1 This problem is now beginning to be tackled with the welcome initiation of a number of courses on women’s history within universities, third-level colleges and polytechnics. Unfortunately these courses tend to be given as options within mainstream history studies or are part of women’s studies courses. Irish historians (we hope sooner rather than later) will have to acknowledge the merits of including women’s history in all undergraduate history courses. For a general discussion of the position of women’s history in Ireland see Ward, Margaret, The missing sex: putting women into Irish history (Dublin, 1991)Google Scholar; Cullen, Mary, ‘Women’s history in Ireland’ in Offen, Karen, Pierson, Ruth Roach and Rendall, Jane (eds), Writing women’s history: international perspectives (London, 1991), pp 429–41 CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 For the more recent writings about the whole issue of gender in history see Bock, Gisela, ‘Women’s history and gender history: aspects of an international debate’ in Gender and History, i, no. 1 (Spring 1989), pp 7–30 CrossRefGoogle Scholar (this article has a particularly good bibliography); Kelly, Joan, Women, history and theory (Chicago & London, 1984)Google Scholar; Scott, Joan W., ‘Gender, a useful category of historical analysis’ in Amer. Hist. Rev., xci, no. 4 (Oct. 1986), pp 1053–75 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Although the argument and debate around the issue of gender history is still at an early stage and all is not yet clear, one recent historical work has sought to interpret a particular aspect of life in England in terms of gender: Davidoff, Leonore and Hall, Catherine, Family fortunes: men and women of the English middle classes, 1780–1850 (London, 1987)Google Scholar, which offers some idea of how historical study may yet develop.

3 The ‘cult of domesticity’ or the ‘ideology of the separate spheres’ has developed as an historical concept since the publication of Welter, Barbara, ‘The cult of true womanhood, 1820–1860’ in American Quarterly, xviii (1966), pp 151-74CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The impact of the ‘cult’ has led to debate among historians on whether it was a liberating or constricting force in the lives of nineteenth century women. For differing interpretations see, for instance, Cott, Nancy, The bonds of womanhood: women’s sphere in New England, 1780–1835 (London, 1977)Google Scholar; Smith-Rosenberg, Carroll, ‘The female world of love and ritual: relations between women in nineteenth-century America’ in Signs, i, no. 1 (1975), pp 1–29 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Kerber, Linda, ‘Separate spheres, female worlds, woman’s place: the rhetoric of women’s history’ in Jn. Amer. Hist., lxxv, no. 1 (June 1988), pp 9–39 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For the impact of religion on women’s role in charitable enterprises see Prochaska, F.K., Women and philanthropy in nineteenth-century England (Oxford, 1980)Google Scholar. On women’s charitable work in Ireland see Luddy, Maria, ‘Women and charitable organisations in nineteenth-century Ireland’ in Women’s Studies International Forum, xi, 4 (1988), pp 301-5CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 Rev. Gregg, John, Women: a lecture (Dublin, 1856), pp 4–5 Google Scholar. There are quite a number of sermons relating to women available in the National Library of Ireland and in the Haliday Collection of the Royal Irish Academy. See, for example, the sermons of Rev. Thomas Burke, Rev. Henry Woodward, Rev. Charles Bardin and Rev. Richard O’Brien.

5 Clear, Caitríona, Nuns in nineteenth-century Ireland (Dublin, 1987)Google Scholar; see also idem, ‘Walls within walls: nuns in nineteenth-century Ireland’ in Chris Cuitin et al. (eds), Gender in Irish society (Galway, 1987); idem, ‘The limits of female autonomy: nuns in nineteenth-century Ireland’ in Maria Luddy and Cliona Murphy (eds), Women surviving: studies in Irish women’s history in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (Dublin, 1990); Fahey, Tony, ‘Nuns in the Catholic church in Ireland in the nineteenth century’ in Cullen, Mary (ed.), Girls don’t do honours: Irish women in education in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (Dublin, 1987), pp 7–30 Google Scholar. For an aspect of religious life rarely looked at in relation to convents see Sullivan, Mary C., ‘Catherine McAuley’s theological and literary debt to Alonso Rodriguez: the spirit of the institute parallels’ in Recusant History, xx, no. 1 (May 1990), pp 81–105 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Other works on nuns include the following: Hurley, Frank, ‘Kinsale nuns in the Crimea: 1854—56’ in Kinsale Hist. Jn. (1986), pp 31-6Google Scholar; Rev.Murphy, J.J.W., ‘An Irish Sister of Mercy in the Crimean War’ in Ir. Sword, v (1961-2), pp 251–61 Google Scholar; MacCurtain, Margaret ‘Towards an appraisal of the religious image of women’ in The Crane Bag, iv, no. 1 (1980), pp 26–30 Google Scholar. There are many biographies of individual nuns; while these in general tend to adulation about the founders and the work of various institutes, they still provide a great deal of factual information. The following deal with native foundations: Bolster, Angela, The Sisters of Mercy in the Crimean War (Cork, 1964)Google Scholar; idem, Catherine McAuley in her own words (Cork, 1989; The correspondence of Catherine McAuley, 1827–1841, ed. idem (Cork, 1989); idem, Mercy in Cork (Cork, 1989); Eager, Irene ffrench, The nun of Kenmare (Cork, 1970)Google Scholar; Joyful mother of children: Mother Frances Mary Teresa Ball (Dublin, 1961)Google Scholar; de Paor, Maire B., Banfhonduirí Átha Cliath (Baile Átha Cliath, 1988)Google Scholar; Gibbons, Margaret, The life of Margaret Aylward (London, 1928)Google Scholar; Letters of Mary Aikenhead, ed. MacSwiney, P.M.; ‘A member of the congregation’, Life and work of Mary Aikenhead (London, 1925)Google Scholar; SrPauline, M., God wills it: centenary story of the Sisters of St Louis (Dublin, 1959)Google Scholar; Savage, R. Burke, A valiant Dublin woman: the story of George’s Hill (Dublin, 1940)Google Scholar; Walsh, T.J., Nano Nagle and the Presentation Sisters (Dublin, 1959)Google Scholar; SrKelly, M. St Dominic, The Sligo Ursulines: the first fifty years, 1826–76 (Sligo, 1987)Google Scholar.

6 Fahey, ‘Nuns in the Catholic church’, p. 7.

7 See Hill, Myrtle, ‘Evangelicalism and the churches in Ulster society, 1770–1850’ (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Queen’s University, Belfast, 1987)Google Scholar.

8 Crookshank, C.H., History of Methodism in Ireland (3 vols, London, 1884-8), ii, 400Google Scholar. For further information see idem, Memorable women of Irish Methodism in the last century (London, 1882); Thomas, E., Irish Methodist reminiscences (London, 1889)Google Scholar; Memorials of a consecrated life compiled from the autobiography, letters and diaries of Anne Lutton of Moira, County Down, and Cothan, Bristol (London, 1882)Google Scholar.

9 There is almost nothing available in published form on women Quakers in Ireland. For brief references to their work for pacifism see Harrison, Richard S., Irish anti-war movements, 1824–1974 (Dublin, 1986)Google Scholar. For a comprehensive look at Quaker women in America see Bacon, Margaret Hope, Mothers of feminism (New York, 1986)Google Scholar.

10 Interestingly, Congregationalism, which espoused gender equality in much the same way as Quakerism, also produced a number of female activists in Ireland. Rosa M. Barrett (1853-1936), for example, was a Congregationalist.

11 See, e.g., Evans, R.J., The feminists: women’s emancipation movements in Europe, America and Australasia (London, 1977)Google Scholar; Kraditor, Aileen S., The ideas of the woman suffrage movement (New York, 1981)Google Scholar; Rendall, Jane The origins of modern feminism: women in Britain, France and the United States, 1780–1860 (London, 1985)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Prochaska, Women and philanthrophy.

12 Owens, Rosemary Cullen, Smashing times: a history of the Irish suffrage movement, 1889–1922 (Dublin, 1984)Google Scholar.

13 Murphy, Cliona, The women’s suffrage movement and Irish society in the early twentieth century (Brighton, 1989)Google Scholar; see also idem, ‘The tune of the stars and stripes: the American influence on the Irish suffrage movement’ in Luddy & Murphy (eds), Women surviving, pp 180–205.

14 O’Neill, Máire, ‘The Dublin Women’s Suffrage Society and its successors’ in Dublin Hist. Rec., xxxviii (Dec. 1984 - Sept. 1985) pp 126-40Google Scholar; Owens, Rosemary Cullen, ‘Votes for ladies, votes for women: organised labour and the suffrage movement, 1876–1922’ in Saothar, 9 (1983) pp 32–47 Google Scholar; Ward, Margaret, ‘Suffrage first above all else! An account of the Irish suffrage movement’ in Feminist Review, x (1982), pp 21–36 Google Scholar.

15 Tod was a regular contributor to the Englishwoman’s Journal, which contains a mine of information about the position of women in Ireland in the nineteenth century. Tod’s speeches were also widely reported in the Northern Whig and in English suffrage journals and newspapers.

16 For brief references to her see Clancy, Mary, ‘Aspects of women’s contribution to the Oireachtas debate in the Irish Free State’ in Luddy, & Murphy, (eds), Women surviving, pp 206-32Google Scholar. Since this article was written O’Neill, Maire has published her From Parnell to de Valera: a biography of Jennie Wyse Power (Dublin, 1991)Google Scholar.

17 See Lord LadyAberdeen, , We twa (Glasgow, 1925)Google Scholar.

18 In the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, for example, is the journal of Rachel Craig (T2757). A glance through Hayes, Richard, Manuscript sources for the history of Irish civilisation (Dublin, 1965)Google Scholar and its Supplement (Dublin, 1979) will reveal many other diaries.

19 The Leadbeater papers: a selection from the MSS and correspondence of Mary Leadbeater (2 vols, London, 1862,) i, 60; Leadbeater, Mary, Cottage dialogues among the Irish peasantry (2 pts, London, 1811-13)Google Scholar. For other women’s lives see Butler, Beatrice Bayley and SrButler, Katherine, ‘Mrs John O’Brien: her life, her work and her friends’ in Dublin Hist. Rec., xxiii (Dec. 1979 - Sept. 1980), pp 141-56Google Scholar; Byrne, E. Costigan, ‘Sydney, Lady Morgan (1776-1859)’ in Dublin Hist. Rec., xxxviii (Dec. 1984 - Sept. 1985), pp 61–73 Google Scholar; Campbell, Mary, Lady Morgan: the life and times of Sydney Owenson (London, 1988)Google Scholar; Clarke, Kathleen, Revolutionary woman (Dublin, 1991)Google Scholar; Coxhead, Elizabeth, Daughters of Erin: five women of the Irish renascence (Buckinghamshire, 1979)Google Scholar; Elizabeth, , countess of Fingall, Seventy years young (repr., Dublin, 1991)Google Scholar; Fitzgerald, Brian, Emily, duchess of Leinister, 1731–1814 (London, 1949)Google Scholar; Tynan, Katharine, Twenty-five years: reminiscences (London, 1913)Google Scholar; Callaghan, Mary Rose, Kitty O’Shea: a life of Katharine Parnell (London, 1989)Google Scholar; Herbert, Dorothea, Retrospections (2 vols, London, 1929-30Google Scholar; repr., Dublin, 1988); Hughes, Vera, The strange story of Sarah Kelly (Naas, 1988)Google Scholar; Information, Irish Feminist, Missing pieces: her story of Irish women (Dublin, 1983)Google Scholar; idem, More missing pieces (Dublin, 1985); McNeill, Mary, The life and times of Mary Ann McCracken, 1770–1866 (Dublin, 1960 Google Scholar; repr., Belfast, 1988); Metscher, Priscilla, ‘Mary Ann McCracken: a critical Ulsterwomen within the context of her times’ in Etudes Irlandaises, xiv, no. 2 (1989), pp 143-58CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Cléirigh, Nellie Ó, ‘Lady Aberdeen and the Irish connection’ in Dublin Hist. Rec., xxxix (Dec. 1985 - Sept. 1986), pp 28–32 Google Scholar; The Irish journals of Elizabeth Smith, 1840–1850, ed. Thompson, David and McGusty, Moyra (Oxford, 1980)Google Scholar (repr. in a more detailed version as The highland lady in Ireland: Elizabeth Grant of Rothiemurchus (Edinburgh, 1991)); Jordan, Alison, Margaret Byers (Belfast, 1990)Google Scholar.

20 Theodore, K. Hoppen, Elections, politics and society in Ireland, 1832–1885 (Oxford, 1984), pp 406–8 Google Scholar. For the impact of another Irish woman see Pankhurst, Richard, ‘Anna Wheeler — a pioneer socialist’ in Political Quarterly, xxv (1954), pp 132–43 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also Cullen, Mary, ‘How radical was Irish feminism between 1860 and 1920?’ in Corish, P.J. (ed.)., Radicals, rebels and establishments: Historical Studies V (Belfast, 1985), pp 185–201 Google Scholar.

21 Pamell, Anna, Tale of a great sham, ed. Hearne, Dana (Dublin, 1986)Google Scholar; Ward, Margaret, ‘The Ladies’ Land League’ in Irish History Workshop, no. 1 (1981), pp 27–35 Google Scholar; Côte, Jane McL., Fanny and Anna Parnell: Ireland’s patriot sisters (Dublin, 1991)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; TeBrake, Janet K., ‘Irish peasant women in revolt: the Land League years’ in I.H.S., xxviii, no. 109 (May 1992), pp 63–80 Google Scholar.

22 See Irish Women’s Suffrage and Local Government Association: report of the executive committee, 1876–1918 (Dublin, 1919)Google Scholar. See also the Irish Women’s Suffrage and Local Government Association pamphlets, Paper read at the conference of poor law guardians, Dublin, 19 April 1900; Paper read at conference of poor law guardians, Dublin 1903; Suggestions for intending women workers under the Local Government Act, 1901.

23 McLoughlin, Dympna, ‘Workhouses and Irish female paupers, 1840–70’ in Luddy, & Murphy, (eds), Women surviving, pp 117-47Google Scholar.

24 ‘Oedipus, ’ [Thomas J. Hasiam], The marriage problem (Dublin, 1868)Google Scholar, cited in Fryer, Peter, The birth controllers (London, 1965), p. 125 Google Scholar; see also O’Connor, Anne, ‘Women in Irish folklore: the testimony regarding illegitimacy, abortion and infanticide’ in MacCurtain, Margaret and O’Dowd, Mary (eds), Women in early modern Ireland (Edinburgh, 1991), pp 304–17 Google Scholar; K.H. Connell, ‘Illegitimacy before the Famine’ in idem, Irish peasant society (Oxford, 1968), pp 51–86.

25 The only full-length study of children in Irish society is Robins, Joseph, The lost children: a study of charity children in Ireland, 1700–1900 (Dublin, 1980)Google Scholar.

26 Lawless, Jo Murphy, ‘The silencing of women in childbirth, or Let’s hear it for Bartholomew and the boys’ in Women’s Studies International Forum, xi, 4 (1988), pp 293-8CrossRefGoogle Scholar; see also Ross, Ian Campbell (ed.), Public virtue, public love: the early years of the Rotunda Lying-in Hospital (Dublin, 1986)Google Scholar; Ehrenreich, Barbara and English, Deirdre, Witches, midwives and nurses: a history of women healers (New York, 1973)Google Scholar.

27 See Cosgrove, Art (ed.), Marriage in Ireland (Dublin, 1985)Google Scholar for preliminary studies of the institution of marriage in Ireland.

28 First report of the General Board of Health in the city of Dublin (Dublin, 1821), pp 66–7.

29 Daly, Mary E., ‘Women in the Irish workforce from pre-industrial to modern times’ in Saothar, 7 (1981), pp 74–82 Google Scholar.

30 Cullen, Mary, ‘Breadwinners and providers: women in the household economy of labouring families, 1835–6’ in Luddy, & Murphy, (eds), Women surviving, pp 85–116 Google Scholar.

31 Brophy, Imelda, ‘Women in the workforce’ in Dickson, David (ed.), The gorgeous mask: Dublin, 1700–1850 (Dublin, 1987), pp 51–62 Google Scholar. See also the following articles: Bourke, Joanna, ‘Women and poultry in Ireland, 1891–1914’ in I.H.S., xxv, no. 99 (May 1987), pp 293–310 Google Scholar; idem, ‘Working women: the domestic labour market in rural Ireland, 1890–1914’ in Journal of Interdisciplinary History, xxi, no. 3 (Winter 1991), pp 479–99; idem, ‘Dairymaids and housewives: the dairy industry in Ireland, 1890–1914’, Agrie. Hist. Rev., xxx (1990) pp 149–64; idem, ‘The health caravan: female labour and domestic education in rural Ireland, 1890–1914’ in Eire-Ireland, xxiv, no. 4 (Winter 1989), pp 21–38; idem, ‘The best of all home rulers: the economic power of women in Ireland, 1880–1914’ in lr. Econ. & Soc. Hist., xviii (1991), pp 34–47; Boyle, Emily, ‘The linen strike of 1872’ in Saothar, 2 (1976), pp 12–22 Google Scholar; Collins, Brenda, ‘Sewing and social structure: the flowerers of Scotland and Ireland’ in Mitchison, Rosalind and Roebuck, Peter (eds), Economy and society in Scotland and Ireland, 1500–1939 (Edinburgh, 1988), pp 242–54 Google Scholar; idem, ‘The organization of sewing outwork in late nineteenth-century Ulster’ in Maxine Berg (ed.), Markets and manufacturers in early industrial Europe (London, 1991), pp 139–56. Women’s trade union activism has also been explored to some extent; see, e.g., Devine, Francis, ‘Women in Irish trade unions: a note’ in Oibre: Journal of the Irish Labour History Society, no. 2 (July 1975)Google Scholar; Daly, Mary E., ‘Women, work and trade unionism’ in MacCurtain, Margaret and Corráin, Donncha Ó (eds), Women in Irish society: the historical dimension (Dublin, 1978) pp 71–81 Google Scholar; Jones, Mary, These obstreperous lassies: a history of the Irish Women Workers’ Union (Dublin, 1988)Google Scholar.

32 See, e.g., the number of women in Landowners in Ireland: return of owners of land of one acre and upwards (1876) (repr., Baltimore, 1988). Mrs Morgan John O’Connell (a landowner and daughter of Charles Bianconi) wrote an interesting pamphlet on the land issue, Munster landowning (London, 1886).

33 Hearn, Mona, ‘Life for domestic servants in Dublin, 1880–1920’ in Luddy, & Murphy, (eds), Women surviving, pp 148-79Google Scholar.

34 Mr and MrsHall, S.C., Ireland: its character and scenery (3 vols, London, 1841), iii, 63Google Scholar.

35 Scottt, Joan W. and Tilly, Louise, Women, work and the family (New York, 1978)Google Scholar. For an interesting analysis of women’s work in a small American community see Dublin, Thomas, Women at work: the transformation of work and community in Lowell, Massachusetts, 1826–1860 (New York, 1979)Google Scholar. McFeely, Mary Drake, Lady inspectors: the campaign for a better workplace, 1893–1921 (Oxford, 1988)Google Scholar devotes quite a lot of space to women’s working conditions in Ireland. Invaluable sources for researching women’s work are the various poor-law reports and, in the latter part of the century, the Congested Districts Board reports; also valuable are the Royal Commission on Labour reports on the employment of women (Dublin 1893–4) and Factory inspectors’ reports (Dublin, 1890–1920).

36 Dowling, Jeremiah, The Irish poor law and poor houses (Dublin, 1872), p. 11 Google Scholar.

37 See SrKelly, Patricia, ‘From workhouse to hospital: the role of the workhouse in medical relief to 1921’ (unpublished M.A. thesis, University College, Galway, 1972)Google Scholar; Clear, Nuns in Ireland, pp 125–34.

38 See the excellent study by Boyle, Elizabeth, The Irish flowerers (Belfast, 1971)Google Scholar; see also Houston-Almqvist, Jane, Mountmellick work (Mountrath, 1985)Google Scholar; Cléirigh, Nellie Ó, Carrickmacross lace (Mountrath, 1985)Google Scholar; Meredith, Susanna, The lacemakers: sketches of Irish character with some account of the effort to establish lacemaking in Ireland (London, 1865)Google Scholar; Dublin industrial exhibition of arts and manufactures: official catalogue (Dublin, 1865); Dublin exhibition of arts, industries and manufactures: official catalogue (Dublin, 1872); Great industrial exhibition: official catalogue (Dublin, 1853)Google Scholar; A.S.C., [Cole, Alan S.], A renascence of the Irish art of lacemaking (London, 1888)Google Scholar; W. T. M.-F., [McCartney-Filgate, W.T.] (ed.), Irish rural life and industry (Dublin, 1907)Google Scholar.

39 Blackburn, Helen, A handy book of reference for Irishwomen (London, 1888)Google Scholar. For the arts and crafts revival see Bowe, Nicola Gordon, ‘Two early twentieth-century Irish arts and crafts workshops in context: An Túr Gloine and the Dun Emer guild and industries’ in Journal of Design History, ii, nos 2-3 (1989), pp 193–206 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; idem, ‘Women and the arts and crafts revival in Ireland, c. 1886–1930’ in National Gallery of Ireland, Irish women artists (Dublin, 1987), pp 22–7; idem, ‘The Irish arts and crafts movement: aspects of nationalism (1886-1925)’ in lrish Arts Review Yearbook (1990-91), pp 172–85.

40 Aberdeen, We twa.

41 Rev.Gildea, Denis, Mother Arsenius of Foxford (Dublin, 1936)Google Scholar.

42 Glynn, Joseph, ‘Irish convent industries’ in New Ireland Review, i (1894), pp 236–44 Google Scholar.

43 For an examination of prostitution in Ireland see Luddy, Maria, ‘Prostitution and rescue work in nineteenth-century Ireland’ in Luddy, & Murphy, (eds), Women surviving, pp 51–84 Google Scholar; see also her review of Mahood, Linda, The magdalenes: prostitution in the nineteenth century (London, 1990)Google Scholar in Labour History News, no. 6 (Summer 1990), pp 17–18. There is an extensive literature on prostitution; the most pioneering work is Walkowitz, J.R., Prostitution and Victorian society (Oxford, 1979)Google Scholar. For the situation in America see Rosen, Ruth, The lost sisterhood: prostitution in America, 1900–1918 (Baltimore, 1982)Google Scholar.

44 See the annually published Dublin Metropolitan Police statistics (Dublin, 1838–1900).

45 Fry, Elizabeth and Gumey, J.J., Report addressed to the Marquess Wellesley, lord lieutenant of Ireland, respecting their late visit to that country (London, 1827)Google Scholar; Carpenter, Mary, Irish convict prisons (London, 1872)Google Scholar. For a feminist interpretation of the criminality of women in the last century see Freedman, Estelle B., Their sisters’ keepers: women’s prison reform in America, 1830–1930 (Ann Arbor, 1984)Google Scholar.

46 Dublin Metropolitan Police statistics (1851,1861,1871,1891).

47 Sussman, George, Selling mother’s milk: the wet-nursing business in France, 1715–1914 (Illinois, 1982)Google Scholar; Hufton, Olwen, The poor in eighteenth-century France (Oxford, 1974)Google Scholar.

48 For the history of women and education in Ireland see Cullen (ed.), Girls don’t do honours; for the nineteenth century see in particular the essays by Eibhlin Breathnach (pp 55–78), Anne O’Connor (pp 31–54) and Tony Fahey (pp 7–30). See also Breathnach, Eibhlin, ‘Women and higher education in Ireland, 1879–1910’ in The Crane Bag, iv, no. 1 (1980), pp 47–54 Google Scholar. An aspect of education which has received little attention is that of governessing; Logan, John briefly mentions it in his article ‘Governesses, tutors and parents: domestic education in Ireland, 1700–1880’ in Irish Educational Studies, vii, no. 2 (1988), pp 1–19 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Other relevant work is in Coombes, James, ‘Catherine Donovan (1788-1858), educational pioneer’ in Seanchas Cairbre, no. 1 (Dec. 1982)Google Scholar; O’Connor, Anne V., ‘Influences affecting girls’ secondary education in Ireland, 1860–1910’ in Archiv. Hib., xli (1986), pp 83–98 Google Scholar; O’Connor, Anne V. and Parkes, Susan, Gladly learn and gladly teach: a history of Alexandra College and School, Dublin, 1866–1966 (Dublin, 1983)Google Scholar; O’Flynn, Gráinne, ‘Some aspects of the education of Irishwomen throughout the years’ in Capuchin Annual (1977), pp 164-79Google Scholar; ’Education for girls’, Dublin University Magazine, lxxvii (1871), pp 42–9; Jordan, Margaret Byers.

49 Walsh, Lorcan, ‘Images of women in nineteenth-century schoolbooks’ in Irish Educational Studies, iv, no. 1 (1984), pp 73–87 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. This is the only look which has been taken at the images of women portrayed in Irish school textbooks.

50 Fitzpatrick, David, ‘The modernisation of the Irish female’ in O’Flanagan, Patrick et al. (eds), Rural Ireland: modernisation and change, 1600–1900 (Cork, 1987), pp 162–80 Google Scholar; idem, ‘A share of the honeycomb: education, emigration and Irishwomen’ in Mary Daly and David Dickson (eds), The origins of popular literacy in Ireland (Dublin, 1990), pp 167–87.

51 Fitzpatrick, ‘A share of the honeycomb’, p. 168.

52 There is an extensive literature on each of these individuals. On Lady Morgan see, e.g., Campbell, Mary, Lady Morgan: the life and times of Sydney Owenson (London, 1988)Google Scholar; Atkinson, Colin B. and Atkinson, Jo, ‘Sydney Owenson, Lady Morgan: Irish patriot and first professional woman writer’ in Eire-Ireland, xv, no. 2 (Summer 1980), pp 60–90 Google Scholar. On Edgeworth see Hurst, Michael, Maria Edgeworth and the public scene (Miami, 1969)Google Scholar; Butler, Marilyn, Maria Edgeworth: a literary biography (Oxford, 1972)Google Scholar. On Lady Gregory see Lady Gregory’s journals, ed. Murphy, Daniel J. (London, 1978)Google Scholar; Kohfeldt, Mary Lou, Lady Gregoiy: the lady behind the Irish renaissance (New York, 1985)Google Scholar.

53 Francis, M.E., Miss Erin (London, 1898)Google Scholar; idem, The story of Mary Dunne (London, 1913). For further information on these writers see Brown, Stephen J., Ireland in fiction (2nd ed., Dublin & London, 1919 Google Scholar; facs. ed., Shannon, 1969).

54 Martineau, Harriet, Ireland: a tale (London, 1832), p. 53 Google Scholar.

55 Mulholland, Rosa, Giannetta: a girl’s story of herself (London, 1889), p. 350 Google Scholar.

56 Moore, George, A drama in muslin (London, 1886)Google Scholar; idem, Esther Waters (London, 1894); Somerville, E. Œ. and Ross, Martin, The real Charlotte (London, 1894)Google Scholar.

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58 See, e.g., National Gallery of Ireland, Irish women artists.

59 Robinson, Portia, The women of Botany Bay (Macquarie, 1988)Google Scholar, especially chs 5 and 6; see also idem, ‘Colleen to Matilda: Irish convict women transported to New South Wales’ in Colm Kiernan (ed.), Australia and Ireland: bicentennial essays (Dublin, 1986); O’Brien, Margaret J. R., ‘Cork women for Australia’ in Cork Hist. Soc. Jn., xciii (1988), pp 21–9 Google Scholar; Diner, Hasia, Erin’s daughters in America: Irish immigrant women in the nineteenth century (London, 1983)Google Scholar; Nolan, Janet, Ourselves alone: women’s emigration from Ireland, 1885–1920 (Lexington, Ky, 1989)Google Scholar, which despite its title deals with Irish women’s emigration to North America; Mooney, Brenda, ‘Women convicts from Wexford and Waterford’ and Leonora Irwin, ‘Women convicts from Dublin’ in Reece, Bob (ed.), Irish convicts: the origins of convicts transported to Australia (Dublin, 1989)Google Scholar; Jackson, Pauline, ‘Women in nineteenth-century Irish emigration’ in International Migration Review, xviii, no. 4 (1984), pp 1004-20CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Kennedy, R.E., The Irish — emigration, marriage and fertility (Berkeley, 1973)Google Scholar; Fitzpatrick, David, Irish emigration, 1801–1921 (Dublin, 1984)Google Scholar.

60 I would like to thank Cliona Murphy for her comments on an earlier draft of this paper.