In her introduction to Irish Women’s Speeches: Voices that Rocked the System, volume I, Sonja Tiernan puts forward an exciting premise. She asserts that through women’s speeches, it ‘is possible to track a comprehensive history of Ireland and trace the depth of Irish influence abroad’ (p.1). Volume I was previously published in 2021, while volume II was published in 2022. In volume I, Tiernan writes that volumes published on speeches in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries have long focused solely on male speeches and oratory, giving rise to the view that men were the key thinkers, reformers, and politicians and thereby ‘the people who mattered in in Irish history’ (p.1). Tiernan aims to redress this imbalance across the two volumes with volume II, the volume under review here, focusing on speeches by women in arts and culture, while volume I generally addresses women’s speeches in different political arenas broadly defined. Considering the wider backdrop of separate spheres ideology across the nineteenth century and the idea of a more male public sphere and female private sphere highlights something crucial for this book. The growth of female public speakers addressing audiences was highly significant and sharply conflicted with much of the prevailing gender ideology of the nineteenth century which presented the female public figure as a rarity. This underscores the importance of tracing the development of female speeches over time.

Volume II on women in arts and culture achieves Tiernan’s aim well. It considers cultural producers broadly and encompasses, actresses, artists, writers, journalists, feminists, historians, and key cultural figures to name but a few. Prompted by the ‘Waking the Feminists’ movement at the Abbey Theatre in 2015, which called for recognition of women in creative production, this work set out to trace a history of female speeches on arts and culture. The book is cogently structured in such a way that each speech from a speaker is preceded by a section providing context on the speech itself, discussion of its impact and a brief background and biography of the speaker.

Through this volume, we are introduced to a diverse cast of women from Charlotte Stoker to Lian Bell and which span a period from 1863–2021. As Professor of Irish Studies at the University of Otago and therefore someone well-acquainted with working across a broad temporal canvas, Tiernan achieves this goal of knitting together speeches relating to arts and culture across a 150-year period relatively seamlessly. A wide array of source material underpins the volume from newspaper coverage to existing biographies to personal papers and manuscripts in archives. Some intriguing individuals emerge throughout this volume. For example, Gretta Cousins an Irish suffrage figure who became an anti-colonial activist in India speaking out against British imperialism or Sarah Purser, the Irish stained-glass artist who set up an Irish stained-glass cooperative for Irish produced stained glass. Tiernan also does not shy away from the showing the complexities of some of the selected individuals and their deficiencies. Norah Dacre Fox was an Irish born woman who joined the British suffrage movement and who afterwards joined the British fascist party mistakenly viewing it as the best political course for women (p.46). More recent figures like Veronica Guerin, Nuala O’ Faolain and Lydia Foy also have their stories woven through this volume and their contributions to cultural life are well unpicked.

Insights into the nature of the various crafts and unique characters of the various individuals naturally emerge from the various speech excerpts. For example, writer Edna O’Brien in her speech elegantly explains that ‘the impulse to write and the secret certainty of the vocation is already there, long before one comes to literature, but literature draws it out and gives it its life and lustre’ (p.156). Stained glass artist Sarah Purser humbly refused to take credit for the work of her tutees at An Túr Gloine in her speech, instead asserting that they are ‘each born with their own imagination and sense of colour’ (p.60). Such memorable snippets ensure that the distinctive voice of the speaker rings out through time, and we gain deeper insight into each unique subjectivity.

Despite some interesting discussions of the impact of the various speeches, the only very minor shortcoming is that for some speeches of the mid-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the element of performativity implicit in any speech is perhaps lost as material does not survive for some speeches relating to this. How did these women perform these speeches publicly at a time when female public speakers were relatively rare? What forms of delivery and techniques did they use to make their points? What range of impressions might they have made on the audience in the room? Just how enraptured or not were all of those motley individuals in attendance? What sort of emotions might these speeches have stirred up? However, this is an absence that likely arises from lack of surviving source material relating to some speeches and the passage of time more than anything else and is in some senses unavoidable.

Irish Women’s Speeches: Volume II will appeal to a variety of audiences. Readers of gender history and women’s history immediately spring to mind as well as those researching the history of modern Ireland more broadly and female influence in it.  However, the book is equally of central importance for those interested in wider histories of oratory, speeches, and speechwriting across the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The work will also appeal to social and cultural historians interested in the idea of a developing ‘public sphere’ across this period and women’s place in it. Structured clearly and logically, the work will appeal to both academic and general readers alike. For the general reader, it offers a compelling catalogue of influential female voices relating to arts and culture. The work has been well-produced by UCD Press with the text nicely interspersed with images of the various individuals. An arresting cover design has been chosen with Hollywood actress Maureen O’Hara, turned out in crimson attire, and adding vibrancy to the film set of The Quiet Man. It stands as a metaphor for the content: the idea that the inclusion of female speeches in the historical record pertaining to arts and culture lends it a newfound infusion of colour.

Bio:

Olivia Frehill recently completed a PhD at Trinity College Dublin entitled Silhouettes in a City: Women, Work and Welfare in Dublin c 1890–1930s.