Library lecture series: Sisters I and II

Following on the heels of the Representation of the People Act (1918) which granted a measure of suffrage to women, came the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act which barred women’s exclusion from professions, societies etc., based solely on gender grounds. These two Acts were the motivation for our successful spring 2019 lecture series ‘Sisters’ celebrated sisterhood and specifically the lives and achievements of five families of sisters who made their mark on Irish life. Including artists, publishers, writers, educationalists, philanthropists, revolutionaries, suffragists — thinkers all — these were independent women with hopes and ideals who made a difference in their own times.Take this opportunity to hear about the diverse backgrounds and motivations of extraordinary sisters from four different centuries.

Sisters I March – April 2019

13 March  ‘“Two girls in silk kimonos”: the Gore-Booth sisters, childhood and political development’ by Dr Sonja Tiernan, Department of History and Politics, Liverpool Hope University

27 March  ‘“A precious boon” in difficult times – Hanna Sheehy Skeffington and her sisters’ by Dr Margaret Ward, School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics, QUB

3 April  ‘“Who will ever say again that poetry does not pay?”:  the Yeats sisters and the Cuala Press’ by Dr Lucy Collins, School of English, Drama & Film, UCD

10 April  ‘Ties that endure – the lives and correspondence of three eighteenth-century sisters – Katherine Conolly, Jane Bonnell and Mary Jones’ by Dr Gabrielle M. Ashford, Independent Scholar

17 April  ‘The Shackleton sisters:  Irish Quaker women c. 1750-1850’ by Dr Mary O’Dowd, MRIA, Queen’s University of Belfast

Sisters II – August – November 2022

Sisters II continued the celebration of sisterhood by exploring the lives and achievements of another four families of sisters who made their mark on Irish life. If you missed any of the lectures you can listen to them now.

17 August The seventeenth-century Boyle sisters and their letters by Dr Ann-Maria Walsh, School of English, Drama & Film, UCD

28 September Kate O’Brien and her sisters: archives, fictions and families? by Gerardine Meaney MRIA, Professor of Cultural Theory in the School of English, Drama & Film at University College Dublin

19 October Reassessing Anna and Fanny Parnell by Dr Diane Urquhart, Professor of Gender History at Queen’s University Belfast

10 November Miss Sidney and Miss Olivia: the lives and writings of the Owenson sisters by Claire Connolly MRIA, Professor of Modern English at University College Cork