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Newsletter No 32
News from National Committees
IRELAND
APPOINTMENTS
The WHAI welcomes the election of Dr Mary O'Dowd (Queen's University of Belfast)
as President of the International Federation for Research in Women's History.
CONFERENCES
The annual WHAI conference was held at University College Dublin on 8-9 September
2000 on the theme "Women, citizenship and politics from the early modern
period to the late twentieth century." The conference was opened by Professor
Mark Lytle, Mary Ball Washington Visiting Professor of American History at UCD
and the keynote address was delivered by Professor Joan Hoff (Ohio University)
on "Eleanor Roosevelt and other American presidents' wives."
The 2001 conference was organised by Dr Janice Holmes at the Department of History,
University of Ulster, Coleraine on 7-8 September on the theme of biography and
autobiography. The opening address was delivered by Michael Lillis on the life
of Eliza Lynch, a nineteenth century Irish woman and partner of the Paraguyayan
dictator, Solano Lopez. Other speakers included Elva Johnston on St Brigit;
Pat Coughlan on Peig Sayers, the Blasket Island storyteller and Gillian McIntosh
on Ruby Hewitt, wife of the Irish writer, John Hewitt. The conference ended
with a roundtable discussion on contemporary women's biography.
The 2002 WHAI conference will be held in St Patrick's College, Dublin City University.
Planning for the IFRWH conference to be held in the Queen's University, Belfast in 2003 is well underway.
ARCHIVAL WORK
The Women's History Project completed its three-year seminal work. The Directory
Of Sources For Women's History In Ireland, already available on CD-ROM is now
accessible on the World Wide Web at:
www.nationalarchives.ie/wh. The site was launched in November 2000 by Sile de
Valera, Minister for Arts, Culture, Gaeltacht and the Islands. The site is searchable
and fast and freely available to anyone who has internet access. We would welcome
comments from users. They can be sent to the editor of the WHAI website, Dr
Deirdre MacMahon at damcm@indigo.ie
The WHp has also published The Minutes of the Ulster Women's Unionist Council and Executive Committee 1911-40 (Dublin, 2000), edited by Dr Diane Urquhart.
PUBLICATIONS
Phil Kilroy, Madeline Sophie Barat: a life (Cork University Press, 2000)
Bernadette Whelan (ed.), Women and paid work in Ireland, 1500-1930 (Four Courts Press, 2000)
Catriona Clear, Women of the house: women's household work in Ireland, 1922-61 (Irish Academic Press, 2000)
Christine Meek (ed.) Women in Renaissance and early modern Europe (Four Courts
Press, 2000)
Prizes:
THE CULLEN-MACCURTAIN PRIZE IN WOMEN'S HISTORY
The Cullen-MacCurtain prize was founded in 1999 to mark the tenth anniversary
of the Association. It is named after Mary Cullen and Margaret MacCurtain, the
two pioneers of women's history in Ireland and the inspiration behind the formation
of the Association. The prize is for an undergraduate essay on any aspect of
the history of women in Ireland from earliest times to 1972. The first award
was made in 2000 to Feeonagh Chambers, who studied history at Queen's University
Belfast.The second award was presented at the 2001 conference to Joanne Clarke
who is currently enrolled as an MA student in Queen's University Belfast.
-compiled by Bernadette Whelan