Review
An elegant step towards equality, says Sean McMahon
- Mná na Héireann: Women Who Shaped Ireland
- Mercier Press
Herstories
It’s a given that a number of establishments, political, legal, ecclesiastical, medical and even literary, have contributed to a state of sexual inequality in Irish society.
Still women played and play their part, as Nicola Depuis’s widely researched and corrective book makes clear. The 50 subjects she has chosen were/are shapers; and the work is not finished, sisters! Many of the usual suspects are here: Queen Medbh, St Brigid, Granuaile, Mary Aikenhead, Catherine McAuley and in more recent times Katherine Lynn and Constance Marckievicz, sterling members of the Citizen Army, who were at least treated as equals unlike Cumann na mBán, who made the tea and ran errands.
But this book is not sunk in the past; the shapers of modern Ireland are here as well: two presidents, social workers, educationists, trade unionists and gadflies including Nell (alone known by her forename), Bernadette Devlin and Sinéad O’Connor. Since there is so little space for each subject character flaws (warts and all) are not dealt with and biography runs the danger of coming close to hagiography. Still this elegantly produced book is a firm step in the right direction.
