40 Years after Women in Irish Society: The Historical Dimension. Creating a New Future for Irish Women's History

Women’s History Association of Ireland Autumn Seminar 2015

in association with Arlen House

 

40 Years after Women in Irish Society: The Historical Dimension

Creating a New Future for Irish Women's History

 

Roundtable featuring: Lindsey Earner Byrne, Margaret Ward, Conor Reidy and Mary O’Dowd

Chaired by Mary Cullen

Response by Margaret Mac Curtain

Venue: Boston College, St. Stephen’s Green

Date: Saturday 28 November 2015, 3–5pm

As we are proceeding through the ‘decade of centenaries’ it is important to reflect also on some important landmarks in women’s history in Ireland. 2015 marks a trifecta of anniversaries that have had a significant impact on the course of women’s history in Ireland: it is forty years since the UN declared it to be the International Women’s Year when global reflections and celebrations of women occurred; it is also forty years since the ground-breaking Thomas Davis series of lectures that was to become Women in Irish Society: The Historical Dimension, edited by Margaret Mac Curtain and Donncha Ó Corráin, often seen as the foundational text of the discipline of women’s history in Ireland; and finally, it is forty years since the foundation of the publisher of that collection, Arlen House, a stoic supporter of scholars in the field since its inception. This event seeks to reflect on the seminal essays contained in Women in Irish Society through a roundtable delivered by a range of scholars reflecting on the impact of the book and the future of women’s history in Ireland.