Nationalist Women Historians, 1868–1922

Margaret Cusack and Alice Stopford Green were prominent Irish nationalist historians with international reputations in the period between 1868 and 1922. Though they came from Protestant unionist backgrounds like Ferguson, Hickson, Lawless, and Hull, they ultimately became committed political nationalists. Both were very public, influential historians who attained prominence for their involvement in social and political causes, as well as for their histories. This chapter discusses Cusack’s and Green’s careers as historians and considers their political commitments, contending that they were instrumental in constructing the persona of an Irish nationalist woman historian as a combative, politically engaged public historian. Their careers shed light on the opportunities for women associated with intellectual establishments outside the universities in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Cusack, as a member of a religious order, was affiliated with a powerful church that dominated education in Ireland, giving her a sphere of influence. Green was linked with intellectual circles associated with the rising Irish nationalist establishment, which contributed to her success and fame as a historian.