PRESIDENT MICHAEL D. Higgins attended the State ceremony marking the centenary of the foundation of Cumann na mBan in Glasnevin Cemetary in Dublin.
A wreath was laid at the grave of Elizabeth O’Farrell and a guard of honour made up exclusively of female personnel of the Defence Forces took part in the ceremony.
Speaking at the event, where members of the Defence Forces were gathered, Higgins said it was a time to reflect on the part played by women in the great collective struggle for national independence.
He said that despite these women being deeply committed to the cause, “their stories have often been silenced in our national narrative, relegated to the shadows by a version of history which attributed solely to men’s characteristics of heroism derived from military action”.
President Higgins added:
Often engaged in several organisations, committed to several causes at once, its members played a vital role in bringing together the various revolutionary strands of their time, in articulating various possible modes of relations between the nationalist, the feminist and the socialist endeavours…. the vision that animated the women of Cumann na mBan a century ago, at one of the most soul-stirring junctures in the history of Ireland, does not just evoke past struggles; it holds a promise which remains available to us as a tool for our present and for the future.
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