Helena Concannon | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Senator | |
| In office 27 April 1938 – 27 February 1952 | |
| Constituency | National University |
| Teachta Dála | |
| In office January 1933 – June 1937 | |
| Constituency | National University |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Helena Walsh 28 October 1878 Maghera, County Londonderry, Ireland |
| Died | 27 February 1952 (aged 73) Dublin, Ireland |
| Political party | Fianna Fáil |
| Spouse | |
| Relatives | Louis Joseph Walsh (brother) |
| Alma mater | |
| Profession |
|
Helena Concannon (née Walsh; 28 October 1878 – 27 February 1952) was an Irish historian, writer, language scholar and Fianna Fáil politician.[1]
Born in Maghera,[2] County Londonderry, she attended secondary school in Dublin in Loreto North Great Georges Street and Loreto Stephen's Green. She attended university at the Royal University of Ireland in Belfast and then the National University of Ireland. She also studied abroad at the Sorbonne University Paris, Berlin University and in Rome.[3] She was Professor of History at University College Galway. In her youth Concannon, as well as her husband, was a member of the Irish Fireside Club, which in the 1880s was the largest children's association in Ireland where children took responsibility upon themselves to teach others and themselves to make Ireland a better place.[4]
Many of her writings were on the subject of Irish women, including Canon Sheehan's Woman Characters (1910), Women of Ninety Eight (1919), Daughters of Banba (1922), The Poor Clares in Ireland (1929), and Irish nuns in penal days (1931).[5]
She was first elected to Dáil Éireann as a Fianna Fáil Teachta Dála (TD) at the 1933 general election for the National University constituency.[6] At the 1938 general election, she was elected to Seanad Éireann for the National University of Ireland constituency. She was re-elected at each successive election and served in the Seanad until she died in 1952.[7]
Her husband was the Irish scholar Tomás Bán Ó Conceanainn (Thomas Concannon), a national health inspector, and she authored several books as "Mrs Thomas Concannon".[5][8]
- ^ O'Brien, Maria; Lunney, Linde. "Concannon, Helena". Dictionary of Irish Biography. Retrieved 1 October 2022.
- ^ "Concannon, Helena (1878–1952)". Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia. Retrieved 21 November 2017.
- ^ "OBITUARY". The Irish Times. 28 February 1952. ProQuest 524292057.
- ^ Congáil, R. N. (2009). "Fiction, Amusement, Instruction": The Irish Fireside Club and the Educational Ideology of the Gaelic League. Éire-Ireland 44(1), 91–117. Irish-American Cultural Institute. Retrieved 22 November 2017, from Project MUSE database.
- ^ a b "Biographies – Women in History". Scoilnet.ie. Archived from the original on 15 June 2007. Retrieved 21 December 2009.
- ^ "Helena Concannon". Oireachtas Members Database. Retrieved 27 April 2009.
- ^ "Helena Concannon". ElectionsIreland.org. Retrieved 27 April 2009.
- ^ Bourke, Angela (2002). The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing. Vol. 4. NYU Press. p. 479. ISBN 081479906X.
She married Thomas Concannon, a national health inspector, in 1906 and went to live in Galway. The Queen of Ireland: An Historical Account of Ireland's Devotion to the Blessed Virgin (Dublin: M.H. Gill, 1938).