Countess Markievicz and Eva Gore-Booth

In his foreword to the 1960 publication, The Shaping of Modern Ireland, Conor Cruise O’Brien unashamedly notes that the volume examines how significant men ‘played a part in . . . shaping modern Ireland.’ In twenty first century Ireland, women are accepted as contributing towards the political, social and economic structure of the country. The struggle for women’s equality in Modern Ireland was shaped, in part, by two sisters active during the period of O’Brien’s original focus. The republican activist Countess Markievicz served as minister for labour in the first Dáil Éireann. Her younger sister, Eva Gore-Booth, was a successful labour activist and esteemed author. This chapter examines how the sisters’ work and writings helped shape a more inclusive modern Ireland