Women in Limerick, 1921
Mná100 in partnership with Limerick City and County Council Decade of Centenaries programme continues the story of ‘Women of Limerick 1921’ with this online exhibition curated by Sharon Slater. This exhibition examines the role of women, with a special focus on four Limerick women experiences during this revolutionary period. On 14 May 1921 twenty-three year old Winnie Barrington, daughter of the popular local landowner Sir Charles Barrington of Glenstal Castle, was accidently shot dead during an IRA ambush, highlighting the fate of innocent civilians in the fighting. On 21 May 1921, Alderman Maire O’Donovan became acting Mayor of Limerick in the absence of the Mayor in the United States, thus becoming the first female head of a Limerick local authority. On 24 May, her sister Kate O’Callaghan, widow of the murdered Mayor O’Callaghan, was elected the first ever female TD representing a Limerick constituency, while on the same day, Limerick born Kathleen Clarke (née Daly) was returned as a TD for Dublin.
Women in Limerick in 1921 Exhibition
For more on Limerick’s Decade of Centenaries programme please visit
