Ní FHAIRCHEALLAIGH, Úna. Smuainte ar Árainn.

Illustrated. Baile Átha Cliath: Chonnradh na Gaedhilge, 1902. Crown octavo. pp. 55. Full maroon morocco, titled in gilt, badge of Chonnradh in gilt on upper cover. Ex libris Dalgan Park with stamps. Wear to head of spine. All edges gilt. Fine.
Agnes Winifred O’Farrelly (1874-1951), known in Irish as Úna Ní Fhaircheallaigh, was one of the most influential academics and cultural figures of early twentieth-century Ireland. Born in Co. Cavan into a family deeply interested in the Irish language, she emerged first as a writer before graduating from the Royal University of Ireland and becoming a pioneering lecturer in Irish at Alexandra, Loreto, and later University College Dublin (UCD). A founder member of the Irish Association of Women Graduates, she was a formidable advocate for women’s equality in higher education, giving evidence to major university commissions and helping to secure full co-education at UCD. Appointed professor of modern Irish in 1932, succeeding Douglas Hyde, she served on the governing bodies of UCD and the National University of Ireland for decades and held senior leadership roles in several national and international women’s academic organisations.
A central figure in the Gaelic League, closely associated with Douglas Hyde, Kuno Meyer, and Eoin MacNeill, O’Farrelly promoted Irish-language education through summer schools and colleges, notably as long-standing principal of the Ulster College of Irish in Donegal, though she was often self-deprecatingly criticised for her spoken Irish. Politically complex, she presided over the inaugural meeting of Cumann na mBan but later supported British recruitment during the First World War, petitioned for clemency for Roger Casement, opposed the 1937 Constitution’s treatment of women, and unsuccessfully contested NUI elections. Widely admired by students, a vigorous supporter of camogie, Irish industry, and the Gaeltacht, she was also a poet and prose writer in Irish and English, publishing under several pseudonyms. She retired from UCD in 1947 and died in Dublin in 1951, commemorated by an oil portrait by Seán Keating presented on her retirement.

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