Women Writing History Evelyn Conlon and Sinéad Gleeson in conversation with Clodagh Finn
From Irishwomen United through to the Repeal the 8th campaign, join us for an engaging morning of conversation tracing the seismic impact of women activists in Ireland through the decades. Evelyn Conlon is co-editor, along with Rebecca Pelan, of After the Train (UCD Press). This striking collection of essays captures the courageous efforts of Irishwomen United activists in the years following the Contraceptive Train. Author Sinéad Gleeson’s feminist writing and the books she has edited often illuminate women who have had a powerful impact on our time. Join them in conversation with journalist and author Clodagh Finn, whose books include Through Her Eyes: A new history of Ireland in 21 women.
Evelyn Conlon, novelist and short story writer has co-edited 5 anthologies, including Cutting the Night in Two, the first compilation of short stories by Irish women writers and Later On, a memorial to the Monaghan bombing. A collection of essays examining her work, edited by Teresa Caneda-Cabrera, is titled Telling Truths. She has written about secret lives, borders, capital punishment, famine, the double standard, borders, sex and lies. She has been writer in residence at numerous libraries and universities in Ireland and internationally. Her work is widely anthologized and translated, most recently into Mandarin, Greek and Tamil. An adjunct professor with the Carlow University, Pittsburgh, MFA programme, she lives in Dublin and is a member of Aosdána.
© Bríd O’Donovan
Sinéad Gleeson’s essay collection Constellations: Reflections from Life won Non-Fiction Book of the Year at the Irish Book Awards and the Dalkey Literary Award for Emerging Writer. It shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Michel Déon Prize, and has been translated into several languages. She is the editor of four anthologies including The Art of the Glimpse and the award-winning The Long Gaze Back: An Anthology of Irish Women Writers, and The Glass Shore. Sinéad has engaged in collaborations with artists and musicians, with commissions from The Wellcome Collection, the RHA, BBC, Rua Red Gallery and Frieze. She is co-editor with Kim Gordon of This Woman’s Work: Essays on Music. Her debut novel, Hagstone, was published in 2024 by 4th Estate. It was longlisted for Dublin International Literary Award and shortlisted for the John McGahern Book Prize.
© Ruth Medjber
Clodagh Finn is a journalist and the best-selling author of ‘The Irish in the Resistance’, and ‘A Time to Risk All’ (Gill Books), a biography of Mary Elmes, the ‘Irish Oskar Schindler’. She is particularly interested in highlighting the overlooked contributions of women and wrote ‘Through Her Eyes’, a new history of Ireland in 21 women (2019, and ‘Her Keys to the City’ (2022), in collaboration with the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Alison Gilliland. She writes An Irishwoman’s Diary in the Irish Examiner and has worked as a sub-editor and feature writer for several newspapers, as well as a freelance writer and editor in Paris. She has a degree in French and Archaeology from UCD.
This event takes place in The Great Hall in the North Range of IMMA Venues.
