Did you know that it was only 90 year ago..

Nevyn

That women were first allowed to vote in this country ?

http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/mhsnaueyojcw/rss2/

90th anniversary of women’s first vote marked
10:09:14
Today marks the 90th anniversary of the day Irish women took to the polls for the first time.

Female senators and TDs both past and present were at the Dáil this week for celebrations held in to mark the occasion.

Women here were allowed to vote in the general election after winning the right to universal suffrage in 1918.

90 years ago today, Christmas shopping took a back seat as Irish women braved the electoral booths for the first time.

But their trip to the polls came with certain conditions - they had to be over thirty years of age and land owners, a restriction that wasn't lifted until ten years later in 1928.

This year is also the anniversary of the election of Ireland's first female member of parliament - Countess Markiewicz.

But since then, Irish women have been largely under represented in Irish politics.

Countess Markievicz was without a successor for 60 years, until the election of Maire Geoghegan Quinn in 1979.

Irish women have filled just under seven per cent of seats in the Dáil and Seanad since their first general election and Ireland is currently ranked 87th in the world for its female representation in Government.

There is a really nice display in the Collins barracks musem on this topic
was in there with my lil sis a while back. They have badges, fliers, posters and other historical documents about the campaign and the times.

Galvasean

Only? 90 years is a long time. Ireland sure was a sucky place back then.

cuckoo

Thaedydal wrote: »

There is a really nice display in the Collins barracks musem on this topic
was in there with my lil sis a while back. They have badges, fliers, posters and other historical documents about the campaign and the times.

Oooh, must check that out. That museum just keeps getting better and better with all the new displays, heard on the radio that there's another new one, as part of the Soldiers and Chiefs exhibition, about the history of weapons in Ireland and duelling.

Why was the distinction made between land owning and non-land owning women?

The over 30s restriction just seems bizarre to me nowadays, but then i remembered - only citizens who have reached the age of 35 are allowed constitutionally to run for election as President. Age discrimination lives on.

enda1

cuckoo wrote: »

Why was the distinction made between land owning and non-land owning women?

Guess a remnant from the feudal systems in place and the concepts of citizenship, ie. you only have a say in what happens to the country if you own a part of the country.

The_Minister

Not much traffic on this tread, certainly not compared to AH.

If you don't want it anymore, we'd be happy to take it back:)

Sure, ya know why we gave it to you in the first place



still, you've done better than we thought.

brianthebard

enda1 wrote: »

Guess a remnant from the feudal systems in place and the concepts of citizenship, ie. you only have a say in what happens to the country if you own a part of the country.

Not necessarily a feudal thing, the victorians were very into their property. The first fire brigades were set up to protect the properties that caught fire, not the people in the buildings for instance. and it is a huge class thing as well.

LolaLuv

It's only been 88 years in the States. I hope there's some big national celebration on the 90th anniversary, but I doubt it. Sure NOW will do something though.

Will have to check out that museum!

Économiste Monétaire

Part time lurker here. Thought I would add to the OP's sentiments, a marked time worthy of reflection. It's nearly unfathomable that, at one point, women could not vote. Progress is slow, I suppose.

GirlInterrupted

Économiste Monétaire wrote: »

Part time lurker here. Thought I would add to the OP's sentiments, a marked time worthy of reflection. It's nearly unfathomable that, at one point, women could not vote. Progress is slow, I suppose.

Its getting faster. Before the late Seventies there were no women newsreaders, because the (mostly male!) powers that be thought that people couldn't take the news seriously if it was read by a woman!

The marriage bar was no more, but open discrimmination against married women was par for the course, and most women didn't drive, or have their names on the deeds of the houses they lived in, and quit work, as expected, as soon as baby no1 came along.

Casual discrimmination was present in almost all aspects of daily life, and was just normal to women at the time. A woman TD or MP was an oddity, as was even a female Garda.

Progress was slow 90 years ago, but now we have a voice, and that voice is for the most part, heard.

Économiste Monétaire

GirlInterrupted wrote: »

Its getting faster. Before the late Seventies there were no women newsreaders, because the (mostly male!) powers that be thought that people couldn't take the news seriously if it was read by a woman!

The marriage bar was no more, but open discrimmination against married women was par for the course, and most women didn't drive, or have their names on the deeds of the houses they lived in, and quit work, as expected, as soon as baby no1 came along.

Casual discrimmination was present in almost all aspects of daily life, and was just normal to women at the time. A woman TD or MP was an oddity, as was even a female Garda.

Progress was slow 90 years ago, but now we have a voice, and that voice is for the most part, heard.

Quite baffling to look back and comprehend that was the norm, so to speak. Some professional areas still hold a sense of discrimination; not to open up the proverbial can of worms, but, for example, certain academic departments are markedly under-represented by female full-professors. Of course, there isn't a purely cause and effect there, rather just a broad view example. But, indeed one cannot assert that the situation isn't improving. Rather, it is--but over time. Probably in part due to a general sense of fear of change on everyone's part, e.g. the second picture linked by The Minister.

(Also, I'm of the male variety, just to remove myself from the "we" women aspect . I'm fairly ignorant of the suffragette movement, just the anecdotal stories of "what was" by my mother & grandmother; but I have a hidden, lay, personal interest in general progressive steps towards equality vis-a-vis sex.)

The_Minister

Some departments are actually overstaffed by women, and some understaffed, because different college departments deal with different areas of study.

EamonnKeane

Guess a remnant from the feudal systems in place and the concepts of citizenship, ie. you only have a say in what happens to the country if you own a part of the country.

Parliamentary democracy was established in opposition to feudalism.

Has to be remembered also that over a third of men - servants, labourers, etc. - couldn't vote before 1918 either.

Lockstep

Thaedydal wrote: »

There is a really nice display in the Collins barracks musem on this topic
was in there with my lil sis a while back. They have badges, fliers, posters and other historical documents about the campaign and the times.

I'll have to check that out. Countess Markiewicz was quite the lady. Difficult to get on with though, as with most of the people involved in ITGWU.
I saw her house in Lissadell.
It was pretty sweet, anyone else seen it?

EamonnKeane wrote: »

Parliamentary democracy was established in opposition to feudalism.

Has to be remembered also that over a third of men - servants, labourers, etc. - couldn't vote before 1918 either.

Not necessarily. The first Parliment in England was basically the Barons wanting a bit of leeway in the way things were run. Feudalism continued.

PrivateEye

Politcally, I don't vote. I don't believe in the parliament as a truly democratic instituation (won't bore you. non-recallable, no mandate, overpaid, top-down nature of it.....)

Saying that, it is the right of every man and woman TO a vote.

Winifred Carney is one of my heroes. The secretary of James Connolly, she ran for election for Sinn Fein in 1917 in a working class protestant neighbourhood. A woman trying to break sectarian divisions in the interests of her gender and class. I respect Markiewicz, but her background is completely different and she never really wore feminism on her sleeve, at a time any sane thinking individual should have, male or female. Carney to me has always embodied a great Irish spirit that goes beyond silly nationalist slogans. I grew up around strong women, and reading baout her nursing her ill mother, raising her own family, suffering intimidation at the hands of police etc. made me realise womens history in Ireland is actually quite a neglected field. How many people know her name even?

While its true the women of Ireland lose out in the great romantic white-wash that is Irish history, remember behind every great movement in Irelands history, there's been a womens movement.

'yup the ladies. every revolution needs a touch of class

brianthebard

Good post private eye, can you recommend any books about Carney or books in which she is mentioned? I agree with you that Countess Markiewicz had many many more opportunities than most women in Ireland of the time, due to her upper class gentry background.

IanCurtis

Galvasean wrote: »

Only? 90 years is a long time. Ireland sure was a sucky place back then.

I'd imagine they were proud to be Irish back then though and didn't want to be American.

"sucky" :rolleyes:

Lockstep

brianthebard wrote: »

I agree with you that Countess Markiewicz had many many more opportunities than most women in Ireland of the time, due to her upper class gentry background.

That's a problem some in the labour movement had with Markiewicz. She was wealthy and what they concieved as excessive posturing really grated them.

brianthebard

In fairness she was more than wealthy, and I don't think she ever renounced her titles? No wonder it grated.

Lockstep

brianthebard wrote: »

In fairness she was more than wealthy, and I don't think she ever renounced her titles? No wonder it grated.

True,but I think she counterbalanced where she came from with where she was going.
Her work during the lockout with the food kitchens and attempts to make the Kiddie Scheme work show her heart was definetely in the right place.