Live from the Ladies Cage

de Mick O'Dwyer

Mick, a librarian, writes and draws this minicomic about the life of Irish nationalist Anna Parnell. He learned about Parnell when cataloging an old collection of Irish pamphlets during an internship in the Irish government's Library and Research Service. The zine covers conflicts in Parnell's life, her family relationships, the history of the Ladies Land League in the fight for Irish nationalism, and the relationship between feminism and Irish politics from the 1800s to the present. Mick alters lyrics to "Dallas" by Silver Jews to be about Parnell. He also writes about misconceptions around librarianship, the similarities between zines and pamphlets, and whether or not he can understand/write about feminism. He includes a note about the challenges of making the zine, and provides quotations from Don Quixote and Ulysses. The zine's illustrations are colored in.