The speaker for this lecture is award-winning, Drogheda-based author Ms Nicola Pierce. She will be speaking about her recently published book Great Irish Wives – Remarkable Lives from History (2025). This tells the stories of ten remarkable women: Matilda Tone, Mary O’Connell, Constance Wilde, Charlotte Shaw, Emily Shackleton, Annette Carson, Sinéad de Valera, Margaret Clarke, George Yeats and Beatrice Behan. All were instrumental in their famous husbands’ success but to date have largely been overlooked in the historical record.
“The ten husbands have one thing in common: they married well”.

Great Irish Wives was awarded History Book of the Year for 2025 at the Irish Book Awards.

This lecture is jointly hosted with the Old Drogheda Society.

The lecture will be held in the Boyne Valley Hotel in Drogheda (Eircode A92 EY89) on Wednesday 22 April 2026 at 7.30 p.m.

All are welcome. Voluntary donations at the door are welcome to support the work of the Society.