Editing Conradh na Gaeilge (section)

== Participation of women ==
Alice Milligan was exceptional among the League's leading activists as a northern Protestant, but less so as a woman. All the priorities of the larger Irish-Ireland movement which developed around the revival of the language, including teaching children a national history and literature, and the use and consumption of Irish-made products, were associated with the sphere of home and community in which women were accorded initiative. In comparison to the political parties (whether republican or constitutionalist), organisations, like the League, promoting a cultural agenda were comparatively open and receptive to women.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal|last=Biletz|first=Frank A.|date=2002|title=Women and Irish-Ireland: The Domestic Nationalism of Mary Butler|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20646366|journal=New Hibernia Review / Iris Éireannach Nua|volume=6|issue=1|pages=59–72, 59–60|jstor=20646366 |issn=1092-3977}}</ref>

The League encouraged female participation from the start and women filled prominent roles. Local notables, such as [[Lady Gregory]] in Galway, Lady Esmonde in County Wexford, and [[Mary Spring Rice]] in County Limerick, and others such as [[Máire Ní Shúilleabháin]] and [[Norma Borthwick]], founded and led branches. In positions of trust, however, women remained a decided minority. At the annual national convention in 1906 women were elected to seven of the forty-five positions on the Gaelic League executive.<ref name=":2" /> Executive members included [[Máire Ní Chinnéide]], [[Úna Ní Fhaircheallaigh]] (Agnes O'Farrelly, who wrote pamphlets on behalf of the League), Bean an Doc Uí Choisdealbha, Máire Ní hAodáin, [[Máire de Builtéir]], Nellie O'Brien, Eibhlín Ní Dhonnabháin, and [[Eibhlín Nic Niocaill]].<ref>New Hibernia Review. 6:1 Spring 2002. pp 57–62</ref><ref>Irish Peasant, 18 August 1906</ref>

Máire de Builtéir, who is credited with suggesting the term [[Sinn Féin (slogan)|Sinn Féin]] to [[Arthur Griffith]],<ref>{{cite web|last1=O'Snodaigh|first1=Aengus|title=Sinn Féin and Sinn Féin|url=http://republican-news.org/archive/1999/September30/30hist.html|accessdate=19 January 2016|website=An Phoblacht/Republican News}}</ref> made it clear that women could make their contribution to the cultural revival without relinquishing their traditional roles. "Let it be thoroughly understood", she insisted, "that when Irish women are invited to take part in the language movement, they are not required to plunge into the vortex of public life. No the work they can best do is work to be done in the home. There mission is to make the homes of Ireland Irish".<ref>quoted in Biletz (2002), p. 68</ref>