Clodagh Finn, now on Instagram

I'm no longer on X, but I've left my account open as it contains posts about the lives of thousands of unheralded women which you might like to explore.

[Clodagh Finn, now on Instagram @FinnClodagh]

#ThroughHerEyes
It's time to say goodbye to X.
I want to thank everyone who engaged with this account. It gave me so much joy to discover more about the lives of thousands of unheralded women.

You'll find me on BlueSky (@clodaghfinn.bsky.social), on Instagram (@clodaghfinnwrites) and on LinkedIn.
I'm not going to delete my account as it includes many stories of women's lives which those remaining might like to explore.

See you under the blue skies yonder.

[Clodagh Finn, now on Instagram @FinnClodagh]

@tLoebLookout @IDAorg The Ascent of Lizzie Le Blond is free to access for six months on YouTube:  https://t.co/grigXkD1Oa

[Clodagh Finn, now on Instagram @FinnClodagh]

#ThroughHerEyes
It's been ages since I posted on here - but I felt the need to tell anyone who is interested about this wonderful documentary on our own pioneering Alpinist
Lizzie Le Blond.
She was one of a kind. She shattered Victorian conventions not only by climbing mountains but by photographing them.
It was so moving to see the care with which a French director did so much put her back in the spotlight.

https://t.co/rqOgzS7Koi

[Clodagh Finn, now on Instagram @FinnClodagh]

#ThroughHerEyes
Delighted to see Katharine Tynan, poet, novelist and leading light of the Irish Revival remembered here. She wrote 102 novels! 102!!

[Dictionary of Irish Biography @DIB_RIA]

"I am the fire upon the hearth,
I am the light of the good sun,
I am the heat that warms the earth,
Which else were colder than a stone."

Katharine Tynan (born #OTD 1859), 'Any Woman'.
https://t.co/L6cRfjvCsf #DIBLives

[WHAI @WHAIreland]

Just a gentle reminder that you have only a week to go to get those abstracts in! Click on the link below to submit.

https://t.co/lD4Bog8yb2

[Clodagh Finn, now on Instagram @FinnClodagh]

@Fiona_Forde_Irl 🙏

[IrishFamilyDetective on Bluesky (see link in Bio) @Fiona_Forde_Irl]

Died #Onthisday 1983 the fascinating #Kildare born Mary Herbert De Baissac (code named Claudine) an agent of the clandestine SOE during #WW2 - read more about her in @FinnClodagh's new book https://t.co/iq5V33HSPu

[Clodagh Finn, now on Instagram @FinnClodagh]

@chloemanno Lovely to see you on here. Her daughter has been in touch too so I'm really looking forward to hearing more about her.

[Winter @LeftyWinter]

Comment a 💙 if you stand with Bishop Budde !

[J Morgan @Maoilmordha]

@almurray @claremulley @James1940 @WeHaveWaysPod Excellent trio of podcasts, @almurray @james1940 and @claremulley. Interesting discussion about Berthe and Percy Mayer. Here is a photo of Percy, organiser of SOE Fireman circuit with, among others, circuit radio operator Maureen O’Sullivan from Dublin…@FinnClodagh

[IrishFamilyDetective on Bluesky (see link in Bio) @Fiona_Forde_Irl]

Baptised #Onthisday 1867 (Edith) #MaudGonne MacBride-revolutionary & activist more @DIB_RIA https://t.co/sAFwEI7bMH @FinnClodagh B&W📸LOC
https://t.co/d3Fo38a0hp

[WHAI @WHAIreland]

https://t.co/19y6MTNK3c

The WHAI Anna Parnell Travel Grant & the McCurtain/Cullen Prize are now open. Closing date for the Travel Grant is 14 February. The Closing date for the Essay Prize 1 March.

[Lily Craven @TheAttagirls]

Woman of the Day, the mother of modern chemistry, Marie-Anne Lavoisier born OTD in 1758 in Loire, whose skills as a translator, illustrator and lab assistant were instrumental in the success of her husband, the chap who named oxygen and discovered its role in combustion.

Marie-Anne married 28 year old Antoine Lavoisier when she was 13. If you think that was jaw-dropping, bear in mind it meant she escaped being married to a 50 year old man. He’d threatened her father with loss of livelihood for objecting to his proposal of marriage so the father did the next best thing under the circumstances - found a younger man.

Formally educated in a convent, Marie-Anne was keen to learn about her husband’s work and promote his career. She took lessons in chemistry, studied art as a pupil of Jacque-Louis David, became fluent in English and Latin, hosted Monday night dinners for leading scientists.

When Antoine set up a state-of-the-art chemistry lab in the attic of the gunpowder arsenal where he worked - Benjamin Franklin, himself a chemist, was a customer - she drew detailed illustrations of his experiments and apparatus, took notes, translated into English respected scientific essays for her French-speaking husband and wrote critiques.

“A few young people proud to be granted the honour of cooperating on his experiments, gathered in the morning, in the laboratory. It was there that we took lunch, we discussed, we worked.”

Antoine identified that water was not an element in its own right but a compound of oxygen and hydrogen, compiled the first list of elements, discovered that mass always remains the same even when it changes form or shape, predicted the existence of silicon, helped to construct the metric system.

His combustion and water theories directly contradicted phlogiston theory. I’d never heard of it - bear with me here - but it prevailed in the 1700s and 1800s and was based on a belief that phlogiston was a fire-like element released on combustion and explained rusting (aka oxidation). To advance Antoine’s theory of the role of oxygen in combustion - the correct one, as it happens - Richard Kirwan’s 1787 Essay On Phlogiston had to be debunked.

Marie-Anne, now 30 and very well-educated, not only translated and critiqued the essay but she wrote the preface to the French version that influenced the reader’s views. Phlogiston theory, she wrote “was always supposing, and sometimes contradicting itself” rather than being based on “established facts”…like Antoine’s.

It influenced the eminent French chemist Louis-Bernard Guyton-Morveau. He agreed with Antoine. Job done. Marie-Anne wrote, “These experiences, which can be explained in the simplest and most natural way in the new doctrine, seemed to him more than sufficient to make him abandon the phlogiston hypothesis.”

Then came the French Revolution. Marie-Anne’s husband was arrested during the Reign of Terror and although she argued his defence vigorously, he was executed on 8 May 1794 in Paris, the same day as her father. She was left penniless and Antoine’s notebooks and lab equipment seized but she defiantly published his memoirs which included detailed accounts of his work, and in so doing, she secured his legacy.

Marie-Anne married again ten years later - she was 46 - but it wasn’t a happy marriage. They separated after three years.

She died in 1836, aged 78, and is buried at Père-Lachaise.

[#WOMENSART @womensart1]

Virginia Oldoini, Countess of Castiglione (1837-1899), Italian aristocrat & pioneering figure in the early history of photography #WomensArt

[Doireann O'Mahony @OMahonyDoireann]

It is only in still water that we can see clearly ✨

[IrishFamilyDetective on Bluesky (see link in Bio) @Fiona_Forde_Irl]

Born #Onthisday 1885 in #Killarney teacher Janie McCarthy who was involved with the French resistance during #WW2 & was awarded the Croix de Guerre & Medaille de la Resistance (France), medal of freedom (USA) & the Tedder certificate (Britain) @finnclodagh https://t.co/7VJpHtr6Z1

[Conrad J Bryan @conradbryan]

@ococonuts @FinnClodagh As one of the several authors of that Forum report, its embargo was a tragic betrayal of all survivors. After all our hard toil and tears, I was not expecting to be pierced in the back by the then government. It was a very very bad experience indeed.

[Dr. Conall Ó Fátharta @ococonuts]

Re Katherine Zappone's attempt to re-enter Irish politics. Remember when she refused to publish the Mother and Baby Home Collaborative forum. It was later leaked to me and was scathing of Tusla and her depts dreadful info and tracing legislation https://t.co/FpEMrC2e63

[Clodagh Finn, now on Instagram @FinnClodagh]

@conradbryan @irishexaminer And what a wonderful book! 🥳

[Conrad J Bryan @conradbryan]

Delighted to see my book reviewed in @irishexaminer ! Just received a hard copy of the printed version and it hit the front page😁 what coup! Thanks @FinnClodagh !

https://t.co/1D22g1yAia