This weekend’s double whammy celebrating women began on Friday with International Women’s Day and continued through Mother’s Day on Sunday. On Saturday, sandwiched between these twin towers of sisterhood, I am writing about how the voting rights in the world for women were first delivered by a crusading feminist Ulsterman in New Zealand. John Ballance, born and raised in Co Antrim, emigrated to New Zealand and as a journalist campaigned for liberal values and universal suffrage. He secured voting rights for women in 1893, two years after he first served as prime minister. He is my great-granduncle; I was named…

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