The Women’s History Association of Ireland in association with the Dept. of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, UCD Women’s Studies & Mater Dei Institute of Education (DCU) present the Cumann na mBan 100 Conference: 1914-2014 – Call for Papers April 4th-5th, 2014, Dublin, (venue TBC)
Confirmed Keynote Speakers: Dr. Margaret Ward, Dr Joost Augusteijn Dr. John Borgovono, Dr. Marie Coleman
On 2nd April 1914, the first meeting of Cumann na mBan was held at Wynn’s Hotel in Dublin. The WHAI invites proposals for our 2014 annual conference which will commemorate the 100th anniversary of the formation of one of the most significant women’s organisations in modern Irish history, and especial-ly, the most important such body in the revolutionary decade of 1912-1922. Between 1914 and 1922 thousands of Cumann na mBan women participated in the nationalist struggle and it is these women and this organization that we seek to explore on the 100th anniversary of its foundation. With much of the work and activities of the Cumann na mBan women having been forgotten or overlooked, 2014 provides an oppor-tune moment to shine a fresh light on the contribution of nationalist women to the Independence struggle. The conference themes might include, but are not limited to the following:

• The formation, organisation and development of Cumann na mBan Cumann na mBan campaigns
• Gender and nationalism in Ireland, 1912-1923
• Political participation of women 1912-1923 – nationalist, unionist, feminist, trade unionist etc.
• Cumann na mBan and the Irish Volunteers, Irish Citizen Army, the War of Independence, Civil War leadership, development, activism military activism, republican courts etc.
• Feminism, nationalism, republicanism the Treaty/the split Local, national, international the decades after the treaty folklore, stories, memoirs, literary history issues of gender, war, and violence
• The public face of Cumann na mBan – demonstrations, marches and symbolism
• Sources/archives – researching female involvement in the revolutionary decade
• Commemoration/memory/history – a gendered issue?

Papers on all aspects of female involvement in the revolutionary decade and on individual women involved in revolutionary activism are also welcomed. Proposals for papers of twenty minutes in length and / or panel proposals comprising panels of three, should be 500 words long and be sent by 16th Dec, 2013 to the organizing committee at womenshistoryassociation@gmail.com