Search Results for 'Margaret MacCurtain'

For a century and a half, policymakers and preachers have tried to break Ireland’s matriarchal spine. First came colonial statutes that stripped women of ancient Brehon era property rights; then, after Independence, a clerical regime insisted a woman’s duty began and ended inside four walls and that maxim even made its way into the Constitution. Both forces notched victories on paper. Yet the lived chain of female authority, mother to daughter, sister to sister never snapped. I know, because that chain carried me out of Bessborough Mother-and-Baby Home and set me, my child, and several generations of my family back on our feet.

NUI Galway’s Moore Institute will tomorrow (Friday Feb 16) host a symposium presented by the Women’s History Association of Ireland. One of Ireland’s leading historians, Professor Mary O’Dowd from Queen’s University Belfast, will address the association on the progress and pathways for future research on Irish women’s history from 1500-1800.