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Irelands Greatest Woman

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  • 08-10-2010 12:29am
    #1
    tomasocarthaigh
    Registered Users Posts: 221 ✭✭


    We all hear the speil about who was the greatest Irishman. Who was the greatest Irishwoman in your opinion? (Deceased please... we dont want Mary Robinsons head getting too big, or her hands getting too animated. She just might kill someone with a Karate chop!)
    Tagged:


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    #2
    who the fug
    Registered Users Posts: 4,041 ✭✭✭who the fug


    Or Demand 4 42 Gun salute



    I certainly would put Gráinne_Ní_Mháille in my list


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    #3
    PatsytheNazi
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,260 ✭✭✭PatsytheNazi


    Anne Devlin. From Wicklow orginally, her first experiences of state terror was in 1798 when her family home been often raided and many of her family members imprisoned. She was taken on as Robert Emmet's housekeeper to give a sense of normallity to hide the coming and going of men and materials from the house in preparation for the attempted rising. Immediately following the failed rising in 1803, her and her eight-year-old sister were arrested. She was interrogated and tortured by half hanging but refused to give any information. After returning to live in her family home the entire family were then seized by the military.

    She refused bribes to inform on Emmett despite being threatened with death. She was then sent to Kilmainham Jail and further interrogated where Emmet himself urged her to inform on him to save herself as he was already doomed. She was kept in squalid conditions and subjected to brutal treatment but consistently refused to cooperate despite her entire family being jailed in an effort to break her.

    She was eventually released in 1806 and later married, having two children. Although financially supported by sympathisers for a number of years following her release, she ended her days in poverty, and died in obscurity in the Liberties, Dublin in 1851. She is buried like many Irish heros such as Micheal Collins and O'Donovan Rossa in Glasnevin.


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    #4
    ValJester
    Registered Users Posts: 329 ✭✭ValJester


    Hannah Sheehy-Skeffington. Sadly the Irish suffrage movement has been overlooked, meaning the role of women in the struggle for independence has been to some extent overlooked(particularly in the secondary schools). Hannah Sheehy-Skeffington was a key figure in Irish nationalism and equality, and as a result is my choice for greatest Irish woman, and someone without whom this country would be a much lesser place.


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    #5
    MarchDub
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,731 ✭✭✭MarchDub


    And Countess Markievicz - Constance Gore-Booth. First woman elected to the British House of Commons as Sinn Fein member - so consequently member of the first Dail in 1919.


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    #6
    Nolanger
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,556 ✭✭✭Nolanger


    Mary McAleese - whenever she attends our international football games we lose!


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    #7
    Nolanger
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,556 ✭✭✭Nolanger


    Yep, I was right :D


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    #8
    Micilin Muc
    Registered Users Posts: 2,842 ✭✭✭Micilin Muc


    +1 on Hannah Sheehy-Skeffington. She was a contemporary of Anna and Fanny Parnell, two other great Irish women.


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    #9
    PatsytheNazi
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,260 ✭✭✭PatsytheNazi


    I'll tell you one woman who wouldn't be on my list is Devorgilla O'Rourke whose eloping with Dermot MacMurrough ended up bringing the bloody Normans here :o


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    #10
    spurious
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Education Moderators Posts: 27,108 CMod ✭✭✭✭spurious


    There are thousands of them, but they won't be mentioned anywhere.

    They are the widows who brought up families of seven and more kids without any social welfare help, the women who ran farms and managed families single-handed. The many women who died in childbirth due to religious interference which stopped them accessing contraception. The women who went without food themselves to make sure their kids ate.

    The women who even today, left school early to go to work and those who get up daily at 5am to clean our offices, workplaces, toilets, unnoticed and unthanked.

    They are all Ireland's greatest women.


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    #11
    Riddle101
    Registered Users Posts: 8,378 ✭✭✭Riddle101


    I'd say Countess Markievicz would be of some consideration.


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    #12
    chughes
    Registered Users Posts: 1,740 ✭✭✭chughes


    PatsytheNazi wrote: »
    I'll tell you one woman who wouldn't be on my list is Devorgilla O'Rourke whose eloping with Dermot MacMurrough ended up bringing the bloody Normans here :o

    Did this happen before she took up the running ?


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    #13
    tomasocarthaigh
    Registered Users Posts: 221 ✭✭tomasocarthaigh


    Hear hear!!!
    spurious wrote: »
    There are thousands of them, but they won't be mentioned anywhere.

    They are the widows who brought up families of seven and more kids without any social welfare help, the women who ran farms and managed families single-handed. The many women who died in childbirth due to religious interference which stopped them accessing contraception. The women who went without food themselves to make sure their kids ate.

    The women who even today, left school early to go to work and those who get up daily at 5am to clean our offices, workplaces, toilets, unnoticed and unthanked.

    They are all Ireland's greatest women.


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    #14
    InTheTrees
    Registered Users Posts: 9,900 ✭✭✭InTheTrees


    How about Maud Gonne?

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maud_Gonne


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    #15
    Rebelheart
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 3,077 ✭✭✭Rebelheart


    Sinéad Nugent (née Marward), daughter of the Baron Skreen in Meath, who fed, clothed and supported her husband, Liam Nuinseann following his uprising in 1580.


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    #16
    Rebelheart
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 3,077 ✭✭✭Rebelheart


    I'm waiting for FrattonFred to be true to form and suggest that his compatriot Diana Spenser be on this list....


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    #17
    oncevotedff
    Registered Users Posts: 232 ✭✭oncevotedff


    Nolanger wrote: »
    Mary McAleese - whenever she attends our international football games we lose!

    Her current non-deceased status precludes her from consideration.

    I nominate Nano Nagle.

    http://www.independent.ie/education/nano-nagle--remains-an-influential-educator-1722506.html


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    #18
    Denerick
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 6,488 ✭✭✭Denerick


    Hannah Sheehy Skeffington, no doubt about it.


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    #19
    pjmn
    Registered Users Posts: 1,059 ✭✭✭pjmn


    Mammy.


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    #20
    shocks121
    Closed Accounts Posts: 15 ✭shocks121


    miriam o callaghan ;)


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    #21
    JohnFalstaff
    Registered Users Posts: 874 ✭✭✭JohnFalstaff


    There is a wonderful book written by Sinéad McCoole called No Ordinary Women which deals with the many women who were involved in the fight for Ireland's freedom during the revolutionary period 1900 -1923. It's a story that deserves more attention.

    Although I have to agree with the previous poster who put forward 'Mammy' as Ireland's greatest woman. There's something very right about that.


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    #22
    wolfpawnat
    Registered Users Posts: 6,124 ✭✭✭wolfpawnat


    Grace Gifford, married Joseph Plunkett the night before he was shot in Kilmainham, she never once looked at another man when she was widowed, she also continued the fight for Irish freedom!!

    Also the Countess, I have stated my reasons for this on the Irelands greastest persons thread already :)

    http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=68123510#post68123510


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    #23
    CDfm
    Closed Accounts Posts: 20,649 ✭✭✭✭CDfm


    Micilin Muc wrote: »
    +1 on Hannah Sheehy-Skeffington. .

    Anna Haslam is another Cork Woman and it stands to reason that the Greatest Irish Woman should be from Cork. :)


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    #24
    Emme
    Registered Users Posts: 4,055 ✭✭✭Emme


    spurious wrote: »
    There are thousands of them, but they won't be mentioned anywhere.

    They are the widows who brought up families of seven and more kids without any social welfare help, the women who ran farms and managed families single-handed. The many women who died in childbirth due to religious interference which stopped them accessing contraception. The women who went without food themselves to make sure their kids ate.

    The women who even today, left school early to go to work and those who get up daily at 5am to clean our offices, workplaces, toilets, unnoticed and unthanked.

    They are all Ireland's greatest women.

    You are so right. These women worked so hard - not only did they run farms and households, often without modern conveniences or mechanisation, they raised large families, had most of their children at home AND they often cared for in-law as well. Today there are women who look after sick children or elderly relatives 24/7, saving the state a fortune into the bargain and get no thanks and minimal help for it.

    Many of the "heroic" women mentioned above (ie Constance Gore-Booth) came from privileged backgrounds or happened to be the lover of a patriot, but I think that Irish women from ordinary backgrounds worked much harder, albeit in the background and they deserve recognition for their contribution to Ireland.

    If you're thinking of high profile Irish women, I would nominate Sister Stanislaus Kennedy.


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    #25
    MarchDub
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,731 ✭✭✭MarchDub


    spurious wrote: »
    There are thousands of them, but they won't be mentioned anywhere.

    They are the widows who brought up families of seven and more kids without any social welfare help, the women who ran farms and managed families single-handed. The many women who died in childbirth due to religious interference which stopped them accessing contraception. The women who went without food themselves to make sure their kids ate.

    The women who even today, left school early to go to work and those who get up daily at 5am to clean our offices, workplaces, toilets, unnoticed and unthanked.

    They are all Ireland's greatest women.
    Emme wrote: »

    Many of the "heroic" women mentioned above (ie Constance Gore-Booth) came from privileged backgrounds or happened to be the lover of a patriot, but I think that Irish women from ordinary backgrounds worked much harder, albeit in the background and they deserve recognition for their contribution to Ireland.



    I agree totally with Spurious' opinion of these non sung heroes but I would question your inference Emme that just because a woman comes from what you call a 'privileged' background would automatically preclude her from being considered.

    In the final analysis it's what someone does with their life that's important - not the starting point. IMO women from all levels of society are eligible to be considered - many women from so called privileged backgrounds did not sit around in the parlours - they got out there and made a difference. And I say good for them also.


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    #26
    seanw7
    Registered Users Posts: 56 ✭✭seanw7


    Who ever she is , id say she made a great cup of Tea ?


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    #27
    Emme
    Registered Users Posts: 4,055 ✭✭✭Emme


    MarchDub wrote: »
    I agree totally with Spurious' opinion of these non sung heroes but I would question your inference Emme that just because a woman comes from what you call a 'privileged' background would automatically preclude her from being considered.

    In the final analysis it's what someone does with their life that's important - not the starting point. IMO women from all levels of society are eligible to be considered - many women from so called privileged backgrounds did not sit around in the parlours - they got out there and made a difference. And I say good for them also.

    Women from all backgrounds make a contribution - it's just that those from a privileged background are more likely to have their efforts recognised. Also those who make a political contribution (eg Mary Robinson) are more likely to get recognition than working class women who slog away in the background making a social contribution (eg caring 24/7 for a child with autism or cystic fibrosis). Again, those who make a political contribution are more likely to have gone to university - some women didn't get to finish their education yet made a huge contribution to Ireland in their own way.


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    #28
    MarchDub
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,731 ✭✭✭MarchDub


    Emme wrote: »
    Women from all backgrounds make a contribution - it's just that those from a privileged background are more likely to have their efforts recognised. Also those who make a political contribution (eg Mary Robinson) are more likely to get recognition than working class women who slog away in the background making a social contribution (eg caring 24/7 for a child with autism or cystic fibrosis). Again, those who make a political contribution are more likely to have gone to university - some women didn't get to finish their education yet made a huge contribution to Ireland in their own way.

    I can't disagree with that.


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    #29
    goose2005
    Registered Users Posts: 4,798 ✭✭✭goose2005


    The crystallographer Kathleen Lonsdale, who discovered the structure of benzene and was the first woman elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, first woman tenured professor at University College London, first woman president of the International Union of Crystallography, and first woman president of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. She was also a prominent pacifist.


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    #30
    Emme
    Registered Users Posts: 4,055 ✭✭✭Emme


    goose2005 wrote: »
    The crystallographer Kathleen Lonsdale, who discovered the structure of benzene and was the first woman elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, first woman tenured professor at University College London, first woman president of the International Union of Crystallography, and first woman president of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. She was also a prominent pacifist.

    Where in Ireland did she come from?


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    #31
    Billiejo
    Closed Accounts Posts: 149 ✭✭Billiejo


    What about the 1800's Elsie Sands and Nora Diamond. Nothing to do with politics. Maybe religion and Health care!!!!. But they made one hell of a contribution to the welfare of Irish lads, lassies and their kids.


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