This year, the events of 1921 will be dissected and unpacked from every angle. Whatever side of the border women lived, they struggled against sexism, inequality, discrimination and the power of the Protestant and Catholic churches. The recent report on the Mother and Baby homes in the Republic has brought that into sharp focus. Northern Ireland’s report on its own homes will also be damning.
Talking specifically about the north in her book, “The Contemporary Women’s Movement in Northern Ireland,’ Eileen Evason noted in 1991 that:
“...it has been the women of Northern Ireland who for decades have taken the bulk of the strain and hardship produced by Northern Ireland’s political and economic problems. They have done this despite the added burden of their oppression.”
Society has changed dramatically since the 1920s. While Northern Ireland’s first Parliament was dominated by men, the country is now lead by two women. Northern Ireland is a better place for women, but it is not perfect. There is still a lot of work to do. One particular issue is the invisibility of women within our history. The Ulster Women’s Unionist Council was and to this day is still the largest female only organisation ever formed on this island. The Irish Women’s Suffrage Society and the Irish Women’s Suffrage Federation played a pivotal role in British-Irish history. As Dora Mellone of the northern committee of the IWSF said, at a mass rally, in Hyde Park in 1913:
‘Of all shades of political opinion, we have nationalists and unionists, orange and green, extremist and moderate. These women agreeing in nothing else agree on this one point… no one else has ever done this; the IWSF is the only political organisation which has ever held the north and south together…
When we trace the path from then to now, women still play, at times, that invisible role. Those women who championed access to contraception and formed sites to challenge patriarchy are not in our school curricula. Drawn from every political persuasion and every background which would suggest their inclusion might be instructive. It is important to acknowledge that some, then as now, were and are opposed to Northern Ireland itself. Mutual respect for empowerment bonding women into common purpose.
As I discovered myself when I got involved with a feminist activist group in Belfast, women in this country have always worked together on the issues that matter. But that inter-community working and the benefits therein are obscured by patriarchy and the writing of ethno-sectarian history.
Take the Northern Ireland Women’s Movement, for instance. The group, formed in 1975, campaigned against sex discrimination. They pushed for child-care for pre-school children in Northern Ireland. Public meetings were organised on equal pay and pickets formed at Department of Health and Social Services buildings. In 1980, they opened up a Women’s Centre in Belfast which supported the campaign for free contraception in the Republic.
The first Reclaim the Night march in Belfast was organised by the Women’s Collective. In 1979 they organised a conference that focused on abortion, contraception, and childbirth. Women in Media, a subgroup of the Collective, produced a pamphlet on abortion that was the starting point for the Northern Ireland Abortion Campaign.
We have women in Northern Ireland to thank for the Women’s Aid shelters and refuges across the country. Many were founded in the 1970s, some set up by ordinary women who saw the need for specific services for their and all communities. The same can be said of the Rape Crisis Centres that were established in the 1980s.
The Republic’s divorce laws (and, indeed, the lack of divorce itself) are often remembered for being oppressive. We forget that Northern Ireland’s own laws were harsh and unfair to women. The Women’s Law and Research Group were key in getting them changed. It was thanks to their efforts that the 1978 Matrimonial Causes Order was passed. That legislation amended the grounds for divorce and gave the courts the power to give women a better financial settlement. Until the 1978 Order, a man in Northern Ireland could take legal action against anyone harbouring his wife against ‘his wishes’. It, in effect, meant women were the property of their husbands. It’s thanks to the Women’s Law and Research Group that such draconian laws were changed.
Outside of activism, women across Northern Ireland formed groups within in their own communities. The Ballybean Women’s Centres, the Falls Women’s Centres and the Shankhill Women’s Centres were all founded because women stepped forward to help their communities. Today, the centres provide training and support to women across the country.
Until the introduction of the Northern Ireland Housing Executive in 1971, housing was allocated by local councils. The practice led to gerrymandering and discrimination in housing in some council areas. A Housing Condition survey in 1974 discovered that Northern Ireland had some of the worst housing conditions in the UK, with over 20% of housing declared to be unfit for human habitation. Thanks to the Northern Ireland Housing Executive, 2.4% of properties are unfit.
The Northern Ireland Housing Executive would not have come into existence without the Civil Rights Movement. Women were, as this article confirms, “the backbone of the civil rights movement.” Women like Sadie Campbell, Anne Devlin, Brid Rodgers, Bernadette McAliskey and Inez McCormack should be remembered for their contributions as much as John Hume.
Given the amount of work women have done in getting us to where we are today, it’s a disgrace that activists are still fighting for welfare reform, better housing and reproductive rights. At the time of writing, abortion services still have not been commissioned in Northern Ireland despite the change in the law.
For those us who support the union and Northern Ireland, it is important to recognise that women played in role in making our country a better place. Some of those women were nationalist and republican. They and their pro-union colleagues fought to improve the lives of others while opposing the state and its patriarchal laws. A form of opposition tied to parity of esteem for women which sat above the national question.
Women make Northern Ireland. They push it, prod it, and point out its inadequacies to make things better. We can say thank you by listening and upholding their voices, joining them and refusing to render them invisible.
Back to: Institute of Irish Studies