Tag: local history

Leitrim Women and the Western Button Factory, Manorhamilton

Scéal Heritage Consultancy

Phase 2 of our “Leitrim Women Through Time” project, a collaboration with the North Leitrim Women’s Centre, recently kicked off with a special event exploring the important connection of the former Western Button Factory in Leitrim to the history of women in the county – many of whom first had the opportunity to work outside the home in that industry. The factory was a large source of employment for women in the region, and they filled many of its roles. 

Women not working directly in the factory also carried out ‘piece work’ for it at home to earn extra money – by stitching the produced buttons onto display cards for shop sale. Our event featured a talk on the history of the factory by local historian Maureen Keaney, and was followed by many discussions and a craft workshop led by artist Mary Foley and featuring the use of original vintage buttons made in the Western Button Factory. It was wonderful to meet a number of the former factory workers, who shared their memories and experiences, and to view a large number of the original buttons made in the factory over its lifetime (1937 – 1972). People from the area raided their cupboards and button tins to bring out their small pieces of history for display and comparison!

Our unique button craft workshop was inspired by the stitching patterns used by the women who took on the ‘piece work’ of stitching the buttons to card in their homes, and our participants put their own mark on the button stitching traditions used by these women. We hope to combine the pieces created on the night to make a future commemorative artistic piece to remember all of the women who worked in the factory over its lifetime.

We were delighted with the success of the night, and our thanks are due to all who participated and who made it so special – we’re looking forward to another Leitrim women’s history event coming up next month! Phase 2 of the “Leitrim Women Through Time” project is supported by The Heritage Council Community Heritage Grant Scheme 2023.

Leitrim’s First Pop-Up Women’s Museum!

Scéal Heritage Consultancy

Thanks to the support of Creative Ireland, we are working with the North Leitrim Women’s Centre to create Leitrim’s first Pop-up Women’s Museum in four public locations across the county in May and June! We have been working with the brilliant Women’s Centre since 2022, when we first established our community heritage project, Leitrim Women Through Time. Leitrim Women Through Time (LWTT) is a collaborative local history initiative run by the North Leitrim Women’s Centre and Scéal Heritage Consultancy, which celebrates and records the stories of everyday rural women neglected by history.


The Pop-up Leitrim Women’s Museum includes the display of the “Leitrim Women Through Time 1850 – 1950” travelling museum exhibition, created for the first phase of the project from recorded community stories. This is accompanied by a display of objects from rural women’s history, with examples of items from women’s work inside and outside the home, women’s craft, and women’s personal lives; all which tell stories of women’s lives in the near and distant past. These include a wide variety of objects from rural women’s lives including a spinning wheel, an antique Singer sewing machine, a butter churn, a washboard, Clones lace, Irish linen and knitting, and vintage household books and women’s magazines.

We are encouraging people to bring along their own photographs, documents, and objects linked to local women’s history to these events to be recorded by our overall project, and we will scan, copy, and photograph all shared information and objects to add to the project archive for preservation for the future. We also want this project to give people the opportunity to temporarily display their own objects linked to rural women in the Museum, and we currently have a public callout for local contributions for exhibition. The first date of this exciting new initiative took place on Wednesday 24th May in Leitrim County Library, and the Pop-up Museum will be in three more locations across the county over the next month!

“Leitrim Women Through Time” – A New Rural Women’s History Project

Scéal Heritage Consultancy

Scéal Heritage Consultancy and the North Leitrim Women’s Centre are delighted to announce the launch of “Leitrim Women Through Time: 1850 – 1950”, a new travelling museum exhibition telling stories of everyday Leitrim women from the past. The exhibition will be officially launched on Friday 4th November at 7.30pm in the Glens Centre, Manorhamilton, Co. Leitrim. All are welcome to attend on the night, and refreshments will be served.


This exhibition was formed as a result of the first phase of our new venture “Leitrim Women Through Time”, a collaborative heritage project supported by the Heritage Council’s 2022 Community Heritage Grant scheme. This new community-based project sets out to explore and share people’s knowledge and memories of the everyday lives of women in the county over hundreds of years. The project focuses on the lives of the ordinary Leitrim woman; celebrating the majority, rather than the minority, and those previously neglected in discussion. It concentrates on the experiences of the everyday woman – highlighting the value of remembering and recording what domestic, working, and personal life was like for local women.


For the exhibition, we worked with community participants across the region to gather information and suggestions for themes which would best tell the story of Leitrim women in the period of 1850 to 1950. The exhibition will be displayed in venues across the county, and we would like to connect with any groups or organisations who would be interested in displaying the free travelling exhibition in their venue.


“Leitrim Women Through Time” will be a multi-phase project that will work to gather and preserve an archive of Leitrim women’s history for the future. Everyone is welcome to contribute memories, writings, photographs, and any other information – you can get in contact with the project via the details below.
https://www.facebook.com/leitrimwomenthroughtime
scealheritage@gmail.com / info@northleitrimwomenscentre.ie / 071 985 6220