A pioneering role in Irish women’s education – Brian Maye on Agnes O’Farrelly

Agnes O’Farrelly, who was born 150 years ago on July 7th, played a pioneering role in Irish women’s education, was a prominent Irish-language academic and was one of the first female Irish-language novelists.

She was also a founding member of Cumann na mBan and contributed significantly to the development of Irish camogie.

She was born in Raffony, Virginia, Co Cavan, one of eight children of Peter Farrelly and Ann Sheridan, who had a strong devotion to the Irish language. When she had articles published in the Anglo-Celt newspaper, its editor encouraged her to study literature.

Following graduation from the Royal University, with a BA in 1899 and an MA in 1900, she spent a term in Paris studying under the great Celtic scholar Henri D’Arbois de Jubainville, after which she was appointed a lecturer in Irish at Alexandra and Loreto colleges.

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A pioneering role in Irish women’s education – Brian Maye on Agnes O’Farrelly

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With the historian Mary Hayden, she founded the Irish Association of Women Graduates and Candidate Graduates, and her evidence to commissions on university education argued successfully for full co-education at University College Dublin, which was chartered in 1908. The following year she was appointed lecturer in modern Irish in UCD, became a member of its first governing body and was a member of the National University of Ireland Senate from 1914 to 1949.

She succeeded Douglas Hyde as professor of modern Irish in UCD in 1932, a position she held until retiring in 1947.

Active in the Gaelic League from an early stage, she was a member of its executive committee and director of An Cló-Chumann Ltd, which published Irish-language materials.

She was close to the league’s leading figures, especially Douglas Hyde and Eoin MacNeill, who encouraged her to visit the Aran Islands to improve her Irish. She supported Hyde’s efforts to keep politics out of the league and their closeness was such that UCD students “enjoyed speculating about the nature of their friendship,” according to Hyde’s biographers, Janet and Gareth Dunleavy.

She was one of the founders and for many years principal of the Ulster College of Irish, based at Cloughaneely, Co Donegal, was associated with the Leinster and Connacht colleges and was chairperson of the Federation of Irish Language Summer Schools.

Marie Coleman, who wrote the entry on her in the Dictionary of Irish Biography, refers to her reputed poor spoken Irish and tells the story attributed to Brian O’Nolan that on one of her visits to the Aran Islands, she terrified a little boy one Sunday morning by saying to him: “If you are going to hell, I will go with you”, having apparently confused the word “ifreann” (hell) for “Aifreann” (Mass). But the anecdote might well have been the result of professional rivalry on O’Nolan’s part.

She presided at the first meeting of Cumann na mBan in 1914, supporting its subordinate role to the Irish Volunteers but left it because she advocated recruitment to the British army during the first World War. Close to Roger Casement, she joined others in gathering a petition to try to have his death sentence reprieved after the Easter Rising.

She tried to prevent civil war in 1922 as part of a women’s committee that negotiated unsuccessfully with IRA leaders, and contested unsuccessfully the National University of Ireland constituency at the 1923 and 1927 general elections.

As part of the National University Women’s Graduate Association (NUWGA), she campaigned to have articles deleted from the 1937 Constitution which were seen as discriminating against women.

She was a founder member of the UCD camogie club in 1914 and its president until 1951. A major achievement was her persuading Lord Ashbourne to donate the Ashbourne Cup for the inter-colleges’ camogie competition. She was also president of the Irish Industrial Development Association and the Homespun Society and administered a trust for the development of Gaeltacht industry.

A poet, novelist and critic in both Irish and English, she wrote under the pseudonym “Uan Uladh”. Her critical works include The Reign of Humbug (1900), Leabhar an Athar Eoghan (1903) and Filidheacht Seagháin Uí Neachtáin (1911). Novels included Grádh agus Crádh (1901) and An Cneamhaire (1902), and poetry collections were Out of the Depths (1921) and Áille and Domhain (1927). Her travelogue Smaointe ar Árainn (1902) is important for the insight it gives into the lives of women and children on the island, and it also projects her strong belief in equality for women.

Agnes O’Farrelly retired from UCD in 1947 and the NUWGA presented her with an oil portrait by Seán Keating RHA to mark the occasion. Never having married, she died on November 5th, 1951, and was buried in Deansgrange Cemetery in Dublin, the taoiseach and president attending her funeral.