Veteran feminist hopes younger women will keep up the struggle

THERE was a great sense of pride in the achievements of the historian and Dominican sister Margaret MacCurtain at the launch of her collected essays in Dublin a few weeks ago on International Women’s Day.

MacCurtain’s life and work (she is now 79) very much reflect the second wave of the feminist movement in Ireland that emerged in the late 1960s, a reminder that this year marks the 40th anniversary of the ad hoc committee that was formed by Irish women to press for women’s rights.

In response to their demands, in November 1969, Taoiseach Jack Lynch announced the establishment of a commission on the status of women at the annual dinner of the Soroptimists’s Club in Cork.