underestimated the impact on the thinking of some of the key republicans of that era of the women’s movement’.

Pašeta notes that a proposal to extend the Conscription Act to Ireland in the spring of 1918 resulted in strong coordinated reaction from pacifists, feminists, labour women and Cumann na mBan, all signing a pledge of resistance against the Act. She points out that republican women ‘were an integral part’ of the machine which had seen Sinn Féin win five of the eight by-elections it had contested since 1917. With the parliamentary vote granted to women of thirty years of age in January 1918, this role was intensified in the run-up to the general election of that year. Following Sinn Féin’s massive electoral victory and the spectacular defeat of the Irish Party in that election, Pašeta comments that activist Irishwomen knew how utterly their country had changed in 1918. However, they were not prepared for how quickly changes could be, and were, reversed.

In addition to her comprehensive listing of nationalist women’s organisations and their interaction with feminism, detailed study of archival material, diaries and memoirs, and of published works on the history of women in Ireland since the 1970s, Pašeta has brought to life the women and the tensions within these movements. The result is a worthy addition to the canon of works on the history of Irishwomen. Her book is undoubtedly what she claims on page one of her Introduction – ‘emphatically a work of women’s history’.