Page 61 - GAHS Journal Volume 9

GREYSTONES ARCHAEOLOGICAL & HISTORICAL SOCIETY JOURNAL VOLUME 9

The main venue used – at which Carson himself was the first
signatory – was Belfast City Hall, but other locations included
town halls, court houses and Unionist Club premises, as well as
school, church, temperance, mission and Orange halls. In Dublin
the offices of the Irish Unionist Alliance and its Women’s Central
Committee at 109 Grafton Street remained open all day for those
who wished to sign. Some people signed at home, and
signatures were also collected on a house-to-house basis in
17
certain areas.
For women, still lacking the parliamentary vote, this was an
opportunity to make their voices heard, and it was one they
seized on with alacrity. In total, 234,046 women signed the
Declaration, as against 237,368 men who signed the Covenant.
In Ulster itself, however, nearly 11,000 more women than men
18
signed. The highest number of female signatories was in
Belfast. Down and Derry also produced high numbers, with
smaller but still considerable numbers in the border counties.
19
Further south the situation was more fragmented: while there
20
were no female signatories at all in some areas , 768 women
signed in Dublin, 26 in Waterford and 21 in Wicklow, with smaller
numbers in Kildare and Kilkenny.
21
And it is, of course, with the impact of the Declaration on
Wicklow women and women in Wicklow that this paper is

17 Diane Urquhart, Ulster Covenant: women’s signature role in the fight
against Home Rule, Belfast Telegraph, 25 September 2012; Dublin Daily
Express, 28 September 1912.
18 In Ulster 228,991 women and 218,206 men signed.
19 61,500 women signed in Belfast, 35,000 and over 20,000 respectively in
Down and Derry; 3,722 women signed in Cavan.
20 Counties which produced no female signatories included Leitrim,
Limerick, Meath, Mayo, Sligo or Westmeath.
21 Urquhart, Ulster Covenant: women’s signature role in the fight against
Home Rule.
57