Constance Pim and The United Irishwomen
While re-organising miscellaneous items in the Local Studies collections recently, staff came across an unsual object in an envelope marked ‘memorial presented to Constance Pim by the United Irishwoman’s Committee’. Within the envelope, a beautiful green hardback presentation piece in the style of Celtic Calligraphy was encased in a decorative item that may have also been specially produced. The text of the presentation piece states “Presented to Miss Constance Pim. By her friends The Executive Committee of the “United Irishwomen” in memory of 4 1/2 years devoted work as Hon. Sec. of the Society. Nov 1910. June 1915″. A listing of the members of the Executive Committee is found on the opposite page.
The newspaper cutting below was also included which offered a further clue to the background of the item.
Further research has revealed that this photograph appeared in the Irish Independent newspaper of Saturday 2nd April 1921. It had been taken two days previously, at the annual meeting of the United Irishwomen held at the R.D.S. Theatre that day. Both The Freeman’s Journal and Irish Independent carried reports on the proceedings, with the President of the Society Lady Fingall reporting that the ongoing War of Independence had impacted their activities and membership levels.
The Society of the United Irishwomen was founded in 1910, with the aim of improving “the standard of life in rural Ireland through Education and Co-operative effort”. The Society is today known as the Irish Countrywomen’s Assocation (ICA). They changed name in 1935. The United Irishwomen were the female branch of the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society, established by Horace Plunkett. They focused on on improving the lives of the rural poor through practical means (e.g. cheap milk supply) and arguing that women’s then domesticity provided them with the knowledge and experience to engage in the public sphere. As can be seen from the list of names in the photograph above, the majority of its members were middle and upper class women.
Aileen Heverin’s history of the I.C.A. states that Constance Pim was a member of the well-known Quaker family and niece of Lister the surgeon and pioneer of antiseptics. The first secretary of the Irishwomen, she lived in Dublin until 1918 before she moved to the United Kingdom where she worked among Quakers in Welsh coalfields and elsewhere. She died in New York in 1946.
There is no record on file of how this item ended up in the Kildare Library Service Local Studies collections unfortunately.
Sources:
Heverin, Aileen. The Irish Countrywomen’s Association A History 1910-2000. (Wolfhound Press, 2000).
The Irish Newspaper Archives (available in all branch libraries in Kildare).
