The Changemakers: The pioneer Cork nun who wrote women back into history

In the second part of a six-part series, Clodagh Finn recalls Margaret MacCurtain, feminist, groundbreaking historian, Dominican sister – and troublemaker

Margaret MacCurtain is the second changemaker examined in our new series

It isn’t very often that a single person can be described with such an unlikely collection of adjectives: social reformer, student of Lord of the Rings author JRR Tolkien, troublemaker and Dominican sister.

All of those apply to Cork-born Margaret MacCurtain, yet they don’t even scratch the surface of her enduring legacy as a pioneer who wrote Irish women back into history.