Most of Ireland’s known figures and historical greats are men. While deserving of accolades and reverence, Ireland has no shortage of women who are just as illustrious, resilient, and brave.
Each woman on our list has made a lasting mark on Ireland, if not the entire world. Their stories continue to inspire us here at Celtic Knot.
Here are the most remarkable women in the history of Ireland you need to know.
1. DR. JAMES BARRY
How could a man have landed on this list? And be the first on it, no less!? (Read on…) Well, Dr. James led a colorful life. He was a respected military surgeon who rose in rank to become the inspector general of hospitals – one of the highest army medical posts during his time. He was as famous as he was short-tempered. Duels and arguments with fellow officers and doctors weren’t few. But Dr. Barry was revered as a human doctor and a zealous public health reformer. He was also peculiar – a vegetarian who shunned alcohol and traveled with a menagerie of small animals.
However, all these peculiarities pale compared to what they discovered after he died in 1865.
He was, in fact, a woman!
Dr. James Barry was Margaret Ann Bulkley, an Irishwoman who lived as a man during the Victorian era. Margaret had taken on a different identity to be admitted as a university student.
Margaret was born in 1795 in Cork and lived when women were neither allowed a formal education nor allowed to practice most professions. Of course, Margaret would have none of it. Because she had dared to dream, Margaret graduated from the University of Edinburgh Medical School in 1812 as James Barry and became a renowned doctor of medicine in London.
2. MARY ROBINSON
Mary Robinson is one of Ireland’s modern-day heroines. Hailing from Ballina, County Mayo, she rose to become the first female President of Ireland.
Before being elected president in 1990, Robinson had already sealed her reputation as a respected academic, barrister, and Senator. Some of the more critical issues she advocated for include the rights to the legal availability of contraception, the requests for women to sit on juries, and the removal of the law requiring married women to resign from civil service.
She became Ireland’s most popular President by passing two critical bills into law – the decriminalization of homosexuality and the legalization of contraception. She resigned late into her first term to take up an equally significant role – the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
She held this role until 2002 but still works with top leaders on political, humanitarian, and environmental issues.
3. CONSTANCE MARKIEVICZ
Constance Markievicz was the first female member of parliament (MP) elected to the House of Commons. She assumed the role in 1918, two years after dissenting against the British in the 1916 Rising in Dublin. Markievicz was also known as Countess Markievicz. In addition to being an astute Irish politician, she was also recognized as a nationalist, suffragist, and socialist.
As a founding member of Fianna Éireann (an Irish nationalist youth organization), Cumann na mBan (The Irish Women’s Council), and the Irish Citizen Army, she took an active role in the 1916 Easter Rising, the period when Irish Republicans struggled to end British rule. She was sentenced to death but was given a reduced sentence because of her gender.
4. ANNIE MOORE
The very first immigrant to the United States was… you guessed it. An Irish!
Annie Moore hailed from Cork, Ireland, and arrived on the shores of Ellis Island in New York harbor aboard the steamship Nevada in 1892. As the first person to be processed and allowed entry, an American official gave her an American 10-dollar gold piece.
She traveled and looked after her two brothers, Phillip (aged 7) and Anthony (aged 11), and went on to have 11 children with Joseph Augustus Schayer, a German Catholic salesman.
Annie Moore died in 1924. Her unmarked grave was later identified in 2006. An Irish Blue Limestone Celtic Cross was unveiled at her final resting place.
5. ETTIE STEINBERG
Her name won’t ring a bell for most. But her story is worth more than the tolling of a single chime.
Ettie Steinberg was Ireland’s only Holocaust victim. She was born in what was then known as Czechoslovakia, but her family had moved to Dublin in the 1920s. She was a gifted seamstress. In 1937, she married Vogtjeck Gluck, a Belgian. The couple settled in Antwerp and had a son, Leon. But because they were Jewish, they had to move often for safety.
While waiting for their Irish passports in Toulouse, France, they were arrested and taken to Auschwitz. Their tickets arrived the morning after their arrest.
Ettie managed to write a coded Hebrew message to her family in Ireland. She threw the postcard out the window of the train she was on. A kind-hearted stranger picked it up and sent it. Her family desperately tried to save her, but it was too late.
6. VERONICA GUERIN
Veronica Guerin was a respected and revered journalist who exposed Ireland’s drug criminals. She started in the public relations industry but transitioned to journalism in 1990 by writing for the Sunday Tribune and the Sunday Business Post.
She was a determined crime reporter who would pursue a story regardless of the risks involved. Quickly earning respect from both the police force and high-ranking criminal leaders, she would receive frequent death threats. Two shots were fired into her home in 1994 as a warning. She was granted a 24-hour police escort and faithfully completed her work.
In 1996, two men allegedly working for convicted criminal John Gilligan followed her on a motorbike, pulled up beside her car, and shot her. Her death caused a public outrage, which ultimately led to the founding of the Criminal Asset Bureau and a massive crackdown on organized crime in the country.
Cuir beannacht ar na mná is mó in Éirinn
(Salute to these most remarkable women of Ireland!)
Women that showcase beauty and elegance through authentic jewellery. Wear your Irish heritage every day.
