29 July-19 October 2018: ‘Votes for Women: Suffrage and Citizenship’, Leinster House, Kildare St, Dublin 2

On Wednesday 20 July the National Museum of Ireland, in collaboration with the Vótáil 100 initiative of the Oireachtas, launched a new exhibition entitled ‘Votes for Women: Suffrage and Citizenship’, marking the centenary of the parliamentary vote for women in specified categories in Ireland and Britain. 2018 marks the 100th anniversary of the passing of the Representation of the People Act, which granted a limited form of suffrage across the United Kingdom as it then stood.. For the first time, women over the age of 30 in Britain and Ireland who owned property, were the wives of property owners, or were university graduates, could vote in parliamentary elections. 2018 also marks 110 years since the founding of the Irish Women’s Franchise League, the first suffrage organisation in Ireland to use militant tactics in the struggle for the vote. Following the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922, and as a result of determined lobbying on the part of women’s groups, universal adult suffrage was granted, meaning that all men and women over the age of 21 could vote. The same rights were granted to women in Britain and Northern Ireland in 1928.

‘Votes for Women: Suffrage and Citizenship’ will run in Leinster House until 19 October 2018, after which it is planned to relocate it to the premises of the National Museum of Ireland. Tours of the exhibition will take place as part of the public tours of Leinster House at 10.30am, 11.30am, 2.30pm, and 3.30pm; learn more about the exhibition and booking details, watch a short overview of the exhibition from Oireachtas TV, and download the exhibition booklet here.

From Century Ireland: The Suffrage Movement.