'We are making history here today': Six remarkable women and the Treaty debate

The six women elected to Dáil Éireann, dismissed by their male colleagues as the grieving wives, mothers and sisters of the heroic dead, were political forces who had each arrived at a strongly held position on the Treaty, writes Deputy Political Editor Elaine Loughlin

Countess Constance Georgine Markiewicz (1868-1927) during the 1922 Irish election campaign.  Picture: Walshe/Topical Press Agency/Getty Images

Dressed in black, one by one the six female TDs of the second Dáil stood up to denounce the Treaty.

But these women were not simply the grieving mothers, sisters and wives of the heroic dead that many of their male colleagues tried to paint them as. They were political forces in their own right, who had arrived at a strongly held position on the Treaty after careful consideration.