Irish Countrywomen's Association

Irish Countrywomen's Association, set up as the United Irishwomen by Anita Lett in Bree, Co. Wexford, in 1911. Early patrons included Horace Plunkett and Ellice Pilkington. The association saw as its mission the reform of Irish society through the improved home lives of its rural people. It became the Irish Countrywomen's Association in 1935, affiliated to the International Countrywomen. Its interests ranged from the promotion of health and hygiene to the preservation of local traditions, and from poultry‐keeping to public speaking. It called, as early as 1940, for rural houses to be connected to electrical and water supplies as a convenience for women, and was a prime mover in the subsequent drive for both. A ‘countrywoman’ was defined as a woman of any age or class who lived in the country or in a town of less than 3,000 people. The ICA, in its evidence to the Commission on Vocational Organization in 1940, argued that countrywomen needed to be represented on the proposed vocational committee as both producers and consumers. Total membership in 1940 was 2,442 but it soared in the 1950s and 1960s and has remained buoyant since.

Caitriona Clear