International Women's Day 2023: Influential Irish Women in Education & Literature

Happy International Women’s Day! This IWD, we would like to showcase some of the influential Irish women notable for their achievements in education and literature throughout history.

Eva O’Flaherty

O’Flaherty was born in 1874 and was an Irish political activist, model, and milliner. She is known for her political activism as well as for founding Scoil Acla, Ireland’s oldest summer school. In her work as a businesswoman, she founded a textile business and opened St. Colman’s Knitting Industries on Achill Island.

Maria Edgeworth

Living in the late 1700s and early 1800s, Edgeworth is best known for being one of the greatest Irish writers in history. She was one of the first writers to portray Irish working-class people as multidimensional people with real stories that should be told and listened to. Edgeworth is also known for her volunteer work during the Famine.

Margaret O’Carroll

O’Carroll, otherwise known as Margaret the Hospitable, was a medieval queen in Ireland in the fifteenth century. She is best known for her work as a patron of the arts and literature during the medieval period. O’Carroll organized literature festivals that thousands attended and was an advocate for mass book production.

Teresa Deevy

Deevy was a dramatist, political activist, and women’s rights activist who lived around the turn of the twentieth century. Despite becoming deaf at 19 years old, Deevy created productions for the Abbey Theatre and wrote for Irish and English radio broadcasting networks such as RTE and the BBC.

Mary Lavin

Lavin was born in the United States to Irish parents and moved back to Ireland when she was still a child. She is known as one of the best and most pioneering Irish female writers in history, winning multiple literary awards for her books and other works. Lavin was one of the first Irish women to be honored with a public square named after her.

Sally Rooney

Rooney is an Irish writer who has published three novels so far during her career: Conversations With Friends, Normal People, and Beautiful World, Where Are You. She is considered one of the most influential millennial writers and has won numerous awards for her novels. Her second book was adapted into a television series by Hulu, RTE, and the BBC.