Writing women back into Irish history
Alice Milligan While on hunger strike in 1981 Bobby Sands asked if we could get him some of the poems of Alice Milligan. Bobby was in the prison hospital. It was very difficult to fulfil Bobby’s request but due to the diligence of our friend Tom Hartley, that great magpie of our struggle, a small hardback book of her poems was liberated and sent into the H Blocks. Bobby was delighted. I’m sure Alice Milligan would have been delighted also. Many moons later Dr. Catherine Morris, who is now the Cultural Co-ordinator for National Library Ireland and Trinity College Dublin, wrote an article on Alice Milligan. She was researching a book. This blog wrote to her and told her this story. On Wednesday I was invited by Catherine to go to the National Library for a preview of an exhibition on Alice Milligan. It’s entitled ‘Alice Milligan and the Irish Cultural Revival’. Her exhibition is an impressive, informative and hugely fascinating account of a remarkable woman whose significant contri...