Rebels and Revolutionaries | Women’s History Tour

About The Tour

The Rebels and Revolutionaries Women’s History Tour focuses on trailblazing women. The ones who broke out of societal shackles to make an impact around the world. Today, we are thankfully very familiar with some of these women. The likes of Mary Robinson, Ireland’s first female president, and Countess Markievicz, an instrumental figure in the 1916 Easter Rising, are well known. But many others have been largely lost to history, despite their impressive achievements.

This tour draws attention to those left out of the history books, exploring how women’s stories have been hidden for many years and how, in modern times, historians have been revisiting, rediscovering and revealing these crucial pieces of the puzzle. It is the goal of women’s historians to bring untold stories to light and challenge the historical representation of women, and it is our goal at EPIC to pass these stories along to our visitors.

Some of the women and stories explored on the Women’s History tour include:

• Mother Jones, the Cork-born emigrant who became a formidable campaigner for workers’ rights in the United States and was dubbed the “Most Dangerous Woman in America”.
• Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell, the Northern Irish scientist who discovered the first radio pulsars, but was excluded when the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded for the discovery.
• Margaret Cousins, the Irish suffragist who campaigned for women’s rights in Ireland, Britain and India, facing imprisonment for her activism and helping to establish the All India Women’s Conference.
• Annie Moore, the Cork emigrant who became the first person officially processed at the newly opened Ellis Island in New York in 1892.
• Geraldine Heaney, the Irish-Canadian sporting pioneer who helped grow women’s ice hockey and became one of the first women inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.
• Eileen Gray, the influential Irish designer and architect whose pioneering work helped shape modern architecture and design.
• The changing position of women in Irish society, including the fight for voting rights, equal pay, employment equality and greater representation in public life.

Stories of Interest