There is no bond quite like that of Irish women, brought together by their drive to succeed, create, protect or provide. The highs of sisterly love are high indeed – however, the lows are low. Every female friendship – particularly between those who are creative, or overachieving, or strong-willed – features support more steadfast than that of a classic love story, and passion more dramatic than that of ancient lore. As Fleabag creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge told BBC Radio 4 in an interview in 2020, “Female friendships are the greatest romances of our lives.”

The distinguishing traits of Irish women tend to be resilience, authenticity, and humour (as well as stubbornness, frankness and mischief…). So it follows that our friendships thrive where the two parties to it are hard as rock, with a fiery wit. These historical Irish female friendships are no different – each one had its stubbornness and support, its trouble and its triumph. Each woman was focused on success in her field, and found sustenance in the friendship of a peer.

Pictured: Elizabeth Bowen via The Irish Times

1. LITERATURE
Elizabeth Bowen and Molly Keane

The female characters that feature in the stories written by Anglo-Irish writer Elizabeth Bowen tend to express uncertainty in the face of traditional expectations – and this, it’s clear, is key to her success. Bowen was well-known for her polish and sophistication, a ‘woman of the world’ who travelled constantly – from Dublin to London, and from husband to lover.

Molly Keane shared Bowen’s literary brilliance, particularly in the description of the romantic, but that was where their similarities ended. Keane’s characters always expressed ecstatic, excessive love – followed by resentful rage and fury. The imbalance and boldness in her characters, although dramatic, mirrored the imbalance and boldness in her own personality.

Pictured: Molly Keane via The Irish Times

Keane was said to have always been intimidated by Bowen’s intellect, and her cosmopolitan life, while Bowen was described to have been ‘terrified’ by Keane’s tough-as-nails character. Bowen wrote in 1957, “Molly Keane has been staying here since Tuesday. We have been working away like beavers… Molly Keane is a fascinating little character and I’m fond of her. She’s as clever as a bag of monkeys. But her cynicism and pessimism are terrifying. She makes me feel quite a blobby old idealistic sentimental optimist by contrast…”

The two women remained lifelong friends, throughout their successes, tragedies and mundanities, until Bowen’s death in 1973. Thomas McCarthy wrote that they were “such friends, friends to the very end. There’s a photograph of the two women shopping together in my native Cappoquin, Co. Waterford… the two were shopping for an attractive wig for Elizabeth, who had lost her hair from the chemotherapy…”

Pictured: Elizabeth Corbet Yeats

2. BUSINESS
Evelyn Gleeson, Elizabeth Corbet Yeats and Lily Yeats

In 1900, Sligo sisters Elizabeth Corbet Yeats and Susan Mary “Lily” Yeats met Evelyn Gleeson in Dublin, and an idea came together. Gleeson was the daughter of Irish doctor Edward Moloney, who had established the Athlone Woollen Mills in 1859. She had studied design under Alexander Millar and had come to Ireland to escape the London smog, and to set up a craft centre.

Pictured: Evelyn Gleeson

Using a £500 loan from Augustine Henry, Gleeson convinced the sisters to join her enterprise. Together these women established the Dun Emer Guild, and later, the Dun Emer Press. Splitting the tasks efficiently, Lily was charged with running the embroidery section, given her experience studying with May Morris, renowned English embroiderer and artist. Elizabeth was expected to lead the printing section, drawing on her experience with the Women’s Printing Society in London. Evelyn handled the weaving and tapestry, and managed the studio’s overall finances. Finally, the Yeats’ quite famous brother, W.B. Yeats, acted as the group’s literary advisor – which apparently, caused friction at times.

Friction proved to be persistent, and the trio fell out, leading to a split in the Dun Emer business arrangement. Gleeson was keen to repay Henry, while the Yeats set their sights on new challenges. So despite the impressive success of the centre and the press, the women went their separate ways.

Pictured: Dr Kathleen Lynn

3. ACTIVISM
Helena Molony and Kathleen Lynn

Dr Kathleen Lynn was a doctor, and Helen Molony was an actress, so it was conceivable that the two would have never bonded, let alone met, had the Rising not come to be. In 1913, Dr Lynn – the first woman doctor to obtain all of her undergraduate medical training in Ireland – assisted the workers in the Lockout, and while active in the Republican movement with Countess Markievicz, she attended the wounded at Dublin City Hall in 1916. For her political activity, she was jailed and sent to Kilmainham and Mountjoy, later to Bath. Dr Lynn was known for riding her bicycle everywhere and disapproving of lipstick – but asserting that wearing slacks was unwomanly.

Pictured: Helena Molony

Helena Molony, an actress and member of the Abbey Theatre, used the charisma developed in her stage profession to become a strong political influence, particularly among women, prior to the Rising. Creative and persuasive, in 1909 Molony became editor of the Bean na hEireann monthly newspaper, featuring contributors from across the movement for Irish independence.

The strong-willed pair met when Molony was injured in 1913 and Lynn treated her for her injuries. During this time, Molony had stayed at Dr Lynn’s Rathmines home as she recovered from illness, and the two bonded. Dr Lynn credited her with persuading her of the significance of the movement, saying, “We used to have long talks and she converted me to the national movement. She was a very clever and attractive girl with a tremendous power of making friends.”

Pictured: Evie Hone

4. ART
Evie Hone and Mainie Jellett

Both Dublin-reared and Protestant-raised, Hone and Jellett became fast friends given how much they shared in common. The two artists met one another in London in 1917, and reunited in Paris in 1920, to study under an artist known as André L’hote, who had a studio in Montparnasse, in the 14th arrondissement. Quickly, they both grew frustrated of L’hote, but remained in need of a mentor. Together, they hassled another Cubist painter called Albert Gleizes – often recognised by historians as the true founding father of Cubism – to accept them as his students.

Pictured: Mainie Jellett

Gleizes did not want to take in these two young Irish women as his students. He wrote of them at the time, “their tenacity, expressed in a soft voice, appeared formidable and increased my desire to shy away. But after a rather long talk from which I constantly tried to extricate myself while they pressed me ever more insistently, I had to surrender and reluctantly decide to let them ‘work’.”

And work they did. To this day, both women are known to have been responsible for introducing Cubism and French modernism to Ireland. Both of their paintings could be considered landmarks in Irish art. Jellett’s Cubist shapes and colours were part of her fine theatre designs for the Gate Theatre and the Irish Ballet. Hone became, alongside Harry Clarke, Ireland’s most distinguished artist in stained glass. The close partnership, defined as definitely platonic, based on letters between them, was mutually supportive for its entirety, until Jellett’s death in 1943.