Margaret Mac Curtain

Margaret Mac Curtain - feminist, educator, activist, Dominican nun - has, since the 1960s, been an influential and respected commentator on Irish society. In this book of essays - the sister collection to her acclaimed Ariadne's Thread: Writing Women into Irish History (Arlen House, 2008) - she engages, in her uniquely insightful and frequently challenging way, with feminism, culture, Irish history and politics, mathematics, activism, spirituality and theology, education and women's history, in essays written from the 1960s to the 2010s. In a writing style that makes the complicated accessible and elevates the local to the international, these essays shine a spotlight on both the individual and collective experiences of women and men in Irish society over many centuries.

This fascinating study explores the career of Ireland's first modern diplomat, Daniel O'Daly. Born in Kilsarkan, County Kerry, in 1595, he became a significant figure in seventeenth-century ecclesiastical and political life at a time when Ireland's relationship with Europe was both considerable and subtle. He was an historian, founder of an Irish college and a convent in Portugal, confessor and advisor to queens and kings, and a prime mover in both the Stuart Restoration of Charles II and the Portuguese Restoration. Shortly before he died in 1662, he was nominated as bishop elect of Coimbra, Portugal.