Women faced ‘severe Catholicism’ in 1916 Rising aftermath

Former President Mary Robinson has spoken of how “severe Catholicism” in the aftermath of the 1916 Rising effectively barred women from full citizenship.

She made her comments as part of a documentary, No Country For Women, which explores Irish women’s lives since achieving the vote 100 years ago by travelling through time to seek historical answers as to why lawmakers drafted a raft of discriminatory legislation against women after the country’s hard-fought independence.

While the Irish revolution promised equality, with many women playing key roles in the war, the documentary details how legislators in the young Catholic country contained women either in the home, in religious orders, or to life sentences of being locked up in institutions in the most tragic cases.