The Irish Women's History Reader is an exciting collection of essays revealing the tremendous diversity of women's experiences in Ireland's past. For the first time this unique book draws together key articles published in the fields of Irish women's history and women's studies over the past two decades, including contributions from Ireland, North and South, England, USA, Canada and Australia.

The Irish Women's History Reader explores the lives of ordinary Irish women since 1800, looking at the key themes of:

* historiography and the development of, and...

This work is a collection of essays revealing the tremendous diversity of women's experiences in Ireland's past. It draws together key articles published in the fields of Irish women's history and women's studies since the 1980s, including contributions from Ireland, North and South, England, USA, Canada and Australia. The text explores the lives of ordinary Irish women since 1800, looking at the key themes of: historiography and the development of, and writing of, women's history in Ireland; politics and the variety of political activities undertaken by women including suffrage, nationalism...

Against a backdrop of increasing democracy and the associated process of aristocratic decline, this book examines the political influence of the leading Tory hostesses, the Marchionesses of Londonderry. Over one hundred and fifty years, from 1800-1959, these women were patrons and confidantes to key political figures such as Disraeli, Bonar Law, Edward Carson and Ramsay MacDonald. By the late 19th century upper-class women were at the height of their prowess, exerting political sway by private means whilst exploiting more public avenues of political work: canvassing, addressing meetings and...