6.45pm: Wine Reception
7.00pm: Opening Address by Katelyn Hanna & Maddie Murdock
7.05pm: Dr Mary Muldowney
‘Demanding Equality. Irish Women Workers in the 1970s’
Mary Muldowney is an independent historian who is the author of many publications on Irish women’s history and labour history generally. She specialises in using oral history interviews as a primary source in her research and focusses particularly on ‘hidden voices’ and unsung heroes. She is one of the organisers of the Stoneybatter & Smithfield People’s History Project and is a founding member and former director of the Oral History Network of Ireland. She is the director of the Alternative Visions Oral History Group, whose members study the history of the labour movement and working class communities in Ireland. Mary also works as an adult education consultant, designing and delivering courses for community and trade union activists. Since the 1970s, she has been involved in various campaigning activities, including the pro-choice movement and workplace representation.
7.20pm: Hazel Hogan
Performing a selection of her own poetry
Hazel Hogan is a poet from Dublin. She is part of the spoken word and Graffiti collective OutStraight. Hazel has performed at events such as Electric picnic, Body & Soul, Lingo: A spoken word festival, NYF Dublin, F Festival, St. Patrick festival, First Fortnight festival, The Monday Echo, PETTYCASH and Come Rhyme with Me. She is also part of the Dublin City of Literature project, Dublin: A Year in Words. She is the co-founder of the poetry, music and variety night, Words in the Warehouse that happened in the Grangegorman squat. She has been published on RTE and some of her work can be viewed there.
7.30pm: Dr Sinéad Kennedy
‘Well-behaved women seldom make history: Feminist struggle then and now’
Sinéad Kennedy teaches in the School of English, Theatre and Media Studies at Maynooth University where she is a Senior University Tutor and MA Co-Ordinator in Gender & Sexuality in Writing & Culture. Her research interests focus on critical theory, in particular the control and regulation of the female body by the neoliberal state. She has published widely on the politics of abortion in Ireland and internationally and has recently co-edited The Abortion Papers Ireland: Volume 2 (2015). She has been involved in feminism and pro-choice activism for almost 20 years and she is a co-founder of the Coalition to Repeal the Eighth Amendment. Follow her on Twitter @SineadmKennedy and keep up to date with her activism on repealeight.ie
7.45pm: Avril Kealy
Performing a selection of her own poetry
Avril is a third year English and Anthropology student in Maynooth University. Ever since she was younger, she’s been massively interested in what it means to be female in our society. A lot of this has stemmed from her love of artists like Lady Gaga and Lana Del Rey, whose music and artistic image, she believes, really explore the female condition in both its fragility and strength. Her poetry mainly focuses on sexuality, love and hurt from the female perspective, putting her own personal experiences to paper in an attempt to create something that serves as closure to her, but also that which is relatable to readers/listeners. Avril’s main aim in creating poetry is to give voice to the often censored parts of being a young Irish woman in the 21st century, emphasising the ugly, sad, taboo and painful parts of life.
7.55pm: Break (More Wine)
8.00pm: Dr Mary McAuliffe
‘‘Surfing that Second Wave’; The Ongoing Project of Re-visioning Women’s History’
Mary McAuliffe is an Assistant Professor / Lecturer in Gender Studies at UCD; specialising in Irish women's / gender history. Her research interests include Irish women's history, gender and war, memory and history, oral history, social and political history, public history and she has published in these areas. One of her most recent publications is 'Richmond Barracks 1916: We were There, 77 Women of the Easter Rising' which was chosen by Dublin Public Libraries as its book of the 2016 commemoration of the 1916 Rising. Mary was the President of the Women's History Association of Ireland (2011-2014) and is a member of the National Museum of Ireland Decade of Centenaries Commemoration Advisory Committee. As well as publications Mary also contributes to history documentaries, radio and TV. Keep up to date with Mary on her various Twitter accounts: @MaryMcAuliffe4, @Womenof1916 and @Kerry1916book
8.15pm: Alice Kinsella
Performing a selection of her own poetry
Alice Kinsella is an Irish poet, playwright, and fiction writer. Her poetry has been widely published, most recently in, Banshee Lit, The Pickled Body and The Irish Times. She has been shortlisted for competitions such as the Over the Edge New Writer of the Year Competition 2016, and commended in the Jonathan Swift Awards 2016. Her video poem ‘When’, a feminist reworking of Kipling’s ‘If-‘ featuring sixteen female poets, was published in The Irish Times for International Women’s Day 2017. Her debut play ‘The Passing’ was devised as a part of ‘What’s the Story’ at the Liberties Festival 2016. ‘The Passing’ will be performed as a part of Little Shadow Theatre’s New Irish Playbook in May 2017. Find out more at aliceekinsella.com or at Facebook.com/AliceEKinsella
8.25pm: Dr Jean Walker
‘“I'm not a feminist but…” Linking the post- Girl Power Generation to Feminism in the Context of Irish Women’s History’
Jean Mary Walker is on the executive committee of the WHAI (Women's History Association of Ireland) and the AHSI (Agricultural History Society of Ireland). She teaches electives on the social history of health and medicine and has a particular interest in gendered history in a Ireland.
8.40pm: Laura Harmon (NWCI)
‘Making Waves: Feminism in Ireland Today’
Laura Harmon is the Women in Leadership Officer with the National Women’s Council of Ireland. She has previously worked in public relations and politics. She was president of the Union of Students in Ireland (USI) during the marriage equality referendum campaign and she served two terms as USI Equality and Citizenship Officer from 2012-2014. During her time in USI, Laura worked on a range of issues including women in leadership events, pro-choice campaigns and voter registration. She led the ‘Say Something’ survey project in 2013 – the first national study in Ireland on third level students’ experiences of sexual and physical violence, harassment and stalking. She is a board member of the National LGBT Federation of Ireland. Laura is a graduate of University College Cork with a BA in English and French and an MA in Applied Linguistics.
8.55pm Closing Address by Melanie Lynch
(Founder of Herstory)
