Stopford Green, Alice (1847–1929)

Irish historian and nationalist. Name variations: Mrs. Stopford Green. Born Alice Sophia Amelia Stopford, May 30, 1847, in Kells, Co. Meath, Ireland; died May 28, 1929, in Dublin; dau. of Edward Stopford (rector of Kells and archdeacon of Meath) and Ann (Duke) Stopford; m. John Richard Green (historian), 1877 (died 1883).

Served as husband's research assistant and collaborator; following his death, produced a revised edition of his Short History of the English People, followed by a life of Henry II (1888) and the 2-volume study Town Life in the Fifteenth Century (1894) and Women's Place in the World of Letters (1913); traveled to St. Helena to visit camps for Boer prisoners of war (1900) and helped found the African Society (1901); became a supporter of Irish nationalist cause; produced a new account of Irish history, The Making of Ireland and Its Undoing (1908), which celebrated the Gaelic inheritance and justified nationalist aspirations, followed by Irish Nationality (1911); joined Roger Casement in an unsuccessful effort to rally Protestant support for home rule, but disapproved of the republican uprising (1916); supported the Anglo-Irish Treaty which ended the War of Independence and was a member of the pro-Treaty women's organization Cumann na Saoirse (League of Freedom) and a founding member of the political party, Cumann na nGael; nominated to the 1st Irish Senate as one of four women members, served on a committee for the publication of Irish-language manuscripts and supported the retention of the right to divorce.

See also R. B. McDowell, Alice Stopford Green: A Passionate Historian (Figgis, 1967).