Irish Studies Seminar: Margaret Ward

The early years of the 20th century saw nationalists in Co. Antrim fighting for their survival during a war intended to achieve the complete separation of Ireland from Britain. Belfast became the centre of Ulster unionist resistance and republican defiance. Here, Cumann na mBan was organised in Belfast Central Branch and Croabh Iarthar - the West Belfast Branch. The small nationalist population in the isolated communities of the Glens of Antrim, where some of the last native speakers of the Irish language lived, also took up arms, despite being vastly outnumbered. There were Cumann na mBan branches in Ballycastle, Cushendall, Dunloy, Glenravel, Loughguile, and Glenariffe.

Sectarian violence, pogrom, partition and defeat was the eventual outcome. Throughout, republican women played an essential role. From the earliest years of Cumann na mBan to the War of Independence, the Treaty and the 'Northern Offensive', they were significant figures in the republican movement. Not only did they organise arms dumps, shelter men on the run, hide money and documents, provide weaponry for operations, care for the wounded and organise effective communication systems, they also paid the price in terms of raids and imprisonment.

Their story has never before been told. Using new archival sources and information from some of the relatives of these forgotten activists, Margaret Ward gives us a compelling account of the courageous contributions of over fifty women who were members of Cumann na mBan, or who were attached to the IRA.

Dr Margaret Ward is Honorary Senior Lecturer in History at Queen’s University, Belfast. She is a feminist historian, with a particular interest in the contribution of Irish women to political movements in the 20th century. A graduate of QUB, Margaret has a long-standing interest in teaching feminist history, at Queen's, the WEA, the University of the West of England and Bath Spa University. She has been assistant director of the think-tank Democratic Dialogue from 2000-5, and director of the Women’s Resource and Development Agency 2005-13.

Amongst her many publications are Unmanageable Revolutionaries: women and Irish Nationalism (1983), biographies of Maud Gonne and Hanna Sheehy Skeffington and edited works (with Louise Ryan), Irish Women and the Vote: Becoming Citizens and Irish Women and Nationalism: Soldiers, New Women and Wicked Hags; Hanna Sheehy Skeffington: suffragette and Sinn Féiner, her memoirs and political writings (2017), Fearless Woman: Hanna Sheehy Skeffington, Feminism and the Irish Revolution (2019), and now Rebel Women: Cumann na mBan in Belfast and the Glens of Antrim, 1914-24 (Beyond the Pale Books, 2023).

This will be a hybrid seminar, in-person and online via Teams.

Host or Publisher Institute of Irish Studies