Exhibition celebrates the lives of revolutionary women

Commenting on the launch of the exhibition 'Votes for Women: Suffrage and Citizenship' today, Chairperson of the Vótáil 100 Committee, Labour Senator Ivana Bacik encouraged young people to visit the exhibition and to celebrate the work of women who fought for suffrage.

"As Chairperson of the Vótáil 100 Committee organising the Oireachtas celebrations around the 2018 centenary of women’s suffrage in Ireland, I have been delighted at the levels of public interest we have seen in the Vótáil 100 programme. I am particularly delighted that the Oireachtas is hosting this important exhibition of artefacts, images and ephemera celebrating the suffrage movement, the passage of the Representation of the People Act 1918 and the impact of that these changes have made on society.

" The exhibition is being held in partnership with the National Museum of Ireland, the National Library of Ireland, and the Sheehy Skeffington family. This exhibition celebrates the lives of those women most closely involved in the campaign leading up to legislative reform and the winning of suffrage for women.

"It celebrates the lives of revolutionary women, thanks to whom women in Ireland have had a century of voting rights. I hope that this exhibition will encourage more women to become politically involved, and will remind us all about the importance of the right to vote.

"I would particularly encourage schools to bring their students along to this exhibition. The generation currently attending primary and secondary schools in Ireland have already been witness to some highly significant recent exercises in popular suffrage, such as the vote for Marriage Equality in 2015 and the vote to repeal the Eighth Amendment just this year. I am sure that learning about the struggle of women to win the right to vote in Ireland 100 years ago would be of immense interest and value to them."

The 'Votes for Women: Suffrage and Citizenship' Exhibition will run from 20th July to late October. For details of tours please contact Ivana Bacik's office - 01 618 3136