Table of Contents

Foreword by Micheline Sheehy Skeffington; Chronology of Hanna Sheehy Skeffington's Life and Times; chapter 1: Unpublished Memoirs; chapter 2: Women and Education; chapter 3: Women, the National Movement and Sinn Fein; chapter 4: Votes for Women; chapter 5: War and Pacifism; chapter 6: Death of a Pacifist; chapter 7: After the Rising In America; chapter 8: The War of Independence and the Treaty; chapter 9: Opposing the `Free State'; chapter 10: Hanna and Sean O'Casey; chapter 11: Travels in Europe; chapter 12: Memories of Countess Markievicz; chapter 13: The 1930s. Feminist Reflections and Feminist Fightback; chapter 14: Prison Experiences; chapter 15: Looking Backwards. War, Election and Final Years; chapter 16: Book and Theatre Reviews; chapter 17: Obituaries of Hanna Sheehy Skeffington; Notes; Selected Reading; Index

Promotional Information

First time Sheehy Skeffington's political writings have been comprehensively gathered together. Based on extensive and detailed research from the Sheehy Skeffington archives in the National Library of Ireland. Written by Ireland's leading feminist historian.

About the Author

Dr Margaret Ward is a feminist historian whose highly acclaimed book Unmanageable Revolutionaries: Women and Irish Nationalism, first published in 1983, has become a classic text. She has also written biographies of Maud Gonne and Hanna Sheehy Skeffington and edited works on the role of women in nationalist and suffrage movements in Ireland. She is currently Visiting Fellow in History at Queen's University of Belfast.

Reviews

`This is a thematically organised work that scholars of Irish and women's history will surely turn to time and again ...'Jennifer Martin, Books Ireland, March 2018; `What is striking is how fresh Sheehy Skeffington's voice still seems, particularly on the long campaign for women's rights. ... The book is particularly vivid in charting the struggle for suffrage -- a timely subject ahead of next year's centenary of (some) women gaining the vote. ... Hers was a journey that deserves commemoration, and this new collection does so with gusto and authority.' Catherine Healy, Sunday Business Post, Nov 2017; `...an extensive and valuable collection that makes for a thoroughly engaging read. ...a tremendous primary resource to support the still neglected, but growing, area of Irish women's history and gender history more broadly.' Sonja Tiernan, The Irish Catholic, Nov 2017; `The value of this kind of volume is demonstrated by the immediacy, passion and humour of the prose, happening in real time when no one knew the outcome. ... Margaret Ward has done us a service in assembling these writings carefully, so that a clear and distinctive voice can be heard in her own words.' Catriona Crowe, Irish Times, Oct 2017; `What's most striking about Sheehy Skeffington's prose is its sheer resilience, nobility, and belief in the concept of justice at all costs: even in the face of despair, grief, and anguish. ... I would place [Hanna's] prison diaries alongside writing from other political figures who penned some of their best work behind bars, such as Italian Marxist, Antonio Gramsci, and Indian pacifist Mahatma Gandhi.' J. P. O'Malley, Sunday Independent, Oct 2017; `She was a truly remarkable woman and deserves nothing less than to have her writings presented to us by an historian of the calibre of Margaret Ward and more importantly to have them read, the better to inspire our thoughts and actions today.' Liberty newspaper, Oct 2017; 'The collection of Hanna's writing, which also comprises Hanna's unpublished memoir fragments, is an important addition to our understanding of a woman ahead of her time.' Martina Devlin, Irish Independent, Oct 2017; `The production is handsome and a significant contribution to the recovery of Irish women's history in the gestation, birth, and withering away of the national revolution.' Emmet O'Connor, Irish History Review, Oct 2017;“Her great heart stopped too soon”, the Irish Press observed in its obituary. “It was worn out in the pursuit of many causes..”. That great heart still beats through her writings and Ward has done a great service in collecting them.';Mary Carolan, Women's History Association of Ireland, August 2018; `Hanna’s life and work now made available in this definitive collection was certainly a model for women, but the question remains why did the model fail to engage Irish women until the later generation of Irish feminists?’; Irish Literary Supplement. Fall 2018