The decade of centenaries provides an ideal opportunity to showcase the contribution of women to Irish history and culture. Few voices from this period remain as relevant, challenging, and inspiring as Hanna Sheehy Skeffington, as demonstrated by this new collection of her memoirs and political writings, skilfully organised by Margaret Ward. Taken as a whole, this book illuminates a complex identity and robust body of work that has been hitherto under-examined. Hanna has long been known as the widow of Frank Sheehy Skeffington and a devoted suffragist, but her writings attest to a lifelong engagement in local, national, and international issues from women's education to pacifism and socialism.

The collection begins with Hanna's handwritten memoirs, which remained unfinished at the time of her death in 1946. In the early, more complete chapters, readers are introduced to the young Johanna Mary Sheehy, who was raised in a family of Fenians and cultural nationalists. Perhaps the most significant person in these early memories is her uncle, the Land League priest, Father Eugene Sheehy, both a model for and ardent supporter of Hanna's activism in later years. Each subsequent chapter of the volume is devoted to one of the many causes or relationships to which she devoted her time, clearly titled for easy browsing: women's education; women's involvement with the Irish nationalist movement; militant suffrage efforts; war and pacifism; the death of Frank Sheehy Skeffington; travels in America; the War of Independence and the Treaty; opposing the Free State; Seán O'Casey's writings; travels in Europe; Countess Markievicz; feminist and suffrage work during the 1930s; prison experiences; and her final years.

Even in the briefest examples of her writing, Sheehy Skeffington demonstrated eloquence, intellect, indomitable humour, and a willingness to apply internationalist thinking to local Irish political and social issues. For example, she referenced educational studies from the United States demonstrating how co-educational environments improved students’ education in her argument for co-education in Ireland. Though not completely free of contemporary racialised ideology (such as comparing Irish and ‘oriental’ women's social exclusion), she also demonstrated a clear understanding of women's intersectional identities within society and politics. Her goals were commensurately expansive – repeatedly, she noted that it is not merely the vote or a degree that will result in total equality, but, rather, the dismantling of the entire system of patriarchy and privilege that marginalised women.

More private aspects of her life become clear, as well. Her descriptions of her fellow suffragists’ comradery during their work and imprisonment, especially, offer insight not only into Sheehy Skeffington's political alliances, but the personal relationships that sustained her. Perhaps the most poignant writings of this collection are those related to the murder of Frank Sheehy Skeffington at the hands of Captain Bowen-Colhurst on 26 April 1916. Frank's support, insight, and humour are referenced throughout these works, demonstrating the equitable and deeply meaningful relationship he and Hanna shared, and her forthright testimony regarding his death is consequently deeply emotive. In the forward to the fifth edition of her British militarism as I have known it, Hanna states, ‘I have never been able to find out how long my husband may have lingered in anguish’ after being shot in the Portobello Barracks, an observation that emphasises her own suffering as well as Frank's (p. 130). The personal dimension of her later protests against Sean O'Casey and the commemoration of Easter week become particularly clear in context. Additionally, her memorialisation of Constance Markievicz reveals these women's lasting emotional bond, as well as deep respect.

Margaret Ward, herself a pioneer in the history of Ireland's nationalist revolutionary women, and author of a 1997 biography of Sheehy Skeffington, is the ideal scholar to assemble and contextualise this immense body of work. Ward's insightful introduction to each thematic chapter places the individual works within a particular political or social movement, as well as within the framework of Sheehy Skeffington's individual biography. The citations also provide useful contextual information, as well as rectifying some inevitable oversights in her memory (such as recalling the Phoenix Park Murders in 1881, rather than 1882). Apart from this framing and supplementary information, however, Hanna speaks for herself. While this allows her personal brilliance to shine, it is unfortunate that more information was not provided about how and why these specific sources were chosen, or in what ways they speak to an overall corpus of work.

As Micheline Sheehy Skeffington, Hanna's grand-daughter, notes in her introduction, ‘there is nothing tentative about Hanna's writing. It is bold, sometimes scathing … and direct’ (p. xvi). Though a product of their time, Hanna Sheehy Skeffington's writings remain relevant, even during the current period in which women's social and political roles are being debated, negotiated, and challenged anew. To date, Hanna's legacy has been largely relegated to her work as a suffragist and feminist, however, this volume emphasises the way her various political views informed and enriched each other, highlighting her significance to Irish political, economic, military, artistic and social history. Ward's skilful assembly and framing has resulted in a collection that deserves to be a mainstay on the shelves of Irish historians and feminists alike.