Labour's women in Leinster House

Issued : Sunday 14 December, 2008

Labour women gathered under the picture of Countess Markiewich

Female senators and TDs both past and present were at the Dáil for celebrations held to mark the occasion when women were first entitled to cast a vote in the general election. Irish Women were allowed to vote in the general election after winning the right to universal suffrage in 1918. But they had to be over thirty years of age and land owners, a restriction that wasn't lifted until ten years later in 1928. This is also the anniversary of the election of Ireland's first female member of parliament, Countess Markiewicz.

The gathering of women was Independent Senator Ivana Bacik's idea. She said the special ceremony was held to celebrate the remarkable achievements of Ireland's female politicians through the generations.

"I hope this event will serve both as a celebration of the many remarkable women who have been TDs and Senators over the past 90 years; and as a reminder of the low levels of women's participation in Irish political life," she said.

"This will be the first time in the history of the Irish State - in the nine decades since that historic 1918 election - that the Chamber will be nearly half filled with women representatives."

Ms Bacik said she hoped the event would encourage women to participate more actively in public life.

Currently, just 22 of the 166 Dáil members are women, while 13 out of 60 in the Seanad are female. Over the last 90 years, women have filled just 370 of the total of 6,072 Dáil and Seanad seats.

Excerpts from two speeches by Countess Markiewicz were read aloud in the chamber today by former senator and Supreme Court judge Catherine McGuinness.

One was from a speech to the Students' National Literacy Society in Dublin in 1909 and the other from an address she gave to the Irish Women's Franchise League in Dublin in 1915.