New books give insight into lives of exceptional women

TWO new books have been launched that give an insight into the lives of two exceptional women and life in the late 18th and early 19th century in Portrane.

Mayor of Fingal, Cllr Eoghan O’Brien officially launched the two new books by local author Gerard Ronan entitled ‘Margaret Evans – Poet of Portrane’ and ‘Sophia Parnell-Evans – Feminism, Politics and Farming in 19th Century Portrane’ in Donabate Library.

The books have been published in collaboration with Fingal County Council.

Mr Ronan, who loves in Donabate, is a 60-year-old retired civil servant and the author of three previous books: ‘The Round Towers of Fingal’ and ‘William Kelly of Portrane’, published in 2019, and ‘The Irish Zorro’, which was published in hardback in 2004.

Mr Ronan was also one of the key participants in a 2011 National Geographic Documentary based largely on that book as part of the Mystery Files TV series. 

The documentary is still repeated occasionally on the National Geographic and Smithsonian TV channels. 

‘The Irish Zorro’ has also featured twice on RTE’s ‘The Book on One’ radio programme, in 2004 and 2010, and on a Newstalk Radio documentary in June 2019.

Speaking at the launch, Mayor O’Brien said: “These two books, as well as telling the story behind the construction of the iconic Portrane Round Tower, will provide an excellent insight into the lives of these two exceptional women and also to life in the late 18th and early 19th century in Portrane and beyond.”

Margaret Geraghty, Director of Housing and Community at the council, said: “Fingal County Council, through our Library Service, is delighted to support the publication of books such as these which provide information on life in Fingal in times past, and I know they will be of great interest.”

Senior Executive Librarian Helen O’Donnell said: “It is fitting that these books about two extraordinary Irish women are being launched the same week as International Women’s Day.”

Information on the two publications: 

MARGARET EVANS (1750-1846) – Poet of Portrane

Arrested on charge of high treason for his role in the rebellion of 1798, Hampden Evans of Portrane House was facing the death penalty until a reprieve saw him exiled for life. His wife (Margaret) and daughters were forced to follow him and spend 12 difficult years moving from Germany to France and rented house to rented house, until finally allowed to return. Separated from her sons and sisters, Margaret Evans had to develop new friends, in a new city, where attitudes to female emancipation were far more progressive than in the city of her birth. Her poems betray the thoughts of a woman battling to appreciate her blessings in the face of continuous re-settlement and the deaths of her children. 

SOPHIA PARNELL-EVANS (1780-1853) – Feminism, Politics and Farming in 19th Century Portrane

Sophia Parnell-Evans was the only daughter of Sir John Parnell and the great aunt of Charles Stewart Parnell. She ran a large and successful farming enterprise at a time when few women had done so. She met two Queens, the ex-wife of Napoleon and was a friend of the radical feminist Margaret King. 

A friend of both the Darwin and Condorcet families, she was daughter and sister to three of the most prominent politicians of her day, and wife to another. A radical and liberal thinker in her own right, she founded two primary schools in Donabate and helped to mitigate the effects of the Great Famine in her locality. She funded and encouraged the agricultural experiments of William Kelly of Portrane. 

The memorial round tower and marble bust she built in memory of her devoted husband, the MP George Evans, revived a tradition of tower building that had lain dormant for seven centuries.