Archives: Articles

The Irish Housewives Association (IHA) was formed in 1942, with the objective of gaining recognition for the right
of housewives to play an active part in all spheres of planning for the community.

Among the organisation’s first concerns was the fair distribution of goods at a fair price to both producer and consumer and the provision of nutritious food for children. The IHA was instrumental in setting up the Irish Consumers’ Association in 1966. The organisation lobbied and campaigned on issues such as social welfare provision, public health, education and the law, particularly family law.

Following the incorporation of the Irish Women Citizens’ Organisation into the IHA in 1947, the IHA became affiliated to the International Alliance of Women in 1948, which involved them in issues such as reproductive rights. A magazine, The Irish Housewife, later The Housewife’s Voice, was published from 1946 to 1980. The IHA was involved with many other women’s organisations and relevant bodies, including the United Nations, the Council for the Status of Women (Dr. Tweedy was its first chairperson), and the Women’s Representative Council.
Evidence of these activities is amply reflected in the records.

The organisation had a powerful impact on the visibility of, and achievement increased rights and status by, women in twentieth century Ireland. Dr. Hilda Tweedy had been custodian of these valuable records for many years. She was viewed as a proper guardian for them due to her status as a founder member, and a lifetime member, of the IHA. Some records of the Association came to her as a result of an appeal made to the members in December
1988, and another was launched in the press in early 1992 when Dr Tweedy was preparing to write the
history of the Association, A Link in the Chain (Dublin, 1992).

For more information on this collection see the finding aid to the Hilda Tweedy Papers.

The first committee meeting of the Joint Committee of Women’s Societies and Social Workers was held in March 1935, at Ely Place in central Dublin.

Notable attendees at the initial meeting were Mrs Kettle, Mrs Hanna Sheehy Skeffington, Louie Bennett, Jennie Wise Power and Madeleine ffrench-Mullen. The Joint Committee was made up of representatives from a number of women’s organisation, which met initially to discuss a response to the rejection of proposed amendments to the Criminal Law Amendment Act.

The Joint Committee was disbanded in 1993, after fifty-eight years in existence. Throughout this time, the number of organisations on the committee fluctuated, but initially comprised nine societies and later rose to fourteen. It dealt with many issues relating to women and children, through a time of immense change in Irish society and, from its records, could clearly be seen to have influenced the changes that occurred in Irish society at this time.

This collection is organised into seven distinct series, comprising mainly files, but also bound volumes and some financial information. Within each series, the material is organised mainly in date order, where possible. The minutes of the committee, which are recorded in bound volume, are by far the most valuable source, dating as they do from the formation of the organisation in 1935. There are good runs of reports for the 1980s and 1990s and information relating to specific areas in which the committee was involved in and the organisation’s fiftieth
year celebrations.

For more information on this collection see the finding aid of the Joint Committee of Women’s Societies and Social Workers.

The minute book records every committee meeting of the association, 213 in all and not one of which Anna Haslam missed, from the first in 1876 to end of 1913, when she resigned as secretary. She then appended a list of the different ‘chairmen’ [sic], the number of meetings chaired by each, and a list of petitions gathered and presented over the years.

Meeting by meeting the minutes record the names of those who attended and the changing structure as women increasingly outnumbered men and took over the chairing of most meetings. They follow the development of the association’s work, its times of pessimism and of optimism. They record its changes of name, first to the Dublin Women’s Suffrage and Poor Law Guardian Association, when women won eligibility as poor law guardians, then formally to the Dublin Women’s Suffrage and Local Government Association when they gained all local government franchises and eligibility for election as district councillors, and later to the Irish Women’s Suffrage and Local Government Association as the suffrage movement expanded in the early 20th century.

They record the arrival on the committee of nationalists like Hanna Sheehy Skeffington and Mary Hayden. The central role of Anna Haslam as secretary is clear throughout her initiative and the burden of work she carried, while it is equally clear that the association was never a one-woman show, as differences of opinion, argument and even resignations over various issues are minuted.

Above all, the minutes are a record of continuous activism and organisation: drawing room and public meetings; petitions to parliament; lobbying of MPs to support the next women’s suffrage bill or amendment to a bill. They also record the energy and effort the association put into encouraging and actively helping women to use the franchises they had won and avail of their eligibility for election as poor law guardians and district councillors.

At the same time it countered any attempts to disqualify women and pressed for the appointment of women to positions such as rate collectors and sanitary inspectors, while always pursuing the association’s main objective of the parliamentary vote. The minute book is a primary source that will continue to be mined for information as historians continue to pose new questions to the historical record.

For more information see Anna Haslam’s contribution to the cause of women’s rights in Ireland, Mary Cullen

Please click on the links below to consult the minute book which begins in 1876 and ends in 1914.

 

Minute Book, 21 February 1876-14 January 1884

Minute Book, 14 January 1884-28 March 1893

Minute Book, 24 October 1893-4 October 1898

Minute Book, 4 October 1898-15 March 1901

Minute Book, 15 March 1901-12 January 1905

Minute Book,12 January 1905-19 March 1908

Minute Book, 19 March 1908-8 September 1910

Minute Book, 8 September 1910-12 December 1912

Minute Book, 12 December 1912-8 January 1914