As Margaret Ward notes in her preface to this fascinating collection, the decade of centenaries has provided a critical moment for re-evaluating how and by whom Irish history has been produced. Through a careful analysis of women's writing this volume contributes to a widespread desire to diversify traditional narratives of service, political activism, and intellectual debate in land wars, the Anglo–Boer wars, the First World War, Easter Rising, and War of Independence. The wide variety of sources utilised attest to the myriad ways in which Irish women engaged in and reflected on these conflicts, pushing the boundaries of gendered space and language in the process.
Diane Urquhart, for example, considers how Anna Parnell and the Ladies Land League skillfully used the press to spread their message to an international audience, though she notes that newspapers in turn attacked not only the league, but Parnell herself, creating tension within the movement as a whole. Heidi Hansson presents Emily Lawless's Garden diary, as a demonstration of how Lawless created a rhetorical space that could incorporate her national, international, and domestic identities by discussing her unionist sentiments regarding news reports of the Anglo–Boer War with a text ostensibly about her flower gardens.
Further discussions of women's more ambivalent identities attest to the complexities of women's lived experiences and alliances during war. Lucy Collins demonstrates the importance of Winifred Letts's wartime poetry, not only because her perspective as an Irish Red Cross nurse helped her bear witness to the suffering of combatants, but also because the Irish influences and inflections in Letts's poetry highlight her own ambivalent national identity. Ríona Nic Congáil considers the writing and activism of Agnes O'Farrelly (Úna Ní Fhaircheallaigh), a brilliant Irish language scholar and poet, and the first published female Irish-language writer. However, her attempts to secure political compromises and unity among the splintering factions of Cumann na mBan resulted in her ostracisation from the organisation and disillusionment with nationalist politics in general. Both these women have been generally overlooked in the canon of Irish literature, but the very nature of their multi-faceted identities complicates and thus enriches the understanding of Irish culture and society. In contrast to O'Farrelly's isolation, Tina O'Toole's essay shows the power of networks by studying Roger Casement's female correspondents. In their activism, O'Toole traces the emergence of an Irish new woman, who revolted against class and cultural traditions to support the cause of Irish feminism and nationalism. While Casement remained the centre of their kinship circle, these women fashioned a support network that helped them continue their efforts even after his death.
No such study would be complete without a consideration of the body, its violent potential, and its vulnerabilities. Muireann Ó Cinnéide uses the reports of Lady Anne Blunt being hurled from the platform of an anti-eviction meeting to demonstrate how her body became a rhetorically contested, politicised entity. As the grand-daughter of Lord Byron and a supporter of Egyptian nationalism, Blunt was seen as a symbol of transnational sympathy and anti-imperialist struggle by many Irish writers, while others used her significance as a wife and mother effectively to erase her from historical records. Lucy McDiarmid considers how women described their experiences of violence during the Easter Rising, focusing specifically on reports of physical intimidation and mockery at the hands of British soldiers, as well as the comfort republican women offered each other in prison. She also highlights the acts of physical intimacies that took place during the Rising, from the binding of wounds to moments of shared laughter between comrades.
Additionally, this collection also includes critically significant queer theory analysis. Maureen O'Connor investigates Eva Gore-Booth's artistic reflections on the Easter Rising to show how Gore-Booth upended traditional understandings of pacifism, militancy, and gender roles in her support for a free Ireland that overturn traditional definitions of honour, violence, and service within an Irish and a wider, more theoretical context. Jody Allen Randolph focuses on Margaret Kelly, a more obscure, but nevertheless critically important feminist, a nationalist, and writer who employed a male pseudonym and identity (Garrett O'Driscoll). Randolph also performs an important work of historical retrieval; Kelly was an adamant supporter of the Irish nation, but the hypermasculine and conservative nationalism of the post-revolutionary period side-lined and obscured her work and activism.
An essay from Lia Mills, author of the novel Fallen, reiterates the critical importance of reclaiming and reimagining women's engagement in historic events. The excerpt from her novel describes the personal conflicts of Irish women who supported the army on the Somme, the men on the streets of Dublin, and attempted to follow their own conscience. All in all, this is an impressively varied yet cohesive volume. By exposing the rich historical potential present in Irish women's conflict writing, these essays deepen and enhance the historical understanding of women's intersectional identities as citizens, subjects, and kin within a complex imperial and national power structure. The wide exploration of women's spirituality, sexuality, loyalties, and legacy provides an admirable template for future historians looking to pursue further feminist inquiry.
