Irish women and radical internationalism: from suffrage to antifascism, 1916-1939

Thesis

This thesis is a transnational political history of Irish women who proceeded from the suffrage campaign into the networks of interwar radical internationalism, grounded in the personal relationships and spatial contexts which shaped their careers. The project provides a detailed analysis of Irish women’s engagement with internationalist movements such as international communism and antifascism. Adopting an inclusive definition of Irishness, activists born in Ireland are included in the study alongside those with Irish ancestry who identified with Irish political causes later in their careers. Figures prominent in the analysis include Charlotte Despard (1844-1939), Katherine Gillett Gatty (1870-1952), May O’Callaghan (1881-1973) and Hanna Sheehy Skeffington (1877-1946). The thesis offers a history of the Irish left that expands its focus beyond the island of Ireland, encompassing activism in locations such as East London during the First World War, Moscow in the late 1920s and continental European antifascist networks. In doing so, it offers insights into a broad spectrum of Irish radicals and their international counterparts.

The thesis demonstrates how a focus in the historiography of the Irish radical left on prominent socialist republican figures and organisations has marginalised women and obscured revealing case studies. Challenging a tendency in British and Irish women’s history to consider women’s internationalism as synonymous with liberal internationalism, my approach explores how radical communist-inspired internationalism influenced many activist women during this period. Responding to recent methodological insights in histories of international communism, particularly a turn towards transnational and biographical approaches, my project demonstrates how looking beyond formal Communist Party members can highlight hitherto obscure activists involved in Irish leftist groups and in the Comintern. Exploring a diverse set of Irish radical women alongside their comrades, this thesis ultimately argues that their profoundly transnational post-suffrage careers were sustained by connections to the initiatives and comradeships fostered by radical internationalism.

Authors: Casey, MJ

• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English