Print, Protest & the Polls: The Path to the First Female Vote

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Print, Protest & the Polls: The Path to the First Female Vote

[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height="10px"][vc_column_text el_class="whiteText"] [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width="1/3" css=".vc_custom_1628495164376{margin-top: 2% !important;margin-bottom: 2% !important;}"][vc_single_image image="10232" img_size="large" alignment="center" qode_css_animation=""][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row css_animation="" row_type="row" use_row_as_full_screen_section="no" type="grid" in_content_menu="in_content_menu" content_menu_icon="" angled_section="no" text_align="left" background_image_as_pattern="without_pattern" z_index="" el_class="vc_rowSummer2021" anchor="census" content_menu_title="Anti-sentiment"][vc_column width="1/2" el_class="topAligned"][vc_column_text]The Home Rule Bill for Ireland was passed in 1914, but the outbreak of the First World War in the same year postponed its enactment. The War divided the Irish suffragists, with some stepping back from suffrage activities to help in the war effort, and others distancing themselves from the events to continue to focus on suffrage. The struggle for Irish independence came to the fore for many politically involved women, with the formation of nationalist organisations such as the all-female auxiliary force of Cumann na mBan, and the Irish Citizen Army, which recruited men and women equally. An estimated three hundred women played a role in the 1916 Rising in Ireland. The 1916 Proclamation of the Irish Republic directly addressed the issue of female suffrage, stating that Ireland’s future National Government would be “elected by the suffrages of all her men and women”.

Print, Protest & the Polls: Suffrage Action Recorded in Print

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Print, Protest & the Polls: Suffrage Action Recorded in Print

[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height="10px"][vc_column_text el_class="whiteText"] [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width="1/3" css=".vc_custom_1628495164376{margin-top: 2% !important;margin-bottom: 2% !important;}"][vc_single_image image="10232" img_size="large" alignment="center" qode_css_animation=""][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row css_animation="" row_type="row" use_row_as_full_screen_section="no" type="grid" in_content_menu="in_content_menu" content_menu_icon="" angled_section="no" text_align="left" background_image_as_pattern="without_pattern" z_index="" el_class="vc_rowSummer2021" anchor="census" content_menu_title="Anti-sentiment"][vc_column width="1/2" el_class="topAligned"][vc_single_image image="10678" img_size="large" add_caption="yes" onclick="link_image" qode_css_animation=""][vc_column_text]This press cutting was retained by suffragette Louisa (Isa) Lawler. Isa was the founding secretary/manager of Dublin's Gate Theatre, and was married to Hector Hughes, a co-founder of the Irish Socialist Party. Isa was the founding secretary/manager of Dublin's Gate Theatre, and was married to Hector Hughes, a co-founder of the Irish Socialist Party. Isa Lawler can  be  viewed  in  the  newspaper  clipping  on  the  second  from  the  left,  where  she  is  seen  campaigning  with  the  Irish  Women’s  Franchise  League  (IWFL)  on  the  streets  of  Dublin.  The  photograph  shows  how  the  suffragettes  worked  hard  to  display  an  alternative  image  of  their  campaign  to  the  public  in  contrast  to  the  negative  representations  showing  them  to  be  violent,  angry,  and  masculine.  The  newspaper  cutting  records  how  the  campaigners  sold  “fruit,  flowers  and  Suffragette  literature”,  and  played  “street  organs  in  aid  of  the  cause”.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width="1/2"][vc_single_image image="10977" img_size="full" add_caption="yes" onclick="link_image" qode_css_animation=""][vc_column_text]The picture frame shows a portrait of suffragette Isa Lawler alongside a copy of a poem written by her husband Hector.  The opening letter of each line of the poem spells out Isa’s full name – Louisa – and the content speaks about her work as a suffragette.  It is likely that the poem was originally printed in a copy of the Irish Citizen.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row css_animation="" row_type="row" use_row_as_full_screen_section="no" type="grid" in_content_menu="in_content_menu" content_menu_icon="" angled_section="no" text_align="left" background_image_as_pattern="without_pattern" z_index="" el_class="vc_rowSummer2021" anchor="census" content_menu_title="Anti-sentiment"][vc_column width="3/5" el_class="topAligned"][vc_single_image image="10679" img_size="large" add_caption="yes" onclick="link_image" qode_css_animation=""][vc_column_text]This  letter,  owned  by suffragette Isa Lawler, gives  instructions  to  suffragette  volunteers  on  what  to  do  after  their  arrest  following  militant  activity  in  Westminster. It is signed by the WSPU  leader,  Emmeline  Pankhurst.  Isa  was  a  militant  suffragette  with  the  IWFL,  and  was  imprisoned  for  breaking  three  panes  of  glass  in  a  window  of  the  GPO  in  Dublin  in  1912.  In  the  early  stages  of  this  period  of  the  suffrage  campaign,  the  IWFL  suffragettes  were  in  close  contact  with  the  WSPU,  with  some  IWFL  suffragettes  participating  in  militant  activities  in  England  with  the  group.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width="2/5" el_class="topAligned"][vc_single_image image="10683" img_size="large" add_caption="yes" onclick="link_image" qode_css_animation=""][vc_column_text]Irish Womens Franchise League fundraising Suffrage Dance ticket. This advertised an event which would never have taken place due to its scheduling coinciding with the week of the Easter Rising in 1916.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row css_animation="" row_type="row" use_row_as_full_screen_section="no" type="grid" in_content_menu="in_content_menu" content_menu_icon="" angled_section="no" text_align="left" background_image_as_pattern="without_pattern" z_index="" el_class="vc_rowSummer2021" anchor="census" content_menu_title="Anti-sentiment"][vc_column width="3/5" el_class="topAligned"][vc_single_image image="11054" img_size="large" add_caption="yes" onclick="link_image" qode_css_animation=""][vc_column_text]In November 1912, Meg Connery and fellow suffragette Hanna Sheehy Skeffington were stationed at Lord Iveagh’s house in Stephen’s Green in an attempt to meet the politician Bonar Law, then leader of the British Conservative party. Law had refused to meet a group of suffrage delegates, and suffragists leafletted at all possible venues where he may have been in an attempt to doorstep him.

Print, Protest & the Polls: Protest in Print

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Print, Protest & the Polls: Protest in Print

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Suffrage and the 1911 Census

These census forms mark an act of passive political resistance by Irish suffragettes. The 1911 census of Britain and Ireland offered a unique and large-scale opportunity for women in the suffrage campaign to mark their objections to their lack of a political voice. A considerable number of women from the campaign boycotted this event, arguing that they would not participate in a census when they were not represented with a vote.

Print, Protest & the Polls: Suffrage Opposition and Promotion in Print

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Print, Protest & the Polls: Suffrage Opposition and Promotion in Print

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Anti-Suffrage Sentiment in Print

On a wider international scale, women involved in the suffrage movement were publicly represented in largely negative or mocking views. Visual humour played a prominent role in both the suffrage and anti-suffrage imagery. Cartoons could serve to present women’s suffrage in both a sympathetic or critical and lampooning manner, depending on the publication or artist which had produced them. The most commonly produced images showed suffrage campaigners in uncomplimentary depictions. Imagery mainly focused on the “suffragette” – the female campaigners involved in militant political activity, such as window breaking and postbox attacks. These visual representations show the suffragette as a wild, masculine, and dangerous entity – demonstrating the contemporary public fear and anxiety of female political independence.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width="1/2" el_id="antiSuffrageSlider"][vc_gallery interval="5" images="10959,10958,10957,10293" img_size="large" show_image_description="yes"][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row css_animation="" row_type="row" use_row_as_full_screen_section="no" type="grid" in_content_menu="in_content_menu" content_menu_icon="" angled_section="no" text_align="left" background_image_as_pattern="without_pattern" z_index="" el_class="vc_rowSummer2021" css=".vc_custom_1628928273715{padding-bottom: 30px !important;}" anchor="change" content_menu_title="Changing perceptions"][vc_column width="1/4" el_class="topAligned background_fff"][vc_empty_space height="20px"][vc_column_text el_class="titleColourNPM"]

Changing Public Perceptions with Print

Irish suffragists used all facets of print media to help promote their demand for equal franchise, as well as to help foster a positive public image of the female campaigners. At a time when women had no voice in politics, print allowed women to have a voice in the public sphere with which to campaign for change. Irish suffragists produced posters, handbills, booklets, imagery, and written articles which publicised their requests for equal voting rights to men.