Viragos and Matrons: The lived experiences of Women in seventeenth-century Dublin
October the 7th saw the launch of the publication arising from Professor Jane Ohlmeyer’s delivery of the 2024, 27th Annual Sir John T. Gilbert Commemorative Lecture entitled ‘The lived experiences of women in early modern Dublin’ at Dublin City Library and Archive.
The publication entitled ‘Viragos and Matrons: The lived experiences of Women in seventeenth-century Dublin’ was launched at Dublin City Library by Councillor Vincent Jackson on behalf of Lord Mayor of Dublin Ray McAdam. After an introduction by Councillor Jackson, Professor Ohlmeyer spoke of the significance of the roles played by women in in seventeenth-century Dublin and updated the audience on the findings of the VOICES project over the past two years.
Professor Ohlmeyer explained that while they are ‘fragmentary and fleeting, a wide variety of sources are extant and, thanks to various technologies, are ever more accessible. In fact, of all the towns in early modern Ireland, women in Dublin are the most fully documented. The large number of free women suggests that the lived experiences of female citizens might have been different when compared with other towns, something that further research will hopefully reveal more fully. For many ordinary women, it was only in death or at moments of crisis that they became visible. As work on VOICES continues this hypothesis will be tested systematically. What is already clear is that the extreme circumstances triggered by a decade of warfare during the 1640s meant that women exercised a greater level of agency simply because the crisis turned their world upside down forcing them to take on roles previously held by men. This was as true of Dublin, as it was for the rest of the country.
Women – those ‘viragos and matrons’ – were at the heart of the history of early modern Dublin and have been hiding in plain sight, as have many of their fellow country-women, for far too long.
The publication is freely available at your local library and online https://voicesproject.ie/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/DCPL-Gilbert-Lecture-24-Book-ebook.pdf