Women of Ireland is the theme of this year's Patrick MacGill Summer School, and the topics have ranged from 16th-century pirates to 20th-century prostitutes and 21st-century working mothers.

Delegates at the school in Glenties, Co Donegal, have discussed Government plans to address the current lamentable lack of affordable childcare, legal difficulties facing rape victims and the strong societal position held by a na hEireann women in pre-Christian times.

This friendly and informal school is hosted in the pretty village of Glenties in the heart of the Donegal highlands where the navvy poet, Patrick MacGill, spent his early childhood before leaving to work in Scotland in 1892 aged 12.

The town is proud of its literary son, known for his best-selling novels Children Of The Dead End and The Rat Pit. A plaque has been erected on a bridge in the town centre while the local museum displays photographs, correspondence and faded hardback copies of his 25 volumes of fiction, poetry and plays.

MacGill's children live in the US, where he emigrated in 1929, and are faithful pilgrims to the annual school now in its 20th year. A daughter, Patricia, says her father would be pleased with this year's theme as his three children were girls and he was "certainly very good with women in his books".

She and her husband, Prof Owen T.P. McGowan, gave a talk this week on women in MacGill's writing, including Nora Ryan, the main character in The Rat Pit who turns to prostitution after she leaves Ireland for Scotland. "All of the great women in his books were prostitutes," said Prof McGowan yesterday.

MacGill's other son-in-law, Prof Leo Callahan, said MacGill had an idealistic vision of women, with even his prostitutes retaining the characteristics of madonnas. Prof Callahan, who teaches Irish and American history in New York, was married to MacGill's daughter, Sheila, who died in April.

A granddaughter of MacGill's, Christine, is attending the school for the first time. She gave a special "90th birthday" reading on Tuesday from her grandfather's first book, Gleanings From A Navvy Scrapbook, to celebrate its debut publication in the Derry Journal in 1910.

Prof Callahan gave a lively account that night of the life and times of the raven-haired, 16th-century princess, pirate and smuggler, Grace O'Malley, who was renowned for her great expertise in hand-to-hand combat.

He recounted a meeting between Grace and Queen Elizabeth of England in 1593 to Tuesday night's audience in the main hall of the local comprehensive school. During the encounter, Grace sneezed and was handed a linen handkerchief by one of the queen's maids, which she used and then promptly pitched on the fire. The queen rebuked her, saying the etiquette was to place the handkerchief inside one's sleeve. Grace replied that the Irish were a noble race and she had "nothing but contempt for those so filthy they return soiled linen to their persons".

The local Fianna Fail TD, Ms Mary Coughlan, challenged some myths about rural women today. She said they were on the verge of liberation if they could harness the opportunities provided by new technology.

She urged rural women to engage with the cyberworld and the technology which opened limitless vistas of opportunities for contacts, home working and access to information.

"I believe that women in rural society in Ireland today are on the verge of a great liberation from many of the constrictions which affected our lives in the past, and we don't have to burn any of our clothes to achieve it.

"We may, however, have to burn some midnight oil to familiarise ourselves with the new and changing technologies. But the returns will more than repay the effort."

The director of the Rape Crisis Centre, Ms Olive Braiden, struck a more downbeat note when she outlined the difficulties of victims who were not entitled to separate legal representation during rape trials. Instead, they were treated as witnesses for the State, and the role of the defence was to prove them liars.

She said every EU state apart from the UK and Ireland offered separate legal representation to rape victims.

Last night's participants included Senator Ann Leonard, who said much still needed to be done to get the balance right between work and family life. She said lack of childcare and availability of work were both inhibiting women from entering the official labour force.

The school ends tomorrow, and tonight's speakers include the president of the ICTU, Ms Inez McCormack, the president of the charity Focus, Sister Stanislaus Kennedy, and Ms Dana Rosemary Scallon MEP.