Abstract
The election of Mary Robinson as first citizen and President of Ireland in November 1990 has been regarded by many commentators as something of a turning point in the history and status of Irish women. Such a symbolic victory was further enhanced by the new President’s acknowledgement of the part played by the women of Ireland, Mna na hEireann, in her historic success. Robinson’s description of Irish women in 1990 contrasts strikingly with the sentiments expressed in the Irish Independent of October 1924. The call for women to eschew public life, succumb to their traditional gender role and devote themselves to home and family, was to typify the experience of the majority of women throughout the formative years of the Irish Free State. Such an endorsement of gender roles in Irish society was confirmed in 1937 when the then Taoiseach (Prime Minister), Eamon de Valera, proclaimed that ‘everyone knows there is little chance of having a home in the real sense if there is no woman in it, the woman is really the homemaker’ (Irish Press, 26 June 1937).
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