Vote 100: Events to mark the centenary of the vote for women in Ireland

Dáil Éireann: The First 100 Years, 1919-2019
Tuesday, December 11th; Royal Irish Academy, Dawson Street, Dublin; €20/€10
The Houses of the Oireachtas and the Royal Irish Academy host a one-day conference a century after the general election of December 14th, 1918, with panel discussions on parliamentary democracy in Ireland past, present and future, chaired by Stephen Collins and Olivia O'Leary; panellists include Michael Laffan, Bill Kissane, Martin Mansergh, Brigid Laffan and Theresa Reidy.

Why Not a Woman?
Friday, December 14th, and Saturday, December 15th; Dublin Castle, Dublin 2
Women in public and private life in Ireland since 1918 are celebrated at the Women's History Association of Ireland's annual conference. Free, but booking is essential.

Oireachtas statements
Friday, December 14th; Leinster House, Dublin 2
Statements in the Dáil and Seanad to mark the centenary of the first time Irish women had the right to vote in a parliamentary election.

Markievicz: Portraits and Propaganda
Daily until February 10th; National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin 2; free
The many sides to Constance Markievicz are on show in a new exhibition of photographs, paintings and illustrations.

Louisa Todhunter: Votes-for-women activist who signed her name into the history books

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ESB unveils treasure throve of previously unseen films from the past

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Hurling joins eclectic list that includes the picking of iva grass and Kazakh horse breeding

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Votes for Women: Suffrage and Citizenship
Until December 14th; Leinster House, Dublin 2; included in free tours of Leinster House, Monday-Friday 10.30am, 11.30am, 2.30pm and 3.30pm
Curated by the National Museum of Ireland, this exhibition marks the centenary of the Representation of the People Act, which gave the vote to British and Irish women over 30 who were university graduates, property owners, or the wives of property owners. Universal suffrage for over-21s followed the foundation of the Free State, in 1922 – as well as determined lobbying by women's groups. You can download the accompanying PDF here.

From Ballots to Bullets: Ireland 1918-1919
Daily until May 2019; National Photographic Archive, Temple Bar, Dublin; free
This exhibition from the collection of the National Library of Ireland charts two turbulent and defining years in Irish life, leading to the birth of the Republic: the end of the first World War, the suffragist movement, the global flu pandemic and the first meeting of Dáil Éireann. Includes photographs, newspapers, posters, postcards, advertisements, and general-election posters.

Breaking the Bread of Knowledge
Until January 12th; Long Room, Trinity College Dublin
This exhibition focuses on the history of women at Trinity College Dublin and the role access to university education had in politicising Irish women, so changing politics and Irish society. The exhibition follows Trinity's online exhibition about suffrage, Violence, Ridicule and Silence.

Faces of Change: Votes for Women
Thursdays-Sundays 11am-2.30pm until February 3rd, 2019; Mount Stewart, Co Down
This exhibition by Britain's National Trust and National Portrait Gallery charts the campaign for women's suffrage through paintings, drawings, photographs and archival documents of key figures, such as the suffragist leader Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters Christabel and Sylvia, and Nancy Astor, the first woman MP in the House of Commons, by John Singer Sargent. Also displayed is a sheet of identity photographs of suffragists issued to the National Portrait Gallery by Scotland Yard in 1914, shortly after Mary Richardson slashed Velázquez's Rokeby Venus at the National Gallery in London.

The Enemy Within: The Spanish Flu in Ireland 1918-19
Until April 2019; National Museum of Country Life, Co Mayo
This exhibition marks the centenary of the Spanish-flu outbreak and explores the folk medicines and rudimentary cures people used to try to combat the devastating illness, which claimed 23,000 lives and infected 800,000 people in Ireland in 1918-9.

Online exhibitions and resources

[ oireachtas.ie ]

[ UCD Decade of Centenaries ]

Irish Independence Film Collection
The Irish Film Institute's moving record of the pivotal 1900-30 period, captured in newsreels that played in cinemas in the early part of the 20th century.

[ Violence, Ridicule and Silence ]

Votes for Women: Suffrage and Citizenship
A PDF booklet to accompany the exhibition at Leinster House (see above).

The Road to the Vote: The Fight for Female Suffrage in Ireland
Podcasts of an award-winning radio series by the University College Cork historian Finola Doyle-O'Neill.