Over 70 women elected to the Oireachtas today packed the Dáil chamber to mark the 90th anniversary of the first female TD and MP.
Today's event, involving former and current TDs and Senators, also commemorated the 1918 poll in which women had the right to vote for the first time.
In December 1918 , Countess Constance Markiewicz became the first woman elected to the British House of Commons as an MP, but she turned down her seat. Instead she became the first woman TD to take part in the newly established Dáil Eireann.
Independent Senator Ivana Bacik said the special ceremony was held to celebrate the remarkable achievements of Ireland's female politicians through the generations.
"I hope this event will serve both as a celebration of the many remarkable women who have been TDs and Senators over the past 90 years; and as a reminder of the low levels of women's participation in Irish political life," she said.
"This will be the first time in the history of the Irish State - in the nine decades since that historic 1918 election - that the Chamber will be nearly half filled with women representatives."
Ms Bacik said she hoped the event would encourage women to participate more actively in public life.
Currently, just 22 of the 166 Dáil members are women, while 13 out of 60 in the Seanad are female. Over the last 90 years, women have filled just 370 of the total of 6,072 Dáil and Seanad seats.
Excerpts from two speeches by Countess Markiewicz were read aloud in the chamber today by former senator and Supreme Court judge Catherine McGuinness.
One was from a speech to the Students' National Literacy Society in Dublin in 1909 and the other from an address she gave to the Irish Women's Franchise League in Dublin in 1915.
PA