Daughters of Maeve: 50 Irish Women Who Changed The World

The Conclusion Of Our Exclusive Interview with New York Author Gina Sigillito

In the first part of Sean McCarthy's interview with Gina Sigillito last week, the author of 'Daughters of Maeve' spoke about the book and some of the women it covers. This week she talks more of the women that inspired her and of her future plans.

Sean: Your book 'Daughters of Maeve' is described as an indispensable reference that will move, instruct and empower readers to reach for their dreams as they stand on the shoulders of great Irish women. Do you think that there are other great Irish women arriving on the scene today? For instance, would you call Mary Harney T.D., a great Irish woman, and if so, what makes her great?

Gina: Mary Harney has not made an impression on me as much as other women have. I ended the book with Sinead O'Connor for a reason, because at this point I am looking for the next woman that I think is really a 'break out' woman.
Celebrated activist Bernadette Devlin, who I feature in the book, also, once said that some of the greatest Irish women came out of the struggles, the struggle for Irish independence, and struggles in the labour movement, and the feminist movement.
In times of turmoil, these women really rise to the occasion. But now that the Irish economy is strong and the situation in Northern Ireland has settled down, I don't know where that next generation of women is going to come from.
There is still work to be done there, but the situation in Northern Ireland is much better, but there are still issues there, and there are issues in the Republic of Ireland too regarding women. So I think that the next generation will come around and rise to the occasion as well.

Sean: Of all fifty Daughters of Maeve, which one if any is your favourite, and why?

Gina: I would have to say it's a toss up between Sinead O'Connor and Jackie Kennedy. I have admired Jackie Kennedy my whole life really, and I thought she was just a formidable, really graceful and incredible figure.
I think a lot of people know her for her style or her sort of figure-head role, but she was a huge part of the Kennedy family, and really helped give rise to the myth of Camelot.
That whole myth was her idea, her concept. Then I'd say Sinead O'Connor because not only am I a big music fan anyway but I do think that what she has done for women in Rock'n'Roll has just been unbelievable, and even though she herself got a bad rap for along time what I say in my book is that there would be none of these new wave of female singer/songwriters without Sinead O'Connor.
Alanis Morissette, Courtney Love, I mean you just wouldn't have had that because Sinead O'Connor really paved the way for women to be outspoken. And she's still considered to be one of the top thirty women in Rock'n'Roll despite everything that has happened to her.
Also, she just never gives up, and I think that's great you know. It was really cool to see her live because she's just been through so much and she's still out there doing it ... making her music and not letting anyone keep her down which is kind of great.

Sean: You also have a chapter dedicated to the late great Veronica Guerin. What do you think was it about Veronica that made her extraordinary?

Gina: What really fascinated me about Veronica Guerin was that she was always seen as a sort of 'Cowboy Journalist' in a way if you will, and that she wasn't really respected by a lot of her fellow journalists. But in actual fact she was one of the bravest journalists I think to have lived to date.
There have been two movies made about her life, one of them starring Cate Blanchett.
She was really responsible for getting a lot of the drug laws enforced in Ireland. In the late Eighties and early Nineties heroin in Ireland was an enormous problem, especially in Dublin, even with really young kids. You'd see ten-year-old kids doing heroin.
It was unbelievable what was going on in Ireland at the time, and nobody could convict these drug lords that were running the heroin rings because of the Libel Laws, and she turned that on its ear and she was unfortunately killed for it.
She was dealing with some really rough guys over there and she was ultimately assassinated which is very rare for journalists in Ireland.
Veronica Guerin was killed at a very young age, but her legacy lives on because of what she did.
She completely changed the way drug pushers are prosecuted in Ireland. She was an amazing woman.

Sean: Do you think that journalism itself stands in as high a regard nowadays in people's minds as surely as Veronica Guerin would have wanted it to?

Gina: No, not at all, and especially here in the United States. There's no objectivity anymore in journalism, and there's no fearlessness anymore.
The coverage of the Iraq War is a perfect example of that, what with all the embedding and things that are going on with American journalists, they are afraid to ask any hard questions anymore, and you don't know whose side they are on, when they shouldn't be on 'any' side.
They should, as journalists, be objective, and they should be covering the news 'as it is', and I don't see that happening.
It's funny because I actually started out wanting to be a journalist when I was in college and sort of went more the publishing and author route. But, you do have exceptional journalists still in the field of course, but I just don't see that dedication.
You really need to get your facts straight, and if you don't, really momentous, catastrophic things can happen, and I think Veronica Guerin would have been really disappointed to see the turn that journalism has taken. She gave up her life to talk about the truth and to make sure the truth got out there. It's a real shame, you know.

Sean: Tell me about Maureen O'Hara, one of Ireland's great motion picture and stage stars who is also featured in your book 'Daughters of Maeve'. Born of course in the lovely town of Ranelagh, Co. Dublin, I have to ask you what sort of a woman are we dealing with in Maureen?

Gina: Well, nowadays we have actresses commanding huge figures for their roles in film, but back then, you didn't have that.
I think that Maureen is most interesting because, although most people know Maureen from 'The Quiet Man' (1952 with John Wayne) and for her beautiful, exceptionally gorgeous red-headed fiery looks, what people may not know is that she played a huge part in changing the fortunes of women in film.
Leading men wanted to work with her, and sure even at the age of 14 she was accepted into the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, the most prestigious theatre in Ireland.
When she came to America she was still in her teens and did her first movie when she was nineteen, and also had a pretty tumultuous personal life off-screen.
She was married to a few men that nobody would want to be married to, I don't think! But still, through it all she was a consummate professional.
She was also a great businesswoman and is also the only woman to ever run a commercial airline here in America.
She is also applauded for her commitment to film and I believe that she is the only Irish woman to receive the Kennedy Lifetime Achievement Award also. So, she's just incredible.
With a lot of these women in film, you sort of just see this glamorous film star, and people don't really realize that Maureen O'Hara is an incredibly gifted woman that took no prisoners really, which in itself is very cool.

Sean: Well that's a surprise to me now. I didn't know Maureen ran a commercial airline. I'd buy a ticket if it were still airborne!

Gina: Indeed. The airline was called Antilles Airboats and was a commuter seaplane service throughout the Caribbean Islands. She was the President of that airline.

Sean: Incredible, you learn something new in every paragraph of your new book Gina. Well, the wife of James Joyce was of course Nora Barnacle Joyce who hailed from the West of Ireland and was only sixteen when she and Jimmy Joyce fell head over heals for each other.
Nora Barnacle Joyce is said in your book to have been a funny, sharp-witted woman who would read her husband's poetry with great pleasure.
So she was obviously a supportive wife, and as we read in your book she was very much in love with James Joyce. But, what did Nora accomplish herself?

Gina: Well, to me there would be no James Joyce were it not for Nora Barnacle. For instance, especially 'The Dead'', which is his most beautiful and most renowned.
That whole story about Michael Fury is her story. That story happened to her, and he put it into words and made it this incredible short story.
Really, all of her experiences were what shaped his literature and I think people don't realize that, you know. Perhaps they think James Joyce married this chambermaid, and you know... what an odd pairing and that she wasn't smart and that she didn't read his work.
None of that is true. Indeed, if you read their letters to each other, they're just amazing. There are amazing love letters between them, but also her writing is really great too.
My point in the book is that, without her stories, he would have been a very different writer. But also the fact that she just traveled with him her entire life, to places where they didn't speak English, where he wasn't working sometimes, they had no money, two babies, and she was trying to raise the babies in Trieste and all over Europe without sometimes any friends or any support. She stood by him and loved him and was eventually a great wife. But her stories! She was really his muse.

Sean: Do you think that there is some common factor or trait that separates these fifty Daughters of Maeve from your average modern woman, stay-at-home or not?

Gina: I think that is possible. I also think that, as the women's movement particularly over here in America has progressed, I think some women lose opportunities as well, you know.
I think there's a lot to be said for raising children, and even Jackie Kennedy said if you don't raise your children well, you've failed.
I think there's a lot to be said for that. Many women in my book were equal partners to their husbands in many ways.
Some of them may have had the power 'behind' the scenes, but even if they were staying at home and not working outside the home they still made equal contributions.
When people talk about feminism I have a very different view of it than I think some people think.
I think that any woman's choice is a valid one, and I think that being at home and raising a family is just as important as anything else.
I think Rose Kennedy is a perfect example of a woman who raised an incredible group of children that would go on to accomplish amazing things and she did it very well too and was also an equal partner to her husband.
So I think that the message of my book also is that whatever your choice, if you do it well then you are contributing and you're making a real difference. It's cool. Nice to know that we have all those options as well, you know!

Sean: You are also co-author of the book 'The Wisdom of The Celts' (Citadel Press - available on Amazon.com) that I thoroughly enjoyed reading, twice actually! Tell me, what's on the back burner for Gina Sigillito? What can your many readers look forward to now?

Gina: Well, I do have something I am writing. I do also write fiction and short stories, but right now I am working on a novel.

Sean: Tell me something about the subject matter?

Gina: I'm not quite sure how it's all going to fall into place yet, but I had taken a memoir-writing class with the Irish writer Nuala O'Faolain who just died as you know this past May.
Nuala was at NYU for the class here in New York City, and she really inspired me in a huge way.
In fact, I had only spoken to Nuala and had emailed her right after she got her diagnosis and just before she died.
I had started to write pieces for her about when I was a little kid growing up in Missouri, and Nuala was just really encouraging me to turn it into something else. And my story started out as a screenplay, and I was toying with different ideas and now I am piecing it together as a novel.
But Nuala O'Faolain really inspired me in a huge way. It's just a real tragedy that she left us so soon. Nuala is a great inspiration for what I am working on right now.

Sean: So sad indeed. On a lighter note Gina, for I'm sure Nuala would have insisted on it, and getting back to your latest book 'Daughters of Maeve', which is choc-a-block full of fascinating facts about your fifty featured Irish women, there was one fact that, when I read it, just jumped off the page, so it did. That being the Irish origins of singing legend Billie Holiday!

Gina: I know! We put Billie Holiday on the cover of my book for a reason.
People may have a very narrow view of what it is to be an Irish woman, and my point is that you don't have to look or conform to a certain idea to be a great Irish woman. And yes, Billie Holiday had Irish roots.
She was the Granddaughter of an Irish slave owner, Charles Fagan. I had read her autobiography 'Lady Sings The Blues' when I was in my teens and that really jumped out at me. And her being Irish was a big part of her life, you know.
She was Catholic, and identified with being Irish. To me, that makes her as important as anyone else.
She changed the face of music forever, and she remains one of my favourite singers of all time, and I just thought we have to have her in this book or else we're not doing our job here, you know?
Yes, that fact really fascinates a lot of people, In fact, I had given a few readings last summer and people were asking to hear more about Billie Holiday! So that was really kind of great!