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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 February 2016
The importance of women’s contribution to foreign missionary work has now been well established, with a range of studies, particularly from Canada, America, and Britain, exploring the topic from both religious and feminist perspectives. The role of Irishwomen, however, has neither been researched in any depth nor recorded outside denominational histories in which they are discussed, if at all, only marginally, and only in relation to their supportive contribution to the wider mission of the Church. The motivations, aspirations, experiences, and achievements of the hundreds of women who left Ireland to do God’s work in India, China, Africa, or Egypt are yet to be explored. My intention in this paper is to discuss their work and the ways in which they have been represented in the context of socio-economic developments in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Ireland, to determine how the interaction of class, gender, and religion helped shape their missionary endeavours.
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22 I am grateful to Gillian McClelland for helpful discussion on this topic, which draws on her forthcoming thesis on Fisherwick Working Women’s Association.
23 A paper entitled ‘Women’s work: Irish Presbyterian women missionaries, 1874-1914’ is shortly to be published by University College, Dublin.
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