The period between 1870 and 1970 was a time of extraordinary political and cultural change in Ireland. During these years, national and gendered identity were transformed in ways that were both particular to Ireland and part of the larger tendencies of social and creative modernisation. In keeping with this change, women's attitudes towards their place in society and their artistic representation altered in significant ways. The politics of representation for the woman reader and the woman writer became of central importance. Cultural change could be traced in literary developments; during this time poetic modes broadened from the traditional to include new and experimental forms. Yet in spite of these changes, this period of Irish women's literary history remains neglected. The aim of this anthology is to make available the work of writers who are either forgotten or, if remembered, are framed within a limited critical discourse. Rather than seeking the broadest possible representation of women poets from this period, this book emphasises the range and complexity of the work of individual women and sets these poems in the context of the broader literary and political developments of the time. The primary focus of this introductory essay is the poetry itself, and the challenges it offers to canonical readings of modern Irish literature. The political and cultural background to the writing included here helps to elucidate the achievement of these women and to explore the issues that preoccupied them, as well as the variety of forms and styles they employed. It also sketches the broader concerns of women writers of the time whose work cannot be included here. In this way the achievements of these women become clear, and the unacknowledged impact they had on the development of modern Irish poetry is highlighted. The international profile of women poets who have published since the late 1960s, in particular Eavan Boland, Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin and Medbh McGuckian, has drawn readers and critics to contemporary work, while their precursors remain overlooked. Boland's interrogation of the position of the woman poet in Ireland has highlighted the important omissions in terms of critical inclusiveness, yet has in large measure perpetuated the notion that few women of significance published poetry prior to the late twentieth century.