Eva Gore-Booth
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Why has Eva Gore‑Booth been overlooked in Irish history?
Talking History with Patrick Gagan. This is News Talk.
We shall fight on the beaches. We shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender. And out of their silence came thousands of voices. The strategy of the white man has always been divide and conquer. It's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. August. August.
Good evening and welcome. We're Talking History on Newstalk 106 to 108 with me, Patrick Gagan. In tonight's show, we're discussing the life and legacy of a remarkable poet, activist and pacifist as we mark the centenary of the death of Eva Gore Booth. You can send us your thoughts and comments to talkinghistoryatnewstalk.com and we'd love to hear from you. This year marks the centenary of the death of Eva Gore Booth, one of the most remarkable and yet for far too long an overlooked figure in modern Irish history. Born into the privileged world of Lissadell House in County Sligo, Eva Gore Booth became a pioneering campaigner for women's rights, a trade union activist, a suffragist, a poet, a pacifist and an advocate for social justice.
And so with the centenary of her death this month, we want to explore her life, her activism, her poultry and her enduring legacy. And to help me do this, I'm delighted to welcome our panel of experts. Dr Sonia Tiernan is National Coordinator of the Irish Humanities Alliance at the Royal Irish Academy and is one of the world's leading authorities on Eva Gore Booth. She is the author of the acclaimed biography, Eva Gore Booth, Irish Radical Poet, Rebel and Reformer, and a new anniversary edition of this book has just recently been published. And Sonia also published a complete edition of the political writings of Eva Gore Booth and a complete edition of her poetry. Dr. Mary McAuliffe is an historian, lecturer and director of gender studies at University College Dublin.
One of Ireland's foremost historians of women, gender and sexuality, she has written extensively on Irish feminism and revolutionary women and is the co-editor of The Politics of Gender and Sexuality in Modern Ireland. Dr Catherine Healy is historian in residence at EPIC, the Irish Emigration Museum, and is an expert on the social history of ordinary Irish people, particularly women and migrants. And Eva has featured in two wonderful EPIC travelling exhibitions, Out in the World and Blazing a Trail. Well, you're all very welcome. And Sonia, I might begin with you and I might begin with the question about why it has taken so long for Eva to get the attention and the recognition that she deserves.
Yes, I think it's an excellent question to begin. And I think we can look at it in three different kind of context. From a political point of view, because she was so politically active, I think really she was overshadowed by her older sister Constance. And we can see that, of course, much more so when we look at the decade of centenaries, when we start thinking that it's military that's remembered. So Eva's activities were really overshadowed by that. She was the younger sister of Constance. When we think about her literature, she's a vast body of work. We're talking 19 volumes of published plays, poetry, philosophical prose. And essentially her relationship with Yeats, which was very just mesmerizing.
friendly rather than that intense a relationship. I think when we look at his poem in memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Constance Markievicz, we can see that she becomes merely a muse of Yeats rather than the focus of her as the great author. And then from a personal context of the other work that she's doing in the background, really there's a homophobic embarrassment, I would say, about her relationship with Esther Roper, which was a long-term relationship committed for 30 years, essentially. And there was really a misunderstanding of that relationship. And I think historians and scholars struggled to kind of define it. So she was kind of forgotten and overlooked because there was no way of defining it, or so they thought initially.
So we can see it under those three kind of areas, I think.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
Why has Eva Gore‑Booth been overlooked in Irish history?
0:01–6:17
2
How did Eva Gore‑Booth’s aristocratic background shape her activism for working‑class women?
6:17–13:21
3
What was the nature of Eva Gore‑Booth’s partnership with Esther Roper and how did it influence her work?
13:21–19:18
4
How did Eva Gore‑Booth reconcile her pacifism with support for the Irish rebellion?
19:18–25:20
5
What role did Eva Gore‑Booth play in the early 20th‑century suffrage and labour movements?
25:20–31:43
6
How did Eva Gore‑Booth’s poetry and mystic interests reflect her political ideals?
31:43–38:13
7
What were the circumstances of Eva Gore‑Booth’s final years and her legacy after death?
38:13–44:48
8
How is Eva Gore‑Booth being reclaimed today in literary, feminist and queer histories?
44:48–51:49