Irish Women's Citizens Association

The Irish Women's Citizens Association was an influential non-governmental organisation created in 1923 to advocate for women's rights in the aftermath of the Irish War of Independence and the Irish Civil War. Originally known as the Irish Women's Citizens' and Local Government Association, it was the result of a merger between the Irish Women's Suffrage and Local Government Association and the Irish Women's Association of Citizenship. The aim of the new society was to “bring together all Irishwomen of all politics and all creeds for the study and practice of good citizenship”. Members of the Irish Women's Citizens Association were usually urban, middle class women who were educated. Many of them were feminists who had been involved in the suffrage movement as members of the Irish Women's Suffrage and Local Government Association that stayed involved with activism after suffrage was achieved. They believed all women were full citizens, and they worked to protect their rights as citizens. The association was active for three decades and advocated on key laws passed by the Irish Free State in its first decades of independence. In 1949 the IWCA merged with the Irish Housewives Association.