International Women’s Day and Cumann na mBan celebrated in Stormont

» Peadar Whelan

Cumann na mBan constitution stated it’s aims were to “advance the cause of Irish liberty and to organise Irishwomen in the furtherance of this object”

A CELEBRATION of International Women’s Day and the founding of the radical republican women’s organisation Cumann na mBan took place in Sinn Féin’s conference room in Stormont on Wednesday 5th March.

Cumann na mBan was founded on April 2nd 1914 in Wynn’s Hotel, Dublin. Its constitution stated it’s aims were to “advance the cause of Irish liberty and to organise Irishwomen in the furtherance of this object”.

The Stormont event was organised by South Armagh MLA Megan Fearon, the party’s spokesperson on women’s issues, and attracted women activists from across the generations, not least a strong contingent from ex-prisoners’ group Tar Anall’s Over-50s Women.

The author of ‘Unmanageable Revolutionaries: Women and Irish Nationalism’, Margaret Ward, was the main speaker.

‘Unmanageable Revolutionaries’ describes how Irish women, despite their frequent omission from the history books, have always played a key role in the struggle for independence. Ward focused on three pivotal Irish nationalist women’s organisations – the Ladies’ Land League, Inghinidhe na hÉireann and Cumann na mBan – to show that women have always been a driving force in Irish political history.

Margaret Ward described how, despite the resistance of some leaders of the Irish Volunteers, Cumann na mBan Volunteers, in true revolutionary spirit, showed great leadership during the 1916 Easter Rising and subsequently during the Tan War.  

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