Durham E-Theses Irish Women and Political Petitioning, c. 1870-1918 STEWART, CIARA,ELIZABETH How to cite: STEWART, CIARA,ELIZABETH (2021) Irish Women and Political Petitioning, c. 1870-1918, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/13941/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk Ciara Elizabeth Stewart Irish women and Political Petitioning, c. 1870-1918 Abstract Petitioning was one of the few forms of political agitations available to the disenfranchised of the nineteenth century. This thesis studies petitioning patterns in order to re-examine the political experience of Irish women in the period 1870- 1918. It addresses the development of a gendered political culture in Ireland and how petitioning allowed women to partially break the boundaries of a male dominated political sphere. Petitioning, alongside other campaign methods, allowed Irish women to become involved in the Irish public and political sphere, despite going against traditional gender and social conventions. This approach allows for an examination of the social and denominational characteristics of Irish women’s organisations in this period and this thesis will show that those adopting petitions were run predominantly by middle-class Protestant women. This thesis draws on examples from a variety of women’s movements, through case studies of the Irish Ladies’ National Association for the Repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts, (LNA), the Dublin Women’s Suffrage Association, (DWSA), their successor the Irish Women’s Suffrage and Local Government Association, (IWSLGA), the Dublin Women’s Temperance Association, (DWTA), the Irish Women’s Franchise League, (IWFL) and the Ulster Women’s Unionist Council, (UWUC). This thesis places Irish women within previously Anglo-centric studies of nineteenth-century suffrage activism by demonstrating the connections that existed between Irish and British women. This thesis shows that there was often co-operation between British and Irish women, but there were cases when these relationships were complicated or fractious. Therefore, each chapter provides a comparative perspective with British women’s organisations, as it is vital to acknowledge the ties and differences that existed between Irish and British 1 activists in order to understand how they could be affected by issues such as Home Rule. In order to understand the practice of petitioning, this thesis also explores themes of networking, mobilisation, separate spheres, conflicts of morality and popular sovereignty. Overall, this thesis aims to examine how Irish women approached politics in this period through a variety of organisations, each with different aims, but which still multiplied and deepened the politicisation of Irish women. 2 Irish Women and Political Petitioning, c. 1870-1918 Ciara Elizabeth Stewart Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of History, Durham University September, 2020. 3 Table of contents Figures 5 Abbreviations 6 Acknowledgements 8 Introduction 9 Chapter one- Campaigning and Petitioning against the Contagious Diseases 39 Acts in Ireland: A New Perspective. Chapter two - The Dublin Women’s Suffrage Association and the Irish 67 Women’s Suffrage and Local Government Association: Organisation, Petitioning, the Campaign for Municipal Franchise and the Establishment of Women Poor Law Guardians in Ireland. Chapter three – Constitutionalism, Militancy and the Women’s Question: 150 Re-examining the British and Irish Suffrage Movements Through their Use of Petitioning, c. 1909-1914. Chapter four - The Dublin Women’s Temperance Association: An Analysis 186 of the Women’s Temperance Movement in Ireland. Chapter five - The Ulster Women’s Declaration and the Role of Women in 220 the Campaign against Home Rule. Conclusion 264 Bibliography 279 4 List of tables/ Figures Table 2.1. Financial statement of a DWSA public meeting for 1877 Table 2.2. A detailed example of the DWSA’s financial statement for 1878 Table 2.3. Financial statement for the year 1879 Table 2.4. Population statistics for selected UK cities, 1881 Table 2.5. IWSLGA’s total income and expenditure from 1896-1913. Table 2.6. IWSLGA’s income for the year 1897 Table 2.7. IWSLGA’s expenditure for the year 1897 Table 2.8. Suffrage petitions submitted to Parliament, 1879-1889 Table 2.9. Signatures submitted to Parliament, 1879-1889 Table 2.10. Women voted to local government positions Figure 2.1. Meetings held by the DWSA/IWSLGA 1876-1913 Figure 2.2. Men and women chairing meetings of the DWSA/IWSLGA, 1876- 1913 Figure 2.3. IWSLGA subscribers, 1896-1913 Figure 2.4. Number of subscribers to the Cork branch of the IWSLGA, 1908- 1912 5 Abbreviations Archives PRONI Public Record Office of Northern Ireland NAI National Archives of Ireland NLI National Library of Ireland Publications/Resources BWTJ British Women’s Temperance Journal SCPP Select Committee on Public Petitions WSJ Women’s Suffrage Journal Organisations CLWSI Church League for Women’s Suffrage Ireland BWTA Belfast Women’s Temperance Association DWSA Dublin Women’s Suffrage Association DWTA Dublin Women’s Temperance Association ICWSA Irish Catholic Women’s Suffrage Association IPP Irish Parliamentary Party IWFL Irish Women’s Franchise League IWRL Irish Women’s Reform League IWSLGA Irish Women’s Suffrage and Local Government Association IWSS Irish Women’s Suffrage Society IWTU Irish Women’s Temperance Union LLL Ladies’ Land League LNA Ladies’ National Association for the Repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts MWFL Munster Women’s Franchise League NARCDA National Association for the Repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts NIWSS Northern Irish Women’s Suffrage Society 6 NMA National Medical Association NSWS National Society for Women’s Suffrage NUWSS National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies UUC Ulster Unionist Council UWUC Ulster Women’s Unionist Council WSPU Women’s Social and Political Union WWCTU World Women’s Christian Temperance Union 7 Acknowledgements This research was funded by a Leverhulme Trust Research Project Grant (RPG- 2016-097). Thanks to this funding, I was offered the incredible opportunity to be part of the Leverhulme Trust funded project ‘Re-thinking petitions, Parliament and People in the long nineteenth century’. I am additionally grateful to have been part of the AHRC funded Network on Petitions and Petitioning (AH/R008868/1), from which I learned a great deal and I am very thankful for all the advice I received there. I would like to express my deepest appreciation to my supervisors Richard Huzzey and Henry Miller. I cannot thank them enough for the incredible support they gave me, as they always went above and beyond to advise me on my research and writing. Thanks to their help, I have learned so much and writing this thesis became a very enriching and unforgettable experience. Without their guidance and encouragement this would not have been possible. I must also show my appreciation to David Craig, Grace Stephenson and my colleagues and friends in the Durham history department, your advice and support has always been valued. I want to thank all of the very kind researchers I met throughout my PhD who readily offered guidance and still do thanks to the twitterstorians community! Special thanks also to Conor Mulvagh who encouraged me to apply for the PhD and has continued to offer me advice since my time in UCD. Finally, my sincere and deep gratitude to my parents, Carmel and Kieran, my older sister Brenda, and all of my incredible friends. Thank you for always supporting and believing in me. I could not have done this without you. 8 Introduction Scope and significance This thesis seeks to re-examine the politicisation of Irish women, which began with earnest in the later nineteenth-century. A long period of time, 1870-1918, was chosen for this study in order to trace patterns of campaigning activism and to focus on a crucial period in the formation of both female and Irish political cultures. Women found ways to enter political spaces across the long nineteenth century, however, it was from 1870 onwards that women began to join and organise their own formal political campaigns. This dissertation will also focus primarily on the campaign method of petitioning. Studies on Irish women’s political agency have tended to focus on individuals or organisations, but studying a type of campaigning, such as petitioning, allows for comparison between the different causes and a focus on the practice of how women most commonly participated in politics. These women became increasingly involved in political life and tried to influence both society and politics while navigating the expectations and frustrations of a male polity. This dissertation will show that from the 1870s onwards, varying types of women’s organisations were able to exert their influence in politics and create new spaces for women’s political participation and activism. Some organisations shared similar aims, such as the attainment of Parliamentary franchise, while other bodies sought to combine moral reform with suffrage agendas. There were also women who had no concern for the progression of women’s rights but still contributed to the overall politicisation of Irish women. All of the organisations examined in this thesis ultimately intensified and developed the role of women in politics and in public life.