Sir, – Frank McNally’s Irishman’s Diary (July 13th) correctly highlights the defining role of Evelyn Gleeson in the Dun Emer enterprise, although she founded the Guild rather than the Press.
Long neglected, Gleeson’s life experiences and clear political purpose shaped the co-operative project from its outset.
As a young woman in Athlone in 1881, Gleeson became vice-president of that town’s branch of the Ladies’ Land League.
After moving to England, she joined the feminist Pioneer Club of London, establishing in 1897 a “women’s information bureau” to help other women find paid employment. Gleeson was deeply engaged by Irish cultural nationalism and the international arts and crafts movement.
She became the first secretary of the Irish Literary Society when it was established in London in 1892 and was also an active member of the Gaelic League.
While their interests and networks intersected, Gleeson and the Yeats sisters had different temperaments and divergent politics.
The botanist Augustine Henry’s correspondence with Gleeson documents her anguish and his concern as the co-operative partnership deteriorated; he believed it was Gleeson who had been wronged and refused to side with the Yeats siblings when they petitioned him to do so.
Nevertheless, while revealing, this fractious falling out should not define the extraordinary achievements of all three women who worked separately for decades after the acrimonious split in 1908.
As Frank McNally suggests, a celebration of Elizabeth and Lily Yeats is welcome, but recognition of Evelyn Gleeson’s life and contribution is long overdue too. – Yours, etc,
CAOILFHIONN Ní BHEACHÁIN,
Limerick.