Cynthia Longfield, 'Madam Dragonfly', was born in London in 1896 to Anglo-Irish parents. The family divided their time between London and the ancestral home in Cloyne, Co. Cork, where she enjoyed roaming the countryside.

Fanny’s memory – and that of her sister, Anna – has been overshadowed by brother Charles, but she was a trailblazer in her own right. In her lifetime, her poetry was celebrated by Irish nationalists and her activism helped to bring many Irish and Irish-American women into politics.

Isabel 'Ida' Mitchell typifies the emergence of a new group of Irish women, particularly from Ulster, in the last quarter of the nineteenth century – the female Presbyterian missionary. Often the daughters of churchmen, they were usually middle-class and educated.

Fanny Durack, daughter of Irish immigrants to Australia, won the first gold medal in women’s Olympic swimming in July 1912. Fanny created even more waves when she rejected a thick, modest woollen swimsuit with ‘as much drag as a sea-anchor’ in favour of a close-fitting suit in which she won the 100m freestyle.

Mary Agnes Walsh was born in Co. Monaghan in February 1821. She is now remembered as Mary Lee, one of the most prominent Australian suffragists, but she also advocated on behalf of women workers and asylum residents.

Dr. Maura Lynch was one of two Irish doctors who manned a 200-bed hospital in Angola during the Angolan civil war. She and her colleague treated patients from both sides of the conflict and when a neighbouring clinic shut down, Maura crossed 80km weekly to offer medical support to the people of Cuamato.

Kathleen Lonsdale made important scientific contributions, published prolifically, and worked tirelessly for humanitarian goals. She was as passionate about science as she was about prison reform and used her own learned experiences to influence positive change.

Eileen Gray lived in Paris for most of her life. She moved there in 1907, when the city was a hot-spot for writers and artists. She deservedly gained a reputation as the finest Western exponent of the Japanese lacquer technique and, later, was internationally acclaimed as a pioneering furniture designer and self-taught architect.

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn started her activist life as a 16-year-old schoolgirl, calling on American workers to rise in front of a red flag on a makeshift stage on a New York street corner. Quickly becoming a jawsmith for the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), she was devoted to women, the working class, anti-racism, and anti-capitalism.

Carmel Snow possessed an eagle eye, transforming Harper’s Bazaar, a tired and dowdy magazine, into a dynamic, game-changing publication. During her career, she made household names of Andy Warhol, Truman Capote, Richard Avedon, Lauren Bacall, Cecil Beaton, and Henri Cartier-Bresson.