Tributes to ‘pioneering’ historian Sr Margaret MacCurtain
PRESIDENT Michael D Higgins joined politicians, academics, feminists and social commentators in paying tribute to the renowned historian, Sr Margaret MacCurtain who died yesterday aged 91.
The President said the Dominican Sister would be remembered for both her academic achievements and her tireless campaigning on social justice issues.
“We owe her a profound debt of gratitude for her advocacy on the abolition of corporal punishment in schools and for the rights of children with special educational needs.”
Sinn Féin President Mary Lou McDonald also expressed her condolences: “Margaret was a pioneering feminist and historian who challenged traditional history which all too often ignored women’s lives.”
Born in Cork in 1929, Margaret MacCurtain joined the Dominican Sisters when she was 21, after finishing a degree in History, Irish and English and a teaching diploma at University College Cork.
She recalled later that her family was “horrified” when she told them of her decision as they couldn’t believe that someone who had been such a student activist at UCC could think of becoming a nun.
After completing a doctorate in Madrid in 1964, she joined the History Department at UCD, where she remained until 1994.
Despite the power of the Catholic Church in Ireland at the time, she refused to submit her lecture notes for then Archbishop of Dublin, John Charles McQuaid’s approval.
In 1979 she became head of the first College of Further Education of the Dublin VEC.
Although she remained a historian of 17th century Irish and European history, from the 1970s onwards she became increasingly interested in retrieving women’s role in history and was a longstanding member of the editorial board of Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing (Vols IV and V).