New Issues and Old: Women and Politics in Ireland, 1914-1918

This article explores the experiences of politically active Irish women during the First World War. Focusing on political campaigns including women's suffrage, nationalist activism, and pacifism, it argues that Irish women were particularly well placed to respond to the demands of total war by virtue of their existing political commitments and the highly incendiary condition of Irish political life in 1914. Although the outbreak of war complicated relationships between female activists and obliged some of them to take very public stands on the efficacy of war, feminist activism continued in the period 1914 to 1918 and was in many ways strengthened by the opportunities provided by it.