Margaret Cousins, born in Boyle, Roscommon, in 1878 was co-founder of the Irish Women's Franchise League in 1908 together with Hanna and Frank Sheehy-Skeffington. She spent a month in Tullamore Jail for breaking the windows of Dublin Castle in protest against the lack of votes for women. She worked with Emmeline Pankhurst in England as well as bringing her to Cork and Derry where she spoke at a large public meeting in 1910. She was airbrushed from Irish history when she and her husband James migrated to India where she founded the All India Women's Conference and managed to achieve votes for women in India.

Now is the time to wrest her from the shadows and restore her to her rightful place within the annals of Irish history. Although remaining a staunch member of the Theosophical Society she had connections with the Bahá’í Faith including a meeting with the Guardian of the Faith in 1932. Martha Root, world travel teacher, records having met her in Kerala in India.