Dublin's Women Street Traders 1882-1932: 'civic evil' and
civil disobedience
"The resistance of the street traders was formidable as the women were prepared to engage in civil disobedience, endure violence from Gardaí and imprisonment to protect their livelihoods and to vindicate their rights as actual “stakeholders”. Their story mirrors others around the world today, their courage is inspiring." Ireland's Genealogical Gazette, November 2025.
"Martin packs a great deal of social and political history of a kind that is little known, often quite unknown to some I expect…But the lesson of the whole story is one of civil resistance against the over heavy administration. The civil disobedience expounded by Thoreau and Gandhi came to Dublin’s 'streets broad and narrow.'" The Irish Catholic, 6 November 2025.
A ballad about a woman street trader is widely regarded as Dublin’s anthem, yet the city’s relationship with those who traded on its streets was often acrimonious. From 1882 onwards efforts commenced to have street traders banned alongside gentrification projects. A watershed came with the passage of the Street Trading Act of 1926. This book examines the resistance of the traders when those with power refused to recognize them as stakeholders. What the establishment learned was that the women were prepared to engage in civil disobedience, endure violence from Gardaí and serve time in jail to both protect their livelihoods and protest what they characterized as ‘banishment to the slums’.
Available at Four Courts Press, Books Upstairs, The Gutter Bookshop, O'Mahony's, Kenny's and Easons, and in Canada at Indigo and Amazon.
"Martin packs a great deal of social and political history of a kind that is little known, often quite unknown to some I expect…But the lesson of the whole story is one of civil resistance against the over heavy administration. The civil disobedience expounded by Thoreau and Gandhi came to Dublin’s 'streets broad and narrow.'" The Irish Catholic, 6 November 2025.
A ballad about a woman street trader is widely regarded as Dublin’s anthem, yet the city’s relationship with those who traded on its streets was often acrimonious. From 1882 onwards efforts commenced to have street traders banned alongside gentrification projects. A watershed came with the passage of the Street Trading Act of 1926. This book examines the resistance of the traders when those with power refused to recognize them as stakeholders. What the establishment learned was that the women were prepared to engage in civil disobedience, endure violence from Gardaí and serve time in jail to both protect their livelihoods and protest what they characterized as ‘banishment to the slums’.
Available at Four Courts Press, Books Upstairs, The Gutter Bookshop, O'Mahony's, Kenny's and Easons, and in Canada at Indigo and Amazon.
