Alice Milligan and the Irish Cultural Revival

Alice Letitia Milligan (1866-1953) was born in a village outside Omagh in County Tyrone. From archives discovered at the National Library of Ireland, the range and extent of Alice Milligan’s interests is extraordinary. She was heavily involved in print culture, founding a journal, The Shan Van Vocht , and publishing prolifically in the press throughout her life. She also had a key role in the development of national theatre; as early as 1900, her play The Last Feast of the Fianna was staged by the Irish Literary Theatre, and in 1901 she worked with Maud Gonne and the Fay brothers to stage two major productions in Dublin. Alongside her cultural interests, Alice Milligan was also a political and community activist. She helped to organise the 1898 centenary commemorations of the 1798 rebellion, and in 1916, after the Easter Rising, travelled to London to attend the trial of Roger Casement. She also helped found the Anti-Partition Union. Alice Milligan died in April 1953 in County Tyrone just a couple of miles from where she was born. She played a pivotal role in Irish cultural, social and political life. An obituary in 1953 recalls…‘the radius of her friendship was an index of her quality, WB Yeats, Standish O'Grady, Arthur Griffith, John O'Leary - these are only a handful of the names which add up to a roll call of modern Irish history’. This is a remarkable story about one of Ireland’s almost forgotten and most neglected women. This book aims to revive Alice Milligan’s reputation as a major figure in Ireland and one of the most vivacious and politically aware Irish women of a hundred years ago.