Tag: women's history

Agency and Advocacy: Locating Women’s Grassroots Activism in England and Ireland, 1918 to the present

Scéal Heritage Consultancy

In April and May this year, we had the privilege of being a collaborator on a new international research network led by Caitríona Beaumont, Professor of Social History from London South Bank University (LSBU). The new network studies local grassroots women’s activism across Ireland and England since 1918. The “Agency and Advocacy: Locating Women’s Grassroots Activism in England and Ireland, 1918 to the present” network brings together for the first time academics, early career researchers, and members of historic women’s organisations. The organisations include the Irish Countrywomen’s Association, the National Federation of Women’s Institutes and Soroptimist International Great Britain and Ireland (SIGBI).

As a collaborator, we delivered both on-site and online workshops for an audience of national and international representatives from the project’s associated women’s organisations. These workshops focused on demonstrating and teaching ways in to use material culture to promote and preserve the past and current activism of their organisations. Participants brought along items which represented the past activism of their groups, and we discussed the promotion and care of their collections for the long-term.


This participatory research project sets out to identify actions and strategies in conversation with members of historic women’s organisations to further grow and to diversify their memberships, in order to safeguard their future activism. It also aims to re-cast the history of Anglo-Irish relations through the lens of cross-border female activism since 1918, resulting in new insights into cross-border co-operation and solidarity around women’s rights. It was a pleasure to play a part in this innovative and important project, which will help to ensure the longevity and growth of these female organisations far into the future.

Honouring Meg Connery: Trailblazer of Irish women’s history

Scéal Heritage Consultancy

Today in Mount Jerome Cemetery, Dublin, a new headstone will be placed at the formerly unmarked resting place of Margaret (Meg) Connery, and her husband Con. Mayo woman Meg was an important and formidable force in the Irish suffrage movement, whose work for gender equality and feminism in the early twentieth century was extremely significant. The commemoration ceremony aims to ensure her memory and legacy are celebrated and recognised, and is an important step, as Meg’s important role in Irish history is not well known or regularly shared.

As a historian of the Irish women’s suffrage movement, Meg has always held a special place in my heart for her intelligence, her passionate journalism, and her absolute fearlessness in her pursuit of equality. In her role an an active member of the Irish Women’s Franchise League, she trained herself in public speaking and addressed enormous (and often hostile) public crowds on the right for women to vote, door-stepped and heckled politicians about their stance on suffrage, smashed the windows of public buildings in militant protest, and wrote blistering critiques of the patriarchal society which constrained and limited her and her fellow Irishwomen.

Huge congratulations and appreciation are owed to the Meg Connery Commemoration Committee for the erection of the headstone at Meg’s grave, which will help to serve as a marker for her often unrecognised role in the shaping of modern Irish history.

https://www.mayonews.ie/news/home/1462787/dublin-ceremony-to-honour-fearless-mayo-born-suffragette.html

https://www.dib.ie/biography/connery-margaret-meg-a1951

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!

Local History Lectures & GAA Ephemera

Scéal Heritage Consultancy

We recently finished up our lectures on the Local History Certificate run by the University of Limerick and The Irish Workhouse Centre Portumna – delighted to provide lectures on Archaeology in the Landscape and Museums and Material Culture to such a great course! One of the Certificate students brought along a fascinating family heirloom for the last lecture – an original collection of GAA ‘Gaelic Sportstars’ collectable player cards, given away with sweet cigarettes in possibly the early ’60s! Some lovely pieces of sporting ephemera, and a collectable tradition that still continues strong today with football player trading cards. Really great to see some camogie players represented in the collection too!

“Bonnets, Bandoliers & Ballot Papers”​ – a new women’s history digital resource from the National Museum of Ireland

Scéal Heritage Consultancy

We’re delighted to have played a part in the production of “Bonnets, Bandoliers & Ballot Papers” – an important new National Museum of Ireland digital history resource about the women’s stories told by the surviving material culture of the national collections. Scéal Heritage Consultancy provided professional research services for the compilation of the resource, and on-camera contributions discussing women’s history and the use of print media during the period of the fight for women’s right to a national vote.

The resource’s virtual tour explores key artefacts from the Museum’s collection which tell the story of women’s lives and experiences at the beginning of the 20th Century. The resource is designed for Post-Primary students of History, Politics and Society and CSPE, but can also be enjoyed by all ages. The virtual tour can be viewed on the Museum’s website (www.museum.ie), or on Youtube at: https://youtu.be/GXGjZV2S_X8 .

“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