Maud Gonne Society & Statue Project Moves into a New Phase

Thank you for your patience while we established our governance.

We have now established our Irish euro bank account and have begun to convene the Society’s founding trustees.

The group brings together distinguished expertise in Irish women’s history, revolutionary politics, public commemoration and Maud Gonne’s life and legacy, as well as direct representation from her family.

The trustees will help establish the Society’s governance, agree its priorities and guide our various campaigns.

The Society is also pleased to report developments on the campaign to erect a statue or monument to Maud Gonne in Dublin.

The Republican Women Monument

We have made contact with Dublin City Council concerning its proposed monument honouring the women of Ireland’s revolutionary period.

We welcome this important initiative. The absence of named women from Dublin’s most prominent commemorative spaces has long distorted the public telling of Irish history. A major monument recognising women as an active collective force in the revolutionary period would begin to address that imbalance.

A collective monument can recognise the immense contribution made by many women across the suffrage movement, the labour struggle, the revolutionary organisations and the campaign for Irish independence.

The Maud Gonne Monument

A dedicated statue does something different: it allows one woman to be publicly named, seen and encountered in the fullness of her individual life. Maud Gonne was not only a republican activist. She was a political organiser, public speaker, journalist, actor, campaigner for prisoners and impoverished children, cultural nationalist, internationalist and founder of Inghinidhe na hÉireann.

Her influence extended across political, cultural and humanitarian life for more than half a century. She deserves a visible place in Dublin’s public landscape in her own right.

While we do not see the two projects as rivals, we are currently in touch with the organising committee, aiming to understand the scope, artistic brief and timetable, to explore where the Maud Gonne Society might contribute historical knowledge and perspective.

We have requested a meeting with the Council representative best placed to discuss the project.

What happens next

Over the coming months, the Society will:

• hold its first full meeting of trustees;
  

• make further submissions to Dublin City Council

• Gain more understanding of the implications of the group statue for our own campaign.
  

Public statues take time. They require historical research, artistic vision, civic support, permissions, funding and persistence. Much of the earliest work is necessarily quiet and largely invisible. 

We are delighted, however, that the foundations for the work that will eventually see actual foundations laid are now in place.

We look forward to sharing further developments as the project progresses.

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