Suzanne Rouviere Day (24 April 1876 – 26 May 1964) was an Irish feminist, novelist and playwright. She founded the Munster Women's Franchise League, was one of Cork's first women poor-law guardians and served a support role in both World Wars.

Biography

Day was born in Cork, Ireland on 24 April 1876 to Robert and Rebecca Day. Her father

Robert The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of ''Hrōþ, Hruod'' () "fame, glory, honour, prais ...

ran a Saddler and Ironmonger business and was a well known antiquarian and photographer. In 1910 she formed the local

Irish Women's Franchise League The Irish Women's Franchise League was an organisation for women's suffrage which was set up in Dublin in November 1908. Its founder members included Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington, Margaret Cousins, Francis Sheehy-Skeffington and James H. Cousins. Tho ...

branch in Cork as an activist group for women's suffrage. The following year she left that group and founded the non-militant Munster Women's Franchise League. Her new interest in politics led to her winning the election of poor-law guardians the same year.Maria Luddy, 'Day, Susanne Rouviere (1875/6–1964)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 200
accessed 18 Nov 2017
/ref> Her later writings reveal that she saw the Cork workhouses as an expensive self-perpetuating evil run by amateurs. This led to her first novel. From 1913 to 1917 she wrote three plays for the

Abbey Theatre The Abbey Theatre (), also known as the National Theatre of Ireland () is a theatre in Dublin, Ireland. First opening to the public on 27 December 1904, and moved from its original building after a fire in 1951, it has remained active to the p ...

in collaboration with

Geraldine Cummins Geraldine Dorothy Cummins (24 January 1890 –24 August 1969) was an Irish spiritualist medium, novelist and playwright. She began her career as a creative writer, but increasingly concentrated on mediumship and "channelled" writings, mostly ab ...

, the most successful of which was the comedy ''Fox and Geese'' (1917). The

Battle of Verdun The Battle of Verdun ( ; ) was fought from 21 February to 18 December 1916 on the Western Front (World War I), Western Front in French Third Republic, France. The battle was the longest of the First World War and took place on the hills north ...

lasted most of 1916 and during that time Day was amongst a group from the

Society of Friends Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally, others referred to them as Quakers ...

who cared for the wounded. She was in France for fifteen months and she used the experience to create her 1918 book ''Round about Bar-le-Duc''. ''Where the Mistral Blows'' was published in 1933 and describes her time in Provence in France. She worked as a member of the fire service in London during the Second World War. She lived in Cork, France and London. She was living at 47 Argyle Road, Kensington, London when she died,National Probate Calendar but she died in Cromer and District Hospital on 26 May 1964.

Criticism

The work of Suzanne Rouviere Day and

has been described as a mixture of paganism and melodrama and has been suggested as a precursor to John B. Keane.

Works

Plays

* ''Out of a Deep Shadow'' (1912) * ''Toilers'' (1913) *''Broken Faith'' (co-written with Geraldine Cummins; Abbey Theatre, 1913) *''The Way of the World'' (co-written with Geraldine Cummins; Abbey Theatre, 1914) *''Fox and Geese'' (co-written with Geraldine Cummins; Abbey Theatre, 1917) *''Sixes and Sevens'' (1918)

Books

* ''The Amazing Philanthropists'' (1916) * ''Round about Bar-le-Duc'' (1918) * ''Where the Mistral blows'' (1933) * ''St Martin's Cloak'', unpublished draft novel

Notes

External links

''Fox and Geese'' by Susanne Day and Geraldine Cummins at Great War Theatre
{{DEFAULTSORT:Day, Suzanne 1876 births 1964 deaths 20th-century Irish novelists 20th-century Irish dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Irish women writers Irish spiritualists Irish women dramatists and playwrights Irish women novelists Writers from Cork (city)