Margaret Cousins

Boyle, County Roscommon, is the birthplace of Margaret Cousins, the Irish-Indian educationist who later helped found the All India Women's Conference and preserve the tune of Jana Gana Mana. She entered the world there in 1878 as the eldest of fifteen children in a Methodist household, likely hearing hymns and arguments before she ever held a pen. That crowded, serious childhood may have steadied her for the loud, dangerous work of demanding equality across borders.