Heritage Partner Comment by That's Just How It Was on March 6, 2015 at 10:29am

Wow a lot of Irish women are coming to the fore ; Heroine ' all of them ; Not before time .

Comment by Ron Redmond on March 6, 2015 at 10:48am

There's another I just saw that was inspirational! 

Constance Georgina de Markievicz, aka the Countess de Markievicz was an Sinn Fein and Fianna Fail politician. In December 1918, she was the first woman elected to the British House of Commons, though she did not take her seat and, along with the other Sinn Féin TDs, formed the first Dail Eireann. She was reportedly the first women in the world to hold a cabinet position as she was Minister of Labour for the Irish Republic from 1919–1922.

Comment by Andrea Doyle on March 6, 2015 at 1:27pm

O stony grey soil of Monaghan
The laugh from my love you thieved;
You took the gay child of my passion
And gave me your clod-conceived.

You clogged the feet of my boyhood
And I believed that my stumble
Had the poise and stride of Apollo
And his voice my thick tongued mumble.

You told me the plough was immortal!
O green-life conquering plough!
The mandril stained, your coulter blunted
In the smooth lea-field of my brow.

You sang on steaming dunghills
A song of cowards' brood,
You perfumed my clothes with weasel itch,
You fed me on swinish food

You flung a ditch on my vision
Of beauty, love and truth.
O stony grey soil of Monaghan
You burgled my bank of youth!

Lost the long hours of pleasure
All the women that love young men.
O can I stilll stroke the monster's back
Or write with unpoisoned pen.

His name in these lonely verses
Or mention the dark fields where
The first gay flight of my lyric
Got caught in a peasant's prayer.

Mullahinsa, Drummeril, Black Shanco-
Wherever I turn I see
In the stony grey soil of Monaghan
Dead loves that were born for me. 

Patrick Kavanagh.... My Childhood Hero.

Comment by Jean Sullivan Cardinal on March 8, 2015 at 1:48pm

Bernadette Devlin was always a hero of mine.  Reading about her in the papers was inspiring.

Comment by Aine Edwards on March 8, 2015 at 10:07pm

Sr Loreto Houlihan is almost 88 years old, an Irish Nun who has lived and worked in Chennai, India for over 70 years. Working her whole life as a primary school teacher with the poor and their families, in one of the major Anglo-Indian communities in India. Perumbur is a railway settlement in North Chennai (Madras), where Indian's have surnames like O' Brien and Walsh and Johnson, part of the Irish legacy in India. A friend for over 10 years, we have drank Barry's tea and reminisced about potatoes, cabbage and ham, mostly we have laughed and chatted about our homeland Ireland, while drinking Irish tea in our adopted home India. What a smile to be greeted by everytime we meet, one of the happiest and kindest people I have ever met and well respected by the Indians who have experienced the Irish education and hospitality in India through the Presentation Order. 

Comment by Jim Curley on March 9, 2015 at 6:54am

The diaspora in action and doing good for people. Wonderful story, Aine.

Comment by Gerry Regan on March 9, 2015 at 4:16pm

Congratulations to the winners, and I would also like to post-facto give a nod to two heroines of mine, Lady Jane Wilde and Anne Devlin.

Comment by Ron Redmond on March 10, 2015 at 10:31am

Congrats to the winners!

And what a wonderful thread this was!!

--Ron--

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