Women of the Dáil: Gender, Republicanism and the Anglo-Irish Treaty

Description

Women of the Dáil explores the role of political women during the Irish revolution, specifically those who were Dáil deputies and related to recently-deceased patriots.  These women successfully used familial links to bolster their political credibility during the years after the Easter Rising, but found this rhetorical strategy much more difficult to deploy in the wake of the Anglo-Irish Treaty.  Drawing on a number of published and unpublished sources, Women of the Dáil analyzes this rhetorical shift in order to explain the interplay between gender, republicanism and the Irish revolution.

Table of Contents

1. Women, Ireland and Revolution
2. Women and Irish Political Culture
3. The Greek Tragedy: War and Revolution, 1916-1921
4. Speakers for the Dead: The Treaty Debate
5. The Usurping Majority
6. The ‘Women and Childers Party’

About the Author

Jason Knirck is an assistant of history at Central Washington University. He received his PhD in Western European history from Washington State University in 2000. His research focuses on the political culture of the Irish revolution, and he is the author of Imagining Ireland’s Independence: The Debate over the Anglo-Irish Treaty and ‘Afterimage of the Revolution: Kevin O’Higgins and the Irish Revolution’. He resides in Ellensburg, Washington.