Irish Women of Worship of the Nineteenth Century

The voices of women have been heard through hymns since biblical times, beginning with the songs of Miriam (Exod 15:20–21), Deborah (Judg 5:1–31), Hannah (1 Sam 2:1–10), and Mary (Luke:1:46–55). In the early Christian church, women participated in worship but their contributions to hymnody are relatively unknown. Nevertheless, the development of female hymn writers reflects a rich and significant history in the life of the church.¹

The nineteenth century witnessed considerable developments in English literature marked by the rise of female authors, including Elizabeth Gaskell and the Brontë Sisters. Alongside this literary growth, spiritual revivals were sweeping across the United States and Europe motivating Christian women to express their faith through hymn writing. At a time when one in three people were under the age of fifteen, women were inspired to compose hymns and lyrics for children’s Christian education.² 

Although many Irish female hymnwriters composed hymns during this period, Cecil Frances Alexander (1818–1895), Margaret Anna Cusack (1829–1899), and Amy Carmichael (1867–1951) were particularly promi-nent. Through their hymns and philanthropic efforts—founding schools and missions—they impacted thousands of children during a challenging period of Irish history. In an age of constrained social and marital expectations, these women transcended stereotypical boundaries to create legacies of song as testaments of their faithful service, proclaiming the glory of God. 

Ireland in the 1800s

During the 1800s Ireland experienced profound political, social, and economic change. The 1801 merger with Great Britain abolished the Irish Parliament and led to widespread exploitation under absentee landlord aristocracy.³ A potato blight in 1845 triggered the Great Famine (1845– 1852). An estimated one million people died, and more than 2.1 million emigrated.⁴ The rise of Irish nationalism and push for Irish independence culminated in the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922. 

Women in nineteenth century Ireland had few legal rights and held traditional domestic positions. However, despite social barriers, they played key roles in political and social reform.⁵ Prominent figures included Lady Jane Wilde (1821–1896), a linguist and mother of Oscar Wilde, and Countess Constance Markievicz (1868–1927), a revolutionary suffragette who later became the first woman elected to the British Parliament and Europe’s first female cabinet minister.⁶

Education was often limited, especially for those from poorer families. However, the expansion of school construction across Ireland had a significant impact on the literacy of Irish women. Based on statistics from the 1841 census: 

47 per cent of the Irish population over five years of age could read in 1841 and of those, 44 per cent were women. … Thus, in the decades before the Famine in Ireland (1845– 53), the transition in female literacy was well under way. The reading ability figure for Ulster reflects the Protestant emphasis on literacy, but the expansion in Catholic education in the course of the early nineteenth century helped to reduce the denominational imbalance.⁷

Although women’s access to employment was limited, change was coming. The development and accessibility to literacy coupled with tireless work by the likes of Wilde, Markievicz, and others succeeded in planting seeds of social change that would come to fruition during the next century. 

Worship in Ireland

From early Celtic polytheism to the evangelical work of St. Patrick, religion played a significant role shaping Irish history.⁸ During the 1800s, Ireland was predominantly Catholic and under British rule. Nevertheless, the Church of Ireland (united with the Church of England in 1800) played a significant role in the southern and central parts of the country while the north of Ireland saw a larger Protestant community, with Presbyterianism dominating. Methodist communities also had a significant presence in Ireland. Penal Laws limited the religious freedom of the Catholic population until the passing of the Catholic Emancipation Act in 1829. This caused a reaction from the Church of Ireland instigating a “Second Reformation,” a revival led by evangelical Anglicans along with various Bible societies.⁹

The Oxford Movement of 1833 sparked a wave of new female hymnwriters. Theological tracts written by John Keble, Cardinal J. H. Newman, and other prominent figures impressed the importance of educating congregations in Christian doctrine with an emphasis placed on the liturgical year.¹⁰ These tracts had a profound effect on hymnwriters Alexander and Cusack. 

Cecil Frances Alexander

Considered one of the most important female hymnists of the Anglican faith, Cecil Frances Humphreys was born in 1818. She wrote hymns from an early age and by the 1840s had gained notoriety. Her dedication to ministry led to the establishment of the Derry and Raphoe Diocesan Institution for the Education of the Deaf and Dumb. The foundation stone was laid in 1850, the same year that she married William Alexander, a bishop who eventually became the Archbishop of Armagh. In 1851 the school ofcially opened.¹¹ Alexander donated the proceeds from her Hymns for Little Children (1848) to support this endeavor.¹² 

According to her husband, Alexander was greatly inspired by Augustine of Hippo (354–430) and Jerome (ca. 345–420) to compose hymns promoting complete devotion to God.¹³ Alexander’s initial publication was Verses for Holy Seasons (1846) followed a year later by !e Lord of the Forest and His Vassals. Subsequent publications included Narrative Hymns (1857), Hymns Descriptive and Devotional (1858), and The Legend of the Golden Prayer, and Other Poems (1859).¹⁴ 

In 1889 the Dean of the Chapel Royal at Dublin Castles, Hercules Henry Dickinson, contacted Alexander and requested a hymn based on the ancient Irish prayer known as “St. Patrick’s Breastplate.” As he later recounted: 

I wrote to her suggesting that she should fill a gap in our Irish Church Hymnal by giving us a metrical version of St. Patrick’s “Lorica” and I sent her a carefully collated copy of the best prose translations of it. Within a week she sent me that exquisitely beautiful as well as faithful version which appears in the appendix to our Church Hymnal.¹⁵ 

Alexander did more than just “fill a gap”—she took an ancient prayer of protection known as a “lorica” and created an anthem-like hymn infused with Irish Christian nationality and spirituality. By invoking the Trinity and Christ’s victory, she presents a shield of divine protection—the ultimate prayer for fortification against spiritual warfare. Comprised of seven stanzas, the opening lines focus on the Trinity in an ABAB rhyme scheme. 

I bind unto myself today

The strong Name of the Trinity,

By invocation of the same,

The Three in One and One in Three. 

The remaining six stanzas have an ABABCDCD rhyme scheme, employing multiple poetic devices. Alexander’s use of anaphora creates a momentum of increasing spiritual commitment and strength in the knowledge of God’s protection. This powerful Trinitarian hymn builds to two final Christocentric stanzas.¹⁶ 

Christ be with me, Christ within me,

Christ behind me, Christ before me,

Christ beside me, Christ to win me,

Christ to comfort and restore me,

Christ beneath me, Christ above me,

Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,

Christ in hearts of all that love me,

Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

I bind unto myself the Name,

The strong Name of the Trinity;

By invocation of the same,

The Three in One, and One in Tree.

Of whom all nature hath creation;

Eternal Father, Spirit, Word:

Praise to the Lord of my salvation,

Salvation is of Christ the Lord. 

Alexander also composed hymns that captivated the hearts and minds of children.¹⁷ Her hymns were rich in doctrine, easily memorized, and written to “help children understand seasons and saint’s days of the Christian year—prominent themes with the Oxford movement.”¹⁸ 

Alexander’s first book of poetry, Verses for Seasons, was structured around the Christian calendar for children. She penned hymnbooks for educational purposes, particularly for use in schools: Moral Songs (1849), A Church School Hymnbook (1850), Narrative Hymns for Village Schools (1853), and Hymns, Descriptive and Devotional (1858). In her Sunday Book of Poetry (1865), Alexander explains why she composed for children and adopted a Christocentric approach to hymn writing. 

In some measure [may it] tend to make Sunday a pleasant day for children. May it help to teach them to praise God, the Father, Son, and Spirit; to contemplate life and death and their own hearts as Christians should; to understand the spirit of the Bible; and, through this fair creation, to look up to Him who is its Creator.¹⁹

Alexander understood how children related to the world around them as demonstrated in three of her most famous hymns: “There is a green hill far away,” “Once in royal David’s city,” and “All things bright and beautiful.” According to the director of the Royal National Institute for Deaf People, Brian Symington, these hymns had a depth of meaning far above their lyrical beauty. He believed that Alexander wrote these hymns to showcase the beauty of how they were signed, not how they were sung: “These hymns were so descriptive and so beautiful when signed by deaf children and adults, it seems to me they were written with deaf people very much in mind.”²⁰ 

Hymns for Little Children (1848) features forty-one hymns and was so successful that it went through one hundred editions.²¹ It opens with “Hymn of the Holy Trinity,” which describes the triune God through four simple stanzas. The poetic meter is 8.7.8.7, and the rhyme scheme is ABCB. Alexander employs poetic devices such as alliteration, consonance, and repetition, opening each stanza with the same line to impress on the children that they are “Christian children”: 

We are little Christian children

We can run, and talk, and play;

The great God of earth and heaven

Made, and keeps us every day.

…

We are little Christian children,

Saved by Him who loved us most,

We believe in God Almighty,

Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. 

Next, Alexander devotes a significant section to “Holy Baptism,” dividing twenty-eight hymns according to three promises. The first two promises renounce evil and teach the “Articles of the Christian Faith,” including the Apostle’s Creed. Alexander ties a hymn to each line. For example, “maker of heaven and earth” is reinforced in “All things bright and beautiful,” and “suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried” is referenced in “!ere is a green hill far away.” The third and final promise focuses on God’s holy will and commandments, encouraging children to serve and follow God faithfully. The hymnal concludes with nine hymns focusing on the Lord’s Prayer. 

Alexander’s choice of meters and simple, declarative language make her hymns rhythmic and easy to sing. She rarely uses irregular or long meter, preferring to use meters such as 8.7.8.7 (e.g., “We were washed in holy water”), 7.7.7.7 (e.g., “Morning Hymn”), and 7.6.7.6 (“All things bright and beautiful”). 

All her life, Alexander was a devoted wife, mother, and servant of God. She composed over three hundred hymns and was determined to share the gospel with society’s most vulnerable. 

The Nun of Kenmare: Margaret Anna Cusack

Originally from Dublin, Margaret Anna Cusack (also known as Sister Mary Frances Clare, the Nun of Kenmare) was born into a wealthy Protestant family. Following an illness that led to self-reflection, Cusack entered the Catholic faith. Reading the sermons of the Tractarians of the Oxford Movement influenced her decision and determined her ideal view of the church: 

Keble’s “Christian Year,” together with Manning’s and Newman’s sermons, became my constant companion. Gradually, through this reading, I began to grasp the idea of a visible church, and to long for certainty of belief.²² 

Cusack joined the Irish order of Poor Clares and was a prolific writer of historical and biographical works. Known for her strength of character and pragmatic approach to ministry, she often clashed with church leaders over her criticism of church hierarchy, combined with her nationalist political views. At one point, the Archbishop of Cashel, Thomas Croke, along with Cardinal Henry Manning, both intervened to stop a series of attacks on her in the English Catholic papers.²³ Nonetheless, she remained undeterred, implementing a famine relief fund and donating income from her books to her convent and local community.²⁴

Cusack was a staunch advocate for women and children experiencing hardship, even founding a school for children in Knock, County Mayo. She wrote countless letters to church leaders and challenged their lack of involvement in social issues. Cusack believed that providing practical education to the underprivileged would break the cycle of poverty and that “the soul of the poorest child in the world is as valuable and precious to God, as the soul of the most gifted being upon earth.” Not surprisingly, Cusack was inspired to write theologically rich hymns for children, as they were a primary focus of her ministry work. Just as Mary’s “Magnificat” was a song from the depths of the heart, so too were Cusack’s hymns for children.²⁵ 

Cusack’s hymnbook, Cloister Songs and Hymns for Children (1881), is comprised of eighty-two poetic texts including original hymns and translations of earlier hymns. It opens with four hymns collectively titled “Lays of the Cloister” focusing on aspects of monastic life, followed by translations of older works. 

The next section, “Hymns for Children,” contains thirty-one hymns and further verses for children on topics such as creation, the Lord’s Prayer, salvation, and God’s grace. It includes one of Cusack’s most famous hymns, “All for Jesus.” This six-stanza hymn, composed in long meter, uses poetic devices such as consonance, anaphora, ecphonesis, hypotyposis, alliteration, and euphony. A rhyme scheme of ABCB features throughout, aside from stanza three, where the scheme shifts to ABCA, and stanza five, which is ABBA.²⁶ This change in rhyme highlights a theological significance, warning against pride, anger, and careless speech. It emphasizes that sin and ungodly words wound Christ spiritually more deeply than his physical suffering on the cross, a reminder of the cost of eternal salvation. 

The opening lines of stanza one alludes to John 3:16, focusing on the central theme of Christ’s sacrifice for the sins of the world: 

All for Jesus, Who has given

All that He had and could for us;

’Tis not half-hearted love He asks;

And who would treat a Saviour thus? 

Cusack emphasizes the first line using trochaic meter, drawing the reader to the opening words and hymn title, “All for Jesus,” before shifting to iambic for the remainder of the hymn. Biblical allusions include Luke 22:44 in stanza two, John 19:33–34 in stanza three, and Matthew 27:29 in stanza five. 

Another of Cusack’s hymns, “Jesus was once a little child,” was originally featured in The Children’s Hymn Book of 1881, also known as Mrs. Brock’s Children’s Hymn Book. Composed using 8.6.8.6 meter, this hymn features five stanzas with an ABCB rhyme scheme, as exemplified in stanzas one and two: 

Jesus was once a little child

A little child like me;

Was cradled in His Mother’s arms

And sat upon her knee.

Once He was just the age I am

And just as helpless, too;

He used to sleep and walk, and speak

Just as all children do. 

Cusack uses poetic devices such as assonance, consonance, and internal rhyming, along with biblical allusions to Isaiah 9:6 in stanza three: 

And yet, though He was once a child,

He is the God of all,

And angel hosts before His throne,

In lowly worship fall. 

The final stanza references the fifth commandment encouraging children to obey their parents. Cusack uses the first person throughout, making this hymn personal for children by associating their childhood to Christ’s. The simple and mostly monosyllabic language allows for easy memorization by young minds.²⁷ 

The four-stanza hymn “Perfection” focuses on God’s love and creation, teaching that the duty of Christian philanthropy must come from a pure heart. The rhyme scheme is ABCB aside from the final stanza, which is ABAB. The meter is a trochaic 8.8.8.8, and Cusack uses poetic devices such as metaphor, euphony, alliteration, consonance, and repetition. A biblical allusion to 1 John 3:18 appears in the third stanza: 

Thus little thoughts and little acts

Of holy love become immense,

And offered to the Heart of God,

Shine with new radiance drawn from thence. 

“Perfection” also includes imagery and common themes found in hymns of this era. Nature and gardens were often employed as metaphors.²⁸ Flowers were representative of actions, and works were associated with physical traits, e.g., color or hue. The use of the words luster, shine, and radiance directly allude to God’s glory and magnificence. Believers proclaim God’s glory and demonstrate their faith through actions or works, thereby teaching children a valuable lesson. 

The smallest flowers oft brightest are,

So the least action that we do,

Is beautiful to God above,

If tinged with charity’s bright hue.

Then, say that thou canst not do

Great things for Jesus; He will take

The smallest, and will prize it too,

If given with love for His dear sake. 

Throughout her ministry, Cusack worked to improve the living conditions and opportunities for young people. She supported her community during the Great Famine, and evidence of her generosity appears in a letter from Mr. J. Sullivan, Kenmare, to the editor of the Dublin Freeman’s Journal: 

Now, I find on inquiry that the fund which purchases food for this starving population has been obtained solely by that most estimable lady, “The Nun of Kenmare.” The landlords or agents, with one or two exceptions, have not done anything to aid her in her noble efforts. The poor, starving people have to depend almost entirely on the funds obtained by that lady for relief. She has disbursed within a very short period, very little short of £10,000, to the poor of this district, and it might be truly said, if there was no “Nun of Kenmare” many a cold grave would be filled through starvation ere this. Such a benefactress is worth a legion of speechmakers; for while they are talking she is working.²⁹ 

Cusack advocated for “daily exercise in religious and moral training” for children to prepare them for society.³⁰ She also wanted to improve the lives of young women and train them before they emigrated to the United States. She authored Advice to Irish Girls in America (1872) and Women’s Work in Modern Society (1874), in which she stated that a woman’s main influence “was exercised as good Christian mothers.”³¹

Despite criticism from peers and church leaders, Cusack remained Christ focused and continued to promote theological education for women and children. Eventually she left the order, becoming an outspoken critic of the Catholic church. However, as a faithful servant, her love and complete devotion to God is perfectly encapsulated in one stanza from her hymn “The League of the Cross.”³² 

By the sign of the cross I shall conquer,

By the sign of the cross I shall win;

For the cross is the source of our triumph

As the tree was the cause of our sin. 

Amy Carmichael

Amy Carmichael was born in the north of Ireland and engaged in min-istry from an early age. Following her father’s death, she devoted herself to serving others through her deep faith and reliance on God. With a local woman’s donation, she established an outreach called “The Welcome,” offering classes to local mill girls known as “shawlies.” This building still exists today as a local church.³³

Following a spiritual meeting influenced by the Keswick Doctrine, Carmichael committed her life to Christian service. In 1893 she sailed to Japan as the first Keswick Convention missionary with the Church Missionary Society.³⁴ In 1895 Carmichael relocated to India with the Church of England Zenana Missionary Society and immediately assimilated into Indian culture, wearing traditional Indian clothing and learning the local Tamil language.³⁵ She established an evangelistic group comprised of Christian women, mainly Indian converts, called the “Starry Cluster,” engaging in outreach work in the local villages. However, soon Carmichael would find her true calling for ministry. 

In Southern India, a customary practice known as the Devadasi system encouraged parents to dedicate their young daughters to serve in the temples. The word “devadasi” means “servant of god,” and these young girls, in theory, became wives to the deities. However, upon reaching adolescence, they were forced to participate in temple prostitution involving physical abuse and sexual exploitation.³⁶ When Carmichael became aware of this, she shifted her focus to rescuing these vulnerable girls from temple life. 

In 1901 Carmichael moved the Church of England mission to a 170- acre compound in a village called Dohnavur.³⁷ The Dohnavur Fellowship provided rescued children with a loving, holistic, and Christian environment where they learned useful trades to support themselves in adulthood. Carmichael affectionately became known as “Amma” (“mother” in Tamil), demonstrating that she was loved and highly respected by all who used this name. In 1919, Carmichael received the Kaisar-i-Hind medal for services to the people of India.³⁸

During her time in India, Carmichael authored over thirty-five books while composing hymns for the children at her Dohnavur Mission. Her hymn book Dohnavur Songs: Songs for the Children of Dohnavur was published in 1920 and contained fifty hymns. Carmichael believed that most English hymns were not culturally suitable for Indian children, so she wrote from their perspective to reflect situations familiar to them. She incorporated local references in her choice of metaphors, imagery, and language. An example of this cultural association is demonstrated in Carmichael’s hymn “Thee angel and the tiger.” The tiger is the aggressor, personifying a danger to the children. However, God is omniscient and positions angels as protectors who influence the tiger’s actions, so the children can sleep peacefully, as evidenced in stanzas one and four: 

I think the careful angels walk

Where little children be.

One night a tiger came to stalk

His game quite near our nursery.

…

We wondered what the angels said

To make him go away,

Perhaps they patted his soft head

And whispered, “Tiger, you’re astray.” 

Carmichael continues using this theme of protection in her hymn “Brave blue bladderwort!” suggesting that the bladderwort plant is fearless in the face of danger because it is shielded by God. Just as he defends the wildflowers, he also safeguards children or “human flowers” as she calls them. According to Nancy Cho, 

Carmichael does not specify what danger lurks for them; the third verse, which addresses God as the “King of water floods” and “Raging forces,” could imply that he protects from the perils of drowning. However, in the context of the work of the Dohnavur Fellowship, much darker meanings are also encompassed: the harm that adults can inflict on children through neglect, abandonment, and abuse lurks beneath the innocent surface of this children’s song.³⁹ 

“Brave blue bladderwort!” has a rhyme scheme of ABCBDB and uses poetic devices such as alliteration, personification, repetition, and ecphonesis. Her use of plosive consonants and descriptive language reflects the movement of the rushing waters crashing over rocks, creating rapids and waterfalls. The bladderwort symbolizes resilience against the forces of nature because it is under the divine care of God. 

Brave blue bladderwort!

Down the water dashes,

In a swift tumultuous leap

Over you he flashes;

With a mighty, mighty roar

On the black rock flashes.

King of water-floods.

Maker of the wild-flowers,

Raging forces own Thee Lord,

Thine are all the world-powers.

What can hurt what Thou dost guard,

Little children or wild-flowers?⁴⁰ 

The final selection in the Dohnavur songbook is one of Carmichael’s most famous hymns, “Our children,” renamed “For our children” in her book Towards Jerusalem (1936). Composed in long meter, Carmichael uses alliteration, anaphora, consonance, assonance, and internal rhyming to highlight her caring nature for the children in her custody. According to Cho, “For our children” “functions like a prophylactic lullaby—indeed, the work ends with ‘eventide’—which aims to ward off danger.”⁴¹ This hymn (especially in stanzas one and four) is a plea to God to shield those who are vulnerable. Although Carmichael was thousands of miles away from Ireland, her connection to Alexander was apparent through her homage to Alexander’s “St. Patrick’s Breastplate.” Cho noted that: 

Carmichael’s hymn replicates the anaphora of “St Patrick’s Breastplate,” which communicates a sense of fearful urgency, and, apart from the final rhyme on “burning”/ “returning,” follows the same tetrameter pattern. … In this case, “Our Children” is a work of cultural hybridity, which liturgically attests to God’s power to care for Indian children in the language of a Celtic prophylactic prayer.⁴² 

Carmichael’s prayer begins: 

Father, hear us, we are praying,

Hear the words our hearts are saying,

We are praying for our children.

From the worldling’s hollow gladness,

From the sting of faithless sadness,

Father, Father, save our children. 

Carmichael was an exceptional, godly woman who embodied the Great Commission, plainly evident in her poem, “Give me the love that leads the way.” Composed in long meter, this three-stanza poem features an AABBCC rhyme scheme. Poetic devices such as alliteration, consonance, and assonance, encapsulate the emotional struggles and Carmichael’s deep desire to serve God as one of his soldiers in faith. 

From prayer that asks that I may be

Sheltered from winds that beat on Thee,

From fearing when I should aspire,

From faltering when I should climb higher,

From silken self, O Captain, free

Thy soldier who would follow Thee.⁴³

Carmichael ministered in India for fifty-five years but was bedridden for the last twenty years of her life. Undeterred, she continued to write and serve God until her death in 1951. It is estimated that she educated and saved more than one thousand children from a life of abuse.⁴⁴ 

Sisters in Worship

During this era, in addition to Cecil Francis Alexander, Margaret Anna Cusack, and Amy Carmichael, other Irish women contributed to Irish hymnody. Charitie Lees Smith Bancroft (1841-1923) composed “Before the throne of God above” and many of her hymns were included in the Lyra Britannica, Lyra Hibernia, and her own hymnbook titled Within the Vail and Other Sacred Poems (1867).⁴⁵ 

Emily Henrietta Hickey (1845–1924) penned “Give peace in our time, O Lord.”⁴⁶ Jean Sophia Pigott (1845–1882) authored “Jesus, I am resting, resting,” following the murder of her brother and seventy-six other mis-sionaries in the Boxer Rebellion of 1901 in China. 

Perhaps the most famous Irish hymn of this period is “Be Thou my vision.” Mary Elizabeth Byrne (1880–1931), an Irish linguist, translated the original poem “Rob tú mo Bhoile, A Comdi Cride,” attributed to Dallan Forgaill (eighth century). English author and scholar, Eleanor Hull (1860–1935) versified this poem as “Be Thou my vision” in The Poem-Book of the Gael of 1913.⁴⁷ 

No discourse on Irish women of worship would be complete without mentioning hymn collector Úna Ni Ogáin (1868–1927).⁴⁸ Ni Ogáin began collecting religious poems around 1915 and was published in The Irish Rosary and An tEaglaiseach Gaelach.⁴⁹ In 1928 the hymnbook Dánta Dé, or as it was known in English “Poems of God both Old and New,” was published featuring poems by C. S. Ó Fallamhain. One year before her death, Úna collected the words and tunes and edited the book, dedicating it to the Gaelic poet, scholar, and first president of Ireland, Douglas Hyde.⁵⁰ 

Conclusion

In conclusion, the nineteenth century offered women two areas of Christian service that provided them with a sense of agency within their faith: hymn writing and missionary work.⁵¹ Women hymnwriters composed poetry following Christ’s journey of the cross through their individual experiences of adversity, loneliness, despair, and heartbreak. Their perspective provided a fresh and emotional depth to hymn writing of this era, as Valentine Cunningham expresses: 

Into a religious world managed by men, these women subversively interposed words, feelings, experiences manifestly from the female sphere. This was the subaltern majority in the pew taking over, as it were, the pulpits from which they were excluded. They wrote as women, as wives, mothers, sisters, from places a male church confined them to: Sunday school, orphanages, girls’ schools, bazaars for the missionaries.⁵² 

According to Cunningham, hymns of this era written by males could not match “the enormous female desire to see and meet and know and be embraced by Christ.”⁵³ These Christ-focused women strived for excellence, leaving an indelible mark on the history of church music. They drew on their Irish heritage and infused their writings with a spirit that could only come from God, as Ogáin so aptly describes: 

It is wonderful how the warm-hearted, clear-believing spirit of the older Gaels fills Irish Christianity, through storm and sunshine, through all the centuries, down to our own time. … but the old spirit, beautiful and noble, lives on in the hearts of our people still,—the spirit which was kindled in them at the first by the Spirit of God; and it will endure always with the help of God, as a precious and sacred heritage ….⁵⁴ 

Due to the contributions of Alexander, Cusack, Carmichael, and other exceptional Irish women, modern female hymnwriters can now compose freely. Unrestricted by constraints of the past they use their poetic and musical gifts in faithful service to God, boldly proclaiming the gospel to the nations. As Amy Carmichael once said, “It is not the place where we are, or the work that we do or cannot do that matters, it is something else. It is the fire within that burns and shines, whatever be our circumstances.”⁵⁵ 

1. Leslie Clay, Sisters in Song (Columbia, MO: AKA Publishing, 2013).  ↩︎
2. Alisa Clapp-Itnyre, British Hymn Books for Children, 1800-1900: Re-Tuning the History of Childhood (New York: Routledge, 2016), 1.  ↩︎
3. “Act of Union, United Kingdom 1801,” Encyclopedia Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/ event/Act-of-Union-United-Kingdom-1801, April 2, 2025.  ↩︎
4. David Monagan, “From Coffn Ships to Triumph Abroad, Museums Tell of Ireland’s Haunting Diaspora,” Forbes, March 24, 2013, https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidmonagan/2013/03/24/ from-coffin-ships-to-triumph-abroad-museums-tell-of-irelands-haunting-diaspo-ra/# 676a4b863200  ↩︎
5. Jennifer O’Connell, “25 Fearless Women Who Helped Shape Today’s Ireland,” The Irish Times, March 3, 2018.  ↩︎
6. Molly Clarke, “Constance Markievicz: The Making of a Rebel Countess,” The National Archives, April 2, 2021, https://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/constance-markievicz-the-making-of-a-reb-elcountess/.  ↩︎
7. Gerardine Meaney, Mary O’Dowd, and Bernadette Whelan, “Educating Women, Patriotism and Public Life, 1770–1845,” in Reading the Irish Woman: Studies in Cultural Encounters and Exchange, 1714–1960 (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2013), 559.  ↩︎
8. “Ethnic Groups, Language, and Religion,” Encyclopedia Britannica, last updated April 9, 2025, https://www.britannica.com/place/Ireland/Ethnic-groups-language-and-religion.  ↩︎
9. “Language and Religion in Ireland, 1800-1870,” Centre for Scottish and Celtic Studies – Seminar Blogs, University of Glasgow, November 27, 2013, http://cscs.academicblogs.co.uk/ language-and-religion-in-ireland-1800-1870/.  ↩︎
10. William Jordan Doggett, “Bright and Beautiful: Images of Nature in English-Language Hymns and Hymnals for Children” (Ph.D. diss., Graduate !eological Union, 2005), 18. ↩︎
11. Louise Cullen, “Cecil Frances Alexander: A Pioneer of Deaf Education,” BBC NI News, May 7, 2018, https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-44018269.  ↩︎
12. In 1856 a fire occurred in the school during the night. Local people managed to rescue twelve children, but despite their heroic efforts, six children perished. Devastated by this tragedy, Alexander and her husband subsequently raised funds to keep a temporary school open.  ↩︎
13. Justin Clemente, “Singing the Faith with Mrs. Alexander,” Anglican Compass, accessed April 4, 2025, https://anglicancompass.com/singing-the-faith-with-mrs-alexander/.  ↩︎
14. Edwin F. Hatfield, The Poets of the Church: A Series of Biographical Sketches of Hymn-Writers (New York: Anson D. F. Randolph & Company, 1884), 9.  ↩︎
15. Cecil Frances Alexander, Poems (London: Macmillan and Co., 1897), xxxv.  ↩︎
16. “I bind unto myself today” was later set to a traditional Irish tune by the Irish composer and conductor Charles V. Stanford.  ↩︎
17. Alexander was greatly influenced by the Oxford Movement and three individuals had a profound effect on her spiritual development: the Dean of Chichester Walter Farquhar Hook, who penned the introduction to Verses for Holy Seasons (1846); clergyman William Archer Butler, who was a close friend; and Tractarian John Keble, who authored the opening to her Hymns for Little Children (1848).  ↩︎
18. Katherine L. Brown, “Thee Social and Political Theought of Cecil Frances Alexander, Hymnwriter and Poet,” Anglican and Episcopal History 68, no. 1 (March 1999): 95.  ↩︎
19. C. F. Alexander, Sunday Book of Poetry (London: Macmillan & Co., 1872), viii.  ↩︎
20. Cullen, “Pioneer of Deaf Education.”  ↩︎
21. Clay, Sisters in Song, 6.  ↩︎
22. Mary Francis Cusack, The Nun of Kenmare: An Autobiography (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1889), 11.  ↩︎
23. In Cusack’s autobiography, The Nun of Kenmare, she describes this ordeal (pp. 78-85). Cardinal Manning also held the title of Archbishop of Westminster and Cusack’s main adversary, Father Angus, resided within Manning’s diocese. Manning instructed the priest to cease his attacks on Cusack, but these requests were ignored. It took a threat of legal action from Cusack, along with a contradiction of Angus’s libels posted by the editor of the Morning Post to finally silence Father Angus. This respite only lasted a short while as he commenced writing again anonymously. Father Angus was only one of many critics that Cusack had to contend with throughout her religious life.  ↩︎
24. Mags Gargan, “The Nun of Kenmare,” The Irish Catholic, August 14, 2014, https://www.irish-catholic. com/the-nun-of-kenmare/.  ↩︎
25. Nicholas Smith, Songs from the Hearts of Women: One Hundred Famous Hymns and Their Writers (London: Legare Street Press, 2021), 1.  ↩︎
26. The phonetic sound of the words “head” rhymes with the phonetic sound of “again,” which when pronounced with an Irish accent, sounds an /ɛ/ in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) as opposed to an /eI/.  ↩︎
27. The music was composed by Rev. C. J. Dickinson and is titled Childhood. It has a time signature of 3/4 with a straightforward rhythmic melody, mostly on the beat, which also assists with memorization for children.  ↩︎
28. Doggett, “Bright and Beautiful,” 88.  ↩︎
29. Cusack, The Nun of Kenmare, 89.  ↩︎
30. Cusack, The Nun of Kenmare, 277.  ↩︎
31. James Craig Holte, The Conversion Experience in America: A Sourcebook on Religious Conversion Autobiography (Boston: Greenwood Publishing Group, 1992), 53.  ↩︎
32. Margaret Anna Cusack, “The League of the Cross,” in Cloister Songs and Hymns for Children (Dublin: M. H. Gill & Son, 1881), 76.  ↩︎
33. Hunter Beless, “Bold Prayers Made Amy Carmichael’s 55 Years in India Possible,” Christianity Today, September 9, 2023, https://www.christianitytoday.com/2023/09/ amy-carmichael-missions-india-donhavur-temple-girls-pray/.  ↩︎
34. “Amy Carmichael,” The Dohnavur Fellowship, accessed April 16, 2025, https://dohnavurfellow-ship. org/amycarmichael/.  ↩︎
35. Jocelyn Murray, “Carmichael, Amy Beatrice,” in Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions, ed. Gerald H. Anderson (New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 1998), 116.  ↩︎
36. Zoya Hussain, “Explained: Who Are Devadasis, !eir History and Current Status,” India Times, December 18, 2022, https://www.indiatimes.com/explainers/news/who-are-devadasis-their-his-toryand-current-status-587888.html.  ↩︎
37. Nancy Jiwon Cho, “Amy Carmichael,” in The Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology, Canterbury Press, accessed March 15, 2025, http://www.hymnology.co.uk/a/amy-carmichael.  ↩︎
38. According to the National Army Museum of London, “The Kaisar-i-Hind Medal was instituted by Queen Victoria in 1900, and was awarded, in gold or silver, to men and women who had performed valuable public service in India.”  ↩︎
39. Nancy Jiwon Cho, “Prophylactic, Anti-Paedophile Hymn-Writing in Colonial India: An Introduction to Amy Carmichael (1867–1951) and Her Missionary Writings,” The Modern Language Review 104, no. 2 (2009): 366.  ↩︎
40. Amy Wilson-Carmichael, Dohnavur Songs: Songs of the Children of Dohnavur (Madras: SPCK, 1920), 38.  ↩︎
41. Cho, “Prophylactic, Anti-Paedophile Hymn-Writing,” 371.  ↩︎
42. Cho, “Prophylactic, Anti-Paedophile Hymn-Writing,” 372.  ↩︎
43. “Amy Carmichael: Liberator of Child Slaves.”  ↩︎
44. Beless, “Bold Prayers.”  ↩︎
45. Charitie Lees Smith Bancroft, Within the Vail and Other Sacred Poems (London: S. W. Partridge & Co., 1867), 5-6.  ↩︎
46. Alfred H. Miles, ed., Women Poets of the Nineteenth Century, 2 vols. (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1907), available at https://www.bartleby.com/lit-hub/women-poets-of-the-nineteenth-century/ emily-h-hickey-18451924/.  ↩︎
47. Although Hull was born in England, her influence on Irish literature and history along with her involvement in the creation of such an important Irish hymn should not be overlooked. ↩︎
48. “Douglas Hyde,” Encyclopedia Britannica, accessed April 9, 2025, https://www.britannica.com/ biography/Douglas-Hyde.  ↩︎
49. Diarmuid Breathnach and Máire Ní Mhurchú, “Úna Ni Ogáin,” Ainm.ie, accessed April 8, 2025, https://www.ainm.ie/Bio.aspx?ID=209.  ↩︎
50. “History of Parliament in Ireland,” Houses of the Oireachtas, accessed April 15, 2025, https:// www.oireachtas.ie/en/visit-and-learn/history-and-buildings/history-of-parliament-in-ireland/.  ↩︎
51. In response to a negative comment regarding women’s abilities as missionaries, Scottish missionary Mary Slessor once stated, “In measuring the woman’s power, you have evidently forgotten to take into account the woman’s God.” Timothy Larsen, “Evangelism’s Strong History of Women in Ministry,” Reformed Journal, August 31, 2017, https://reformedjournal.com/2017/08/31/ evangelicalisms-strong-history-women-ministry/.  ↩︎
52. Valentine Cunningham, “The Hymns Were Hers: How Victorian Women Gave the Anglican Church its Greatest Hits,” The Guardian, March 30, 2002, https://www.theguardian.com/edu-cation/ 2002/mar/30/artsandhumanities.highereducation.  ↩︎
53. Cunningham, “The Hymns Were Hers.”  ↩︎
54. Úna Ni Ogáin, Dánta Dé: Hymns to God, Ancient and Modern (Dublin: Colm O’Loughlin, 1928), 6.  ↩︎
55. “Amy Carmichael: Liberator of Child Slaves,” The BLB Blog, accessed April 16, 2025, https:// blogs.blueletterbible.org/blb/2011/06/27/amy-carmichael-liberator-of-child-slaves/.  ↩︎