Sure am feeling generous these days. Seems like every post I put up here lately is a share from one source or another. And here I am at it again. Today an article I wrote on some famous women in Irish history was posted on Encyclopaedia Britannica's blog: Mná na hÉireann: Women of Ireland. This is the first of 3 articles on Irish-related topics I'm writing for the Britannica Blog up until St. Patrick's Day in March. Starting off with an article on the women of Ireland was fitting because this month of February kicks off in the Irish calendar with the feast of St. Brigid of Kildare.
A couple things about this Britannica post. This list of famous Irishwomen is by no means definitive. For space reasons I had to leave out so many great women: the pirate queen Grace O'Malley, champion runner Sonia O'Sullivan, women's suffrage leader, sister of Constance Markievicz, and playwright Eva Gore Booth, Ireland's many many great female singers and musicians (from Sharon Shannon to Mary Black to Sinead O'Connor to Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh), actresses of stage and screen from Maureen O'Hara to Fiona Shaw to Brenda Fricker, chef and Ballymaloe Cookery School head honcho Darina Allen, Michael D. Higgins's presidential predecessor Mary McAleese, and even more writers, saints, and mythological queens and goddesses than I mentioned and that anyone could count. If only I had all the space and time in the world to tell you about these amazing ladies.
But that leads me to the other thing--the stories and information in this post are part of the reason I decided to start up a women-only tour company. It's these women and their stories and achievements that time and again get overlooked, neglected, left out altogether from most general tours. Don't get me wrong--I like to hear about the great men of history as much as the next plebe. But I like to be reminded that my fellow sisters on this planet have certainly accomplished a thing or two themselves beyond birthing and marrying all the men. Any history otherwise would be a lie. I laid out this reason in a previous post on why taking a women-only tour is a good thing. I only hope my Britannica blog post only whets readers' appetite for finding out more about the fabulous mná na hÉireann and beyond.
