Academic Feminist and Founding Member of Cumann na mBan
Agnes O’Farrelly (1874-1951) pictured was a pioneering academic, feminist, professor of Irish at University College Dublin (UCD), Irish language novelist and a founding member of Cumann na mBan, the Irish nationalist women’s organisation. She presided at the inaugural meeting of Cumann na mBan in 1914.
O’Farrelly was an active campaigner in promoting equal opportunities for women in university education and was appointed a lecturer in Modern Irish at UCD in 1909. She was one of several university-educated female graduates to play key roles in various cultural nationalist organisations, most notably Conradh na Gaeilge (Gaelic League). In doing so, she became acquainted with Eoin MacNeill and Douglas Hyde.