Parish Notices Sunday 7th April 2019

The Rector writes   ‘Someone reminded me of this list of things that you might notice if you are ‘spiritually awakened’ and I promised I would put it on the Linksheet again. Perhaps you may recognise some of them…….

1) An increased tendency to let things happen rather than make them happen.

2) Frequent attacks of smiling.

3) Feelings of being connected with others and nature.

4) Frequent overwhelming episodes of appreciation.

5) A tendency to think and act spontaneously rather than from fears based on past experience.

6) An unmistakable ability to enjoy each moment.

7) A loss of ability to worry.

8) A loss of interest in conflict.

9) A loss of interest in interpreting the actions of others.

10) A loss of interest in judging others.

11) A loss of interest in judging self.

12) Gaining the ability to love without expecting anything in return

Parish Lenten Course 8pm Parish Hall

Wednesday  10th April-Clustering / Parish organisation.

Famine Lunch. Sunday 14th April in the Parish Hall after 1115am United Service All welcome. No charge but donations welcome. Proceeds in aid of Mother’s Union Overseas Fund.
 

The Passage West, Glenbrook & Monkstown GIY welcome Anthony & Brendan Organic Horticulturists on Thursday 11 April at 7:30pm.  The talk is about Kitchen Garden Inspiration. Church of Ireland Hall, Passage West, €5 on door.  New members or anyone interested in growing veg please come along!

8th  April         Littlies + One 10-12 Parish Hall.                        

10th April        10:30am  Holy Communion St Mary’s Church

                          7:30pm   Evening Prayer St Mary’s Church

                           8pm. Parish Lenten Course, Parish Hall

 11th April        Friendship Club 11am Rectory 

  Confirmation Class 5-6:30pm Rectory       

                           Select Vestry 8pm Rectory         

14th April       Palm Sunday United Service 11:15 St Mary’s Church

Famine Lunch Parish Hall after  Service

                          Choral Evensong 7pm St John’s Church

                          Youth Club 7pm Parish Hall

Holy Week    14th to 21st April  Separate Sheet available

26th April       CAMEO 10:30am Monkstown Bay Sailing Club

9th  May Easter Vestry 7:30pm Parish Hall

25th May Parish Féte in St Mary’s School & Grounds

22nd –26th July   Holiday Club in St Mary’s School

Random Notes  No. CCXCVIII

The pioneering feminist Anna Haslam, nee Fisher, was born into a Quaker family in Youghal in 1829, the sixteenth child in a family of seventeen.

When she was in her teens the Great Famine broke out. Her family had a long tradition of community service and Anna carried on this tradition by working in soup kitchens for the starving, and in employment schemes for young women.

After the Famine, while finishing her education in Yorkshire, Anna met Thomas Haslam, a teacher from Co Laois, In 1854 they married in Cork and then moved to Dublin.

Anna took up the cause of women’s rights in 1866 when she joined a petition to Parliament calling for votes for women. In 1876 Anna and Thomas set up the Dublin Women’s Suffrage Association (DWSA), a group peacefully demanding women’s suffrage. It must be noted that Anna was a Suffragist, rather than a Suffragette. Her actions were confined to holding meetings and writing to MPs, unlike the later, more militant, Suffragettes. Even these actions were considered radical at the time. Her campaign failed time after time. In 1884, the Reform Act increased the franchise, allowing more men to vote but still excluding women. Anna was nothing if not persistent, she attended and took minutes at every meeting of the DWSA from 1876 to 1913, when she resigned as secretary, an astonishing record.

In the 1890s she campaigned successfully for the right of Irish women to be elected.  Poor Law Guardians, an important local government job. This victory led to women also being voted on to local councils. The DWSA changed its name to Irish Women’s Suffrage and Local Government Association. (IWSLGA).

By the early 1900s Anna had recruited younger, more radical, women to her cause, such as Hannah Sheehy Skeffington who joined in 1903 and who went on to found the Irish Women’s Franchise League.

In February 1918, all women in Ireland and Britain aged over thirty gained the right to vote. In December of that year a General Election was held in which, for the very first time, Anna Haslam voted, something for which she had been fighting for fifty two years. She was cheered on by a  procession of women of all ages and political groups. By then, she was nearly ninety. She died in 1922 and, sadly, is almost forgotten now, but a bench in St Stephens Green Dublin honours her and Thomas for “their long years of public service, chiefly devoted to the enfranchisement of women.”

MMPC