Helena Concannon (; 28 October 1878 – 27 February 1952) was an Irish historian, writer, language scholar and Fianna Fáil politician.
Born in Maghera, County Londonderry, she attended secondary school in Dublin in Loreto North Great Georges Street and Loreto Stephen's Green. She attended university at the Royal University of Ireland in Belfast and then the National University of Ireland. She also studied abroad at the Sorbonne University Paris, Berlin University and in Rome. She was Professor of History at University College Galway. In her youth Concannon, as well as her husband, was a member of "The Irish Fireside Club", which in the 1880s was the largest children's association in Ireland where children took responsibility upon themselves to teach others and themselves to make Ireland a better place.
Many of her writings were on the subject of Irish women, including Canon Sheehan's Woman Characters (1910), Women of Ninety Eight (1919), Daughters of Banba (1922), The Poor Clares in Ireland (1929), and Irish nuns in penal days (1931).
She was first elected to Dáil Éireann as a Fianna Fáil Teachta Dála (TD) at the 1933 general election for the National University constituency. At the 1938 general election, she was elected to Seanad Éireann for the National University of Ireland constituency. She was re-elected at each successive election and served in the Seanad until her death in 1952.
Her husband was the Irish scholar Tomás Bán Ó Conceanainn (Thomas Concannon), a national health inspector, and she authored several books as "Mrs Thomas Concannon".
University life and life as professor
Concannon was educated by the Loreto nuns in Coleraine. In 1897, she studied modern languages at the Royal University of Ireland on a three-year scholarship. She studied abroad during these years as in 1899, she travelled to Germany and studied German in Berlin University accompanied by her friend, Mary Macken. Concannon then travelled to France to study French in Sorbonne. In 1900, Concannon graduated Bachelor of Arts with first class honours and went on to study Master of Arts in 1902 at the Royal University of Ireland. Concannon was fortunate to being one of the first generation of educated women.
In 1906, Concannon married Tomás Bán Ó Conceanainn who she met in 1900, when he arrived home from America. They settled down in County Galway where they shared the same love for the Irish Language and wrote many Irish texts. They had no children. In Galway, Concannon was a professor at University College Galway where she taught history, which mainly involved the history of Irish Women. In 1909, Concannon was offered a lectureship at University of College Dublin, in Italian, but the offer was then drawn before she could accept, so she decided to pursue the writing career.
Writing career
In 1909 she was offered a lecturer position at University College Dublin and after the offer was withdrawn she began her writing career. She produced over twenty books and published a number of works on religion, history of Ireland and Irish women's history. Her works were highly impacted by her political and nationalist views. Her 'analyses of Irish history was based on Catholicism and patriotism'. She was also an advocate of Irish language restoration.
Her first writings were love poems to her husband Tomás Bán Ó Conceanainn. These poems were 'simple, sensuous and passionate'.
She also produced a number of imaginative historical text for children. She used her married name for her publications and her first book was published in 1914 titled as A Garden of girls, or the famous schoolgirls of former days, it was about 'school life and education of real little girls'. Her next well known piece was the Life of St. Columban in 1915, which was a study about the Irish ancient monastic life and a biography of a sixth-century saint.
Two of her books, Daughters of Banba (1922) and St. Patrick (1932), received the Tailteann Medal for Literature, and The Poor Clares in Ireland (1929) won the National University Prize a DLitt higher doctorate degree for historical research.