View source for Oonah Keogh

{{Short description|Irish stockbroker}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2022}}
{{Use Hiberno-English|date=February 2022}}
{{Infobox person
| honorific_prefix =
| name = Oonah Keogh
| honorific_suffix =
| image = Oonah_Keogh.jpg
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| birth_date = 2 May 1903
| birth_place = Dublin
| death_date = 18 July 1989
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| known_for = First Irish woman stockbroker
| notable_works =
}}
'''Oonah Keogh''' (2 May 1903 – 18 July 1989) was an [[Irish people|Irish]] woman who became the first female member of the [[Dublin Stock Exchange]], in 1925. She may also have been the first woman [[stockbroker]] anywhere in the world accredited on a national exchange.
==Early life and education==
Una Mary Irene Keogh was born in [[Dublin]] in 1903 to Joseph Chapman Keogh of [[Wicklow]] and Annie Kathleen Doyne of [[Mullingar]], a middle daughter of eight children.<ref>{{cite web |title=Irish Genealogy Birth record |url=https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/birth_returns/births_1903/01870/1728107.pdf |website=civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie}}</ref> Her father was known as the youngest bank manager in Irish history in the 1880s when he took on the job at age 24. Keogh attended the Catholic girl's schools [[Princethorpe College|St. Mary's Priory]] in [[Warwickshire]] and [[Alexandra College]] in Dublin, and also spent time studying at the [[Metropolitan School of Art]]. From 1922 through 1924 Keogh travelled around Africa and Europe with a governess. After she returned to London to study her father gave her a job in the family business, Joseph Keogh & Company Stockbroking.<ref name="Womens Museum of Ireland 2019">{{cite web | title=Articles - Oonah Keogh | website=Women's Museum of Ireland | date=2019-08-09 | url=https://womensmuseumofireland.ie/articles/oonah-keogh | access-date=2019-09-06}}</ref><ref name="Think Business 2018">{{cite web | title=Oonah Keogh, the world's first female stockbroker | website=Think Business | date=2018-03-08 | url=https://www.thinkbusiness.ie/articles/oonah-keogh-the-worlds-first-female-stockbroker/ | access-date=2019-09-06}}</ref><ref name="ISE">{{cite web |last1=Nolan |first1=Bláthnaid |title=Oonah Keogh A Celebration |url=https://www.ise.ie/Media/News-and-Events/2014/Oonah-Keogh-A-Celebration-of-the-First-Female-member-of-a-stock-exchange-in-the-world.pdf |publisher=Irish Stock Exchange |access-date=6 September 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=1911 National Archives: Census of Ireland 1911 |url=http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Dublin/Pembroke_East/Shrewsbury_Road/42654/ |website=www.census.nationalarchives.ie}}</ref><ref name="Irish America 2015">{{cite web | title=Commentary: What Oonagh Did | website=Irish America | date=2015-10-01 | url=https://irishamerica.com/2015/10/commentary-what-oonagh-did/ | access-date=2019-09-06}}</ref>
==Career==
A small number of women around the world had begun to work as stockbrokers in various capacities by the late 19th century. Sisters [[Victoria Woodhull]] and [[Tennessee Claflin]] were the first women to open a brokerage firm on [[Wall Street]], in 1870,<ref>{{Cite web|last=Greenspan|first=Jesse|title=9 Things You Should Know About Victoria Woodhull|url=https://www.history.com/news/9-things-you-should-know-about-victoria-woodhull|access-date=2021-02-06|website=HISTORY|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|title=The Learning Network|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/section/learning|access-date=2021-02-06|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> while [[Amy Bell]] was the first British woman to found her own firm in [[City of London|London]], in 1886.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Murray|first1=Janet Horowitz|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XYG_DQAAQBAJ&q=amy+e+bell+stockbroker&pg=PT67|title=The Englishwoman's Review of Social and Industrial Questions: 1886|last2=Stark|first2=Myra|date=2016-12-19|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-315-40260-4|language=en}}</ref> However, the major national exchanges of Europe and North America mostly barred women from becoming members, and so these women tended to work outside of the system – either by offering consultancy services for female clients who were ignored by mainstream firms, by relying on accredited intermediaries to trade on exchanges on their behalf, or by specialising in financial products which were not traded via exchanges at all.{{citation needed|date=February 2022}}
This systemic discrimination against women in the financial sector means that determining the true "first" woman stockbroker, either in the world or just a specific country, was difficult in the era before [[World War I]]. However, newspaper reports from the years immediately following the war indicate that women stockbrokers were increasingly common, with a small number accepted into exchanges in New York City, Berlin, and Amsterdam. In the UK, [[Doris Mortimer]] was the first woman to become a member of a British stock exchange when she joined [[Exeter]]'s in 1923—while the [[London Stock Exchange]] would not admit its first female members until 1973.<ref>{{Cite news|last=|first=|date=5 June 1925|title=The First Irish Woman Stockbroker|work=The Vote|url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0002186/19250605/009/0001|access-date=}}</ref>
Nevertheless, the Dublin Stock Exchange had never accepted a woman as a member before by the time Keogh returned to Ireland to work for her father's firm. The new Irish constitution guaranteed equality, and, with her education and wealth, Keogh was fully qualified. She was admitted to the exchange on 4 May 1925 after a three-week deliberation and voting process. She worked there for 14 years.<ref name="Womens Museum of Ireland 2019" /><ref name="Think Business 2018" /> Keogh experienced the typical difficulties of being the only woman in a male-dominated industry. In an interview in 1971, she said:<blockquote> One of the disadvantages in those days was that women did not socialise with men in lounges of pubs. When the men retired to Jury’s to relax after transacting business I could not accompany them. And even when I went to the races with my father it was the same. He would go to the bar for a drink, I would have to slip off for afternoon tea.</blockquote> Disagreements with her father encouraged her to take some time off and visit her sisters Eta and Genevieve in Hampshire in England. It was there she met her husband.<ref name="ISE" /><ref name="Irish America 2015" />
==Personal life==
Keogh married [[White émigré|Russian émigré]] Bayan Giltsof. When she married, Keogh resigned from her father's company but not from the Stock Exchange. She gave them notice of her new name and status. However, initially, she moved to Taunton, Somerset, England with her husband. There they began a building business and developed Tudor houses. She had a daughter Tatiana born in 1935 and two sons Rurik, in 1937 and Nicholi in 1939. Her fourth child Bayan was born in 1945. After her father's business went bankrupt, there was a court case involving one of his creditors. Keogh had lodged shares with a bank which was now claiming that they were owed against the company debts. Her father had not removed her name from the company documents and Keogh was found to owe the money, and thus also the court costs.<ref name="ISE"/><ref name="Irish America 2015"/>
The family sold up the British home and moved back to Ireland. They bought land in Wicklow and created a set of houses known as The Russian Village.<ref name="Keenan 2017">{{cite web | last=Keenan | first=Mark | title=Peek inside this €945k five-bedroom home with tennis court and stunning views | website=Independent.ie | date=2017-11-03 | url=https://www.independent.ie/life/home-garden/homes/peek-inside-this-945k-fivebedroom-home-with-tennis-court-and-stunning-views-36284406.html | access-date=2019-09-06}}</ref><ref name="The Irish Times 2013">{{cite news | title=Wicklow playhouse with a Russian twist for €2.285m | newspaper=The Irish Times | date=2013-03-21 | url=https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/homes-and-property/new-to-market/wicklow-playhouse-with-a-russian-twist-for-2-285m-1.3883341 | access-date=2019-09-06}}</ref> Irish President [[Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh]] retired there in 1976. In 1952 the family moved again to [[Ontario]] but they returned to England in 1953. Shortly after this, the couple separated. Giltsof returned to Wicklow until his death in 1977. Keogh moved with her daughter's family to [[Madrid]]. There she taught English in an international primary school. 1980 saw her return to Dublin with her daughter after her daughter's husband died. Both women died within eight days of each other in 1989, Keogh preceded by her daughter.<ref name="ISE"/><ref name="Irish America 2015"/> They are buried in the family grave in Deansgrange Cemetery.
==References==
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[[Category:1903 births]]
[[Category:1989 deaths]]
[[Category:People educated at Alexandra College]]
[[Category:Women stockbrokers]]
[[Category:Businesspeople from Dublin (city)]]
[[Category:20th-century Irish women]]
[[Category:Alumni of the National College of Art and Design]]
[[Category:Irish expatriates in Spain]]
[[Category:Irish expatriates in England]]
[[Category:Irish expatriates in Canada]]