Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
THE HOUSES OF the Oireachtas has announced a programme of cultural events to mark a century since women in Ireland were first given the right to vote and run in parliamentary elections.
This day next year will mark 100 years since the Parliament (Qualification of Women) Act 1918 permitted in law that “a woman shall not be disqualified by sex or marriage for being elected to, or sitting or voting as, a Member of the Commons House of Parliament”.
Women were allowed to run for election for the first time in the general election in December 1918; Sinn Féin candidate Countess Markievicz was the first and only woman to win a seat (although she didn’t take it, as the parliament sat in Westminster at the time).
The commemoration, called Vótáil 100, will include a showcase of artefacts from the suffragette movement, a youth debate in Seanad Éireann, and a National Gallery exhibition about Countess Markievicz.
In a similar commemoration, Theresa May announced that the first female member of the UK parliament would be honoured next year.
Although she didn’t mention the member by name, by process of elimination it should be Countess Markievicz, a leading figure in the republican movement in Ireland.
She played a prominent role in the 1916 Rising and was sentenced to death afterwards, although her life was spared because she was a woman and from a privileged, well-known family.
The UK’s parliamentary committee Vote100 series, has organised a major exhibition for summer 2018 in Westminster Hall to celebrate its female representatives.
Chairperson of the Vótáil 100 committee Ivana Bacik said that she was “delighted” with the celebrations being organised for the centenary next year.
We hope that our Vótáil 100 programme will encourage and inspire more women to become politically involved, and will remind us all about the importance of the right to vote.
Cathaoirleach of the Seanad, Senator Denis O’Donovan said that the programme of events would “highlight the impact of wider voting rights, the history of the suffrage movement and its leaders in Ireland and of the representation of women in parliament”.
Leas Ceann Comhairle of the Dáil, Pat The Cope Gallagher said that a full programme of events would be announced in the New Year.
“Irish women were finally allowed to vote in the 1918 general election after winning that right on this day 99 years ago… It is fitting that today we announce our intentions to celebrate and commemorate this event over the course of next year.”
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
The Irish media: Constance Markievicz was a true patriot, a hero, a rebel, and a leader.
She also killed a policeman. And by any of today’s phony metrics, she’d be called “a terrorist.”
Yet if you talk up Sinn Féin, with leaders like Mary Lou, Pearse Doherty, and Eoin O’Broin, all having nothing to do with the British-led terrorism up north, they get labelled terrorists themselves.
For the crime of wanting a society free of homelessness!
@Franklin Roosevelt: As always, when it comes to anything ( in this instance, celebrating a womans right to vote) SF are the real victims.
Their sense of victimhood is matched only by their self-importance.
@Honeybadger197: “Until our arms have brought the opportune moment for the establishment of a permanent National Government, representative of the whole people of Ireland and elected by the suffrages of all her men and women, the Provisional Government, hereby constituted, will administer the civil and military affairs of the Republic in trust for the people” – Proclamation of the Irish Republic.
No IRA, no Sinn Féin, no universal suffrage in Ireland (until later at least)
@Franklin Roosevelt: 1928 in the UK.
@Franklin Roosevelt: An unarmed policeman at that !
@Franklin Roosevelt: What has the proclamation got to do with the ditch hurlers of planet Mary Lou?
@Franklin Roosevelt: Markievicz & the other 1916 rebels had no democratic mandate just like the Provos. Both arrogant authoritarian groups who defied the will of most of the people they arrogantly claimed to speak for.
@Franklin Roosevelt: I’ve always had a problem with Markievicz being pegged as a hero. In reality she shot a unarmed police man (Irishman) not exactly a Agent of Crown forces. The reality being just a Dubliner doing his job. Better historical heroes could be found.
@Franklin Roosevelt: You should read up on how the RIC treated strikers during the 1913 dublin lockouts. only 3 years previous. but still fresh in her memory.
That lady is better than most of the men in power these days.
We gave em the right to vote and now they have gone crazy… safe spaces, accusations of sexual abuse… wanting equal pay for less work? Time to take the vote off them again!
@Don Shavago: Oh come on, not every thread please.
@Don Shavago: I think you have a thing for Veronica. Be patient.
@Don Shavago: Are you talking about men?
Another fine Englishwoman…•/
@Thomas Blackcat: which of your other accounts,Honeybadger /Brinster muted me?
@joe oneill: what you joe?; do you know¿
Smith & Wesson (not Weston).
But that photo seems to have disappeared now.
@Brendan O’Brien: …beats 4 aces
I don’t rate Constance Gore-Booth as a worthy or appropriate figurehead of female political empowerment. She was invested with a lot of significance she never really had.
She carried out the cold blooded murder of unarmed Dublin Metropolitan Police officer Michael Lahiff at Stephen’s Green. She escaped any punishment for it despite being caught.
That’s enough for me to make up my mind about her.
So the first woman to be elected to the house of commons didn’t recognise it and sat in the first dail that the British then launched a campaign of terror to suppress. Couldn’t make it up. What are the odds the full story will be recognised in the UK..er zero LoL
Fempowerment 2017: getting in touch with your masculine side :)
Great aul lad that Constant Markievitz….
@Avina Laaf: I heard a drunken conspiracy theory once that she did indeed have a great auld lad. It might explain a few things.
Nancy Astor was the first woman to take up her seat in the House of Commons ,and she was American born.
@Brian O Reilly: In parts of America women had the vote before 1900.
We should not look at women’ s sufferage in isolation because it did not happen in isolation. It was the end result of a long journey. A journey of nearly 100 years of sustained pressure to change the system and give the voting rights to all adults!
These celebrations should equally include everyone. Basically anyone who is not an aristocratic landowner! The baker the butcher and the candlestick maker… It’s sufferage for all! Why make it a triumph for women over men when it is a triumph for joe soap over the wealthy who controlled everything! ( oh yes, I see)
Men want to manage the budget. Women in general want to blow it. That’s democracy.
Gillian Weir Scully:Give me a bit more than that!
have your say