A brush with history: one hundred years and counting for ‘proud’ TDs and senators
ALL 53 sitting female TDs and senators have been immortalised in a portrait which will hang in Leinster House.
The painting, created to mark 100 years of women’s suffrage, was unveiled by artist Noel Murphy and also features Irish suffragette and revolutionary nationalist Countess Constance Markievicz.
Mr Murphy placed an image of three portraits of Countess Markievicz in the background, connecting the first woman elected to parliament with the women who currently follow her.
First-time TD Lisa Chambers said the painting of all women representatives, which was designed in connection with “Votail 100” – the celebration of the centenary of the right of women to vote, was a fitting event for a special day.
“I felt really proud to see the final painting and realise that it’ll be there long after I’m gone,” the Fianna Fáil politician told the Irish Independent.
Meanwhile, a delegation from the Oireachtas is to travel to London to present a portrait of Countess Markievicz to hang at Westminster. She was the first woman MP to be elected to parliament in the UK.
Senator Ivana Bacik said it was really exciting to bring the portrait of Countess Markievicz to London, as plenty of people are unaware of her.
As she refused to take her seat in parliament in rejection of the UK’s policies against Ireland, she is frequently forgotten in the context of worthwhile British parliamentarians.
Generally, Nancy Astor is remembered as the first MP to take her seat, said Ms Bacik.
The Ceann Comhairle, along with Senator Bacik and several others, will officially hand the portrait to John Bercow, the Speaker of the House of Commons next month.
The countess was also the first woman in the world to hold a Cabinet position when she became Minister for Labour of the Irish State. “Noel Murphy’s piece is powerful representation of women in the Oireachtas – especially in a place which is surrounded by paintings of men,” Senator Bacik told the Irish Independent.
She added: “But there is a long way to go to challenge the culture.”
Separately, Ms Bacik said she would work with her Dáil and Seanad colleagues to conduct a survey on sexual harassment in order to assess how women feel they are treated as employees of the Oireachtas.
“It was done in the House of Commons; it’s long overdue here,” she said.