Marcella Corcoran Kennedy (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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There have been numerous discussions around commemoration ceremonies in recent times. I welcome the opportunity to raise the role of women and the contribution they made to Irish society in our turbulent past. I am sad to note there is scant acknowledgement of those brave and patriotic women who, alongside their men, fought for Irish freedom in different ways, some as pacifists and others as militants. Even in a recent supplement on the Home Rule Bill in The Irish Times, the 13 contributors and staff writers, all of whom were male, made little reference to the role played by women. None of the articles was dedicated to this subject.

I wish to focus on the events of 1912, when votes for women became entangled with the Irish Home Rule Bill introduced in Westminster. Irish and English feminists came to the issue from differing perspectives. Most women and men in Ireland were Nationalists who wanted home rule. Most Irish feminists wanted votes for women in an Irish Parliament of one kind or another. However, Irish Unionist women and men did not support home rule and both Unionists and English feminists wanted the vote in the UK Parliament.

What outraged feminists here and in England was the attitude taken by the Prime Minister, Herbert Henry Asquith, and the leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party, John Redmond. I do not blame them. In a conversation with Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington, the deputy leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party, John Dillon, stated:

Women's suffrage will, I believe, be the ruin of our Western civilisation. It will destroy the home, challenging the headship of man, laid down by God. It may come in your time - I hope not in mine.

It is no wonder they were cross.

A mass meeting was held in June 1912 at which 19 women's organisations were represented. Patience finally ran out and some of the members of the Irish Women's Franchise League smashed windows at the GPO, Dublin Castle and the Custom House. Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington and Margaret Cousins were sent to jail and Mary Leigh and Gladys Evans, who were members of an English organisation, the Women's Social and Political Union, were sentenced to five years imprisonment for disrupting the Prime Minister and went on hunger strike in Mountjoy Prison. Forcible feeding was practised in England at the time and there was considerable debate on the issue. Augustine Birrell, the Chief Secretary for Ireland, stated:

Personally I am dead against forcible feeding which always ends with the release of the prisoner long before her time. I want to keep these ladies under lock and key for five years and I am quite willing to feed them with Priest's Champagne and Michaelmas Geese all the time if it can be done ... but these wretched hags ... are obstinate to the point of death.

No fewer than 36 women were imprisoned during this campaign and many of them went on hunger strike for political status. We should not forget these wonderful women and what they achieved. Margaret Cousins put it well when she stated:

I am not a criminal but a political prisoner - my motives were neither criminal nor personal - being wholly associated with the agitation to obtain Votes for Women. I shall fight in every way in my power against being branded a criminal.

With these thoughts in mind I call on the Government to dedicate a commemoration ceremony to these women and the role they played as we approach June 2012.

Jimmy Deenihan (Kerry North-West Limerick, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Corcoran Kennedy for raising this subject and commend her academic and professional treatment of it.

The introduction of the third Home Rule Bill to Parliament at Westminster on 11 April 1912 was a pivotal moment in our history. This Bill is the point of departure for the centenary commemorative programme which will take place over the coming decade and which will centre on the proclamation of the Irish Republic at Easter 1916. With the introduction of the Home Rule Bill, a series of events gathered pace that culminated in the establishment of this State. It was a period of profound change for Ireland, Britain, Europe and the wider world. States and societies were transformed and the outcomes have shaped the world we know today.

It is my intention that the commemorative programme will address the key political events and, most important, provide a comprehensive presentation of the economic, social and cultural issues of the period. It is appropriate that we keep these events in mind as their centenaries approach. A centenary anniversary is of special significance. It is perhaps the earliest opportunity for a generation without direct contact with the period to assess the historic events and their consequences. A more balanced and informed understanding can be achieved than is possible in the aftermath of such profound changes. It can also be expected that a better understanding of the issues and circumstances will be assisted by the release of records and the progress of research over the years. I believe that this may particularly be the case with regard to the roles and contributions of women in the revolutionary period. With some distinguished exceptions, the role of women has not always been fully recognised over this period. I hope that this may be redressed in the commemorative programme. With this in mind, in discussions with colleagues with regard to the composition of the expert advisory group emphasis was placed on the need for particular consideration to be given to women's history, experience and contribution throughout the period.

The initial events of the official commemorative programme this year related to Carson and Redmond and were arranged around the anniversary of the Home Rule Bill. In these presentations, it was noted that the Home Rule debate was not insulated from the other issues of the day. This perception was particularly reflected in the photograph presented in March to the First Minister of Northern Ireland following the Carson lecture in Dublin. The photograph shows Sir Edward Carson being confronted by suffragette protestors at Iveagh House in 1912 while he was campaigning to resist the Home Rule Bill. The suffragettes were very prominent in political demonstrations of the time and were doubtless also involved in the hostile reception given to Winston Churchill in Belfast that year.

It is not unique to Ireland that the pages of history are dominated by the political and military headlines that define a period. The progress of society in the same period in matters of employment, migration, health and education does not often provide the equivalent moments and anniversaries that facilitate commemoration. Nonetheless, these issues are of fundamental importance, essential to an informed understanding of the period.

The transformation of society by the Reform Acts of the 19th century, incrementally extending the franchise for men, brought a consciousness of future possibilities for all. It has been suggested that the Representation of the People Act 1832, which specified that only "male persons" were to vote, was the first explicit statutory bar to women's suffrage and itself a trigger to campaigning for equality.

New Zealand was the first nation in the world to achieve universal suffrage in 1893 and Australia followed in 1902. The campaign for reform in Britain and Ireland reflected this growing consciousness of the times. The Women's Social and Political Union was founded in Manchester in 1903 by six women, including Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst, who soon emerged as the group's leaders.

The Irish Women's Franchise League was founded in 1908 by Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington. Members pursued their campaign through civil disobedience, demonstration and protest - commonly including, as the Deputy mentioned, window breaking. Arrests and imprisonment resulted in hunger strike, for which the authorities introduced release under the Prisoner's (Temporary Discharge for Ill Health) Act, followed in due course by re-arrest. The campaign for voting rights brought interaction with the other issues of the day and during the 1913 lockout suffragists worked in Liberty Hall, providing food for the families of the strikers.

As with the Home Rule Bill, the progress of the campaign for voting equality was overtaken by the coming of the Great War. However, the experience of the war - both the horrors for men fighting at the front and the experience of the women mobilised to sustain industry and output at home - ensured that the future would be different from the past.

The Representation of the People Act 1918 extended the franchise to men over 21 and women over 30 with certain conditions. With this restriction women accounted for approximately 43% of the electorate and would otherwise have been in the majority owing to the loss of men in the war. Following the passing of the Representation of the People Act, the Eligibility of Women Act was passed, allowing women to be elected into Parliament. The first election held under the new system was the 1918 general election. Polling took place in December 1918. Several women stood for election. However, only one, Constance Markievicz, was elected for the constituency of Dublin St. Patrick's.

Perhaps the final vindication of the suffragette campaign came with the provision of the 1922 Irish Free State Constitution which, in theory at least, removed the limitations on Irish women's access to the full rights of citizenship. It was to the detriment of our society that this provision of the 1922 Constitution was the last real advancement of the rights of women for the following half century.

Mindful of their campaign sustained to 1918, I am confident that the campaign for women's voting rights and the activities of the suffragettes in Ireland will be a consistent consideration in the commemorative programme. The events planned for later this year focus on the signing of the Ulster Covenant and the associated Declaration which was signed by a 250,000 women. As the commemorative programme continues, I would be very pleased to see initiatives that bring attention to the suffragettes' campaign and the other activities of women in this historic decade.

Marcella Corcoran Kennedy (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister for his response. We need to increase awareness and highlight the role of women in Irish history, including the impact and contribution they made to the political, academic, economic, social and cultural life of the country. From the Minister's response it is clear that this is the year for us to take the opportunity to do that.

I wish to acknowledge the input of my friend, Margaret Hogan, an historian from Birr, County Offaly, who gave me some material on this and enabled me to give an accurate account of what happened at that time. I will be parochial to relate an interesting story. Some of the prisoners were moved from Dublin to take the political heat from them. They were moved to Tullamore, County Offaly. It was reported that in 1913 the Tullamore Urban Council passed a resolution demanding political treatment for Irish suffragette prisoners.

Jimmy Deenihan (Kerry North-West Limerick, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy will have an ideal opportunity to do something in June to mark that occasion. I am chairman of the decade of commemorations committee and I would be delighted to do something through the committee with the Deputy. If she can suggest an event and a location we can certainly do that following her initiative today in raining the matter in the House. I am sure the committed would be delighted to accommodate her.

Women's rights and the suffragette movement were specifically mentioned when we were appointing the academic advisory group. We added a number of experts to the advisory committee, including one in particular who has a special interest in the area of women's rights and the suffragette movement to cover precisely the issue the Deputy has highlighted. I can talk to the Deputy about organising an event to coincide with the anniversary of what happened in June 1912.