Melanie Lynch

4 February 2024

Brigid Rising & Calling in the Cailleach

Melanie Lynch

4 February 2024

Brigid Rising, embodied by Jessamy O’Connor, conceptual art by Áine O’ Brien, photographed by Myriam Riand and styling by Roisín Lennon

“Rising from the ashes of old Ireland and calling all women to join us in our noble quest of commanding our power and sovereignty. We present ‘Brigid Rising’ and ‘Calling in the Cailleach”

The Herstory Education Trust commissioned the talented Clare duo, photographer Myriam Riand and conceptual artist Áine O’ Brien to create new photographic art inspired by Celtic goddesses Brigid and the Cailleach

BRIGID RISING

Art diary by conceptual artist Áine O’Brien for the 2024 Herstory Light Show in County Clare

Thanks to Melanie Lynch from Herstory for her constant support, Clare County Council for funding the project, and all the Bean Feasas (wise women of knowledge) who inspire me everyday.

All of my work comes from a deep spiritual practice of listening and waiting for visions and/or a guide to bring me to the ‘work’. I invoke the help of my ancestors and the Earth herself and ask for guidance with a vision. I really feel honoured to be able to see these come to life. I love the connections that are made along the way and the pure aliveness of the work. Anything could happen and if it’s not flowing, it’s not the way.

Looking at Brigid as a deity, pagan goddess and religious icon, I began to envision a renewal theme with Phoenix elements. Rising from the ashes of old Ireland and calling all women to join us in our noble quest of commanding our power and sovereignty. Embracing our children, our mother’s and our elderly. Let’s listen to the women of the world. Let’s ask the ancestors for help and let’s focus on the next generation of peace loving, community focused futures of acceptance and love. The old model is dying but it is really fighting hard to leave lasting scars on us all. We will heal this painful present. We have to believe that our love will be brighter than the fighter. Call in the women. Love the men. It is also a firm belief of mine that it is not the egos of our leaders today that we can change, but the future generation that will have the solution. Raise them.

Fire Crochet Cloak

The cloak that Brigid is wearing is a crochet fire cloak made on the Hill of Uisneach Beltaine Festival. Over three years many people contributed to this cloak. There was a community group set up by Kara Richardson whereby she had a stall on the Hill of Uisneach and invited anyone who wanted to join in and crochet as a group. I myself had the privilege of witnessing this event unfold. It was so beautiful to see how everyone (usually women, but an occasional man) would warm in their communications once we were all connected on a common goal (the cloak). This got me thinking about the famous Brigid's Cloak. What could the symbol of this cloak be? This brought me back to the community of women all crocheting the fire cloak. The ease at which we can converse whilst working as a part of something. The gentleness of our listening within this space and the openness of our conversation. It was definitely something missing in our society and can be something to aspire to. It connects us to our ancestors as well. Think of all the women who have gathered and made things together. Holding space throughout our existence to support each other while making beautiful things. I wore this cloak while I was pregnant with my third child (Brigid) and accompanied by two other little women (my girls Alwen and Malia) as we danced with pride in the Uisneach parade. It was without doubt that we would ask to use this community piece for creating our Brigid Rising. Upon visiting Roisín’s studio, I couldn’t believe that the fire cloak was hanging up on the rail! She had somehow come away with it from Uisneach within her costumes and was minding it until next year. I hadn’t even asked for the use of the cloak at this point, but it was just waiting to be used by us both. I now see Brigid’s cloak as a symbol for the weave of time. I believe all the hands that ever made a piece of cloth together, joined Brigid on the infamous day and expanded her cloak. She was supported by all her ancestors and with that support she (in a gentle and loving way) required the land that she would need for her own monastery.

The Triple Goddess Symbol )0(

I wanted to represent the three stages of female life; The Maiden, The Mother, The Crone. That there was a sense of time but also timelessness. That the cycle continues and is ever renewing. This idea is present in the photo as the Goddess symbol. By placing the symbol on the pregnant belly in the full moon section of the piece, the Mother is heavily present in this photo.

I reached out to a very handy craftsman, Drew, who lives on the top of the Cliffs of Moher looking out across the Atlantic ocean. I shared my idea about representing this symbol and he was excited about the project. I was ultimately delighted in the fact that he used his bodhrán as a template for the scale.

The Ribbons

I wanted to create a chalice-like idea. This was in reference to the church influence on our feminine energy. Reclaim our chalice. The golden chalice, is this not a reference to the divine feminine?! The Ribbons radiate out from the symbol.

The Brigid’s Cross

Our model Jessamy had quite an unusual Linea Nigra presenting in the shape of a cross. This was great as we were trying to present Brigid and there was a cross on her pregnant belly. Previous to this styling day, I had had a meeting with our stylist Roisín. She showed me the most beautiful copper St.Brigid’s cross that had been gifted to her by a dear friend many years ago. Upon seeing Jessamy’s (natural) cross I asked Ró if we could use her copper one. We placed the cross on Jessamy’s bump in the centre of the Goddess symbol.

The location 1, Ailwee Cave

I happened to be working on a different project with Roisín during the time of the preparation for the Brigid shoot and we were exploring caves in the Burren. I was fascinated with the concept of the belly of the earth. Going in to come out. The constant temperature, and predictability of it. The fact that caves throughout history have provided shelter and safety for humans forever. I began to see the cave like visiting the womb, the mother. This became the reason why we would do the shoot in the cave. Being the light in the dark. To show the hope of Brigid, the hope of Spring.

To quote the glorious Sinéad O’Connor (poet Dinos Christianopoulos) “they tried to bury me, but they didn’t know I was a seed”.

Location 2: a field in Kilfenora

Her cloak is spread amongst the rushes. Elements of home, our land and our future.
The weather was supposed to be awful that day, like 90% precipitation, but our beautiful Goddess was on our side. Thankfully, after the early shoot in the cave, we were able to get some really beautiful shots in the natural light. Jessamy was more relaxed this time and we got some stunning photos of her. As of now, I wish, hope and believe that we will use one from the cave and one from outside for contrast. The theme and concept is the same and I love how the outdoors ones are more like festival Brigid. Everyone’s a Brigid!

Lovely and weird things that happened

The shape of the linea nigra on Jessamy’s belly (story above) The fire cloak just sitting in Ró’s studio
The beam of light during the fitting.
And last but certainly not least...

Jessamy is an artist herself and had whilst in school experimented with different ways to draw her initials. She couldn’t believe her eyes upon seeing the preview of photos we had taken. The triple goddess symbol, is her initials JOC. She was literally gobsmacked as were we!

CALLING IN THE CAILLEACH

CREDITS

Model: Roisín Lennon

Location: Killcarragh, Kilfenora, Co.Clare

Shoot date: 19th/20th December

Concept/ Art / Design: Áine O’Brien @aine_brien

Photographer/ Videographer: Myriam Riand @myriamdeliriuml

Styling: Roisín Lennon @studiofeasa_ and Áine O’Brien

Documentation: Gillian Kelly Dunne @hush_disco

General Support: Neil Hopwood and Neil Fitzgibbon

Please note; no animals were hurt during this project. The bones were found in the Burren by Roisín Lennon.

Personal note from Áine O’Brien

All of my work comes from a deep spiritual practice of listening and waiting for visions and/or a guide to bring me to the ‘work’. I invoke the help of my ancestors and the Earth herself and ask for guidance with a vision. I really feel honoured to be able to see these concepts come to life. I love the connections that are made along the way and the pure aliveness of the work. Anything could happen and if it’s not flowing, it’s not the way.

The Cailleach has for a long time fascinated me. Initially I saw her as a hag, or witch and I began to question my version of her. Is this a very successful planting of thought by our patriarchal society? Am I to believe that this older female is to be feared and/or dangerous? A woman who can put a curse on us, or heal us? I couldn’t look at the Cailleach without seeing the older women in our society and the mass invisibility of them. I say this with the utmost kindness. I feel that women disappear from our world once they transition and grow with time into the ‘Elder’ years, I am asking the question why. I see my older female friends as the most valuable in my own life. I have turned to them at every crossroads, as a woman, for their support and knowledge. I wonder why the world does not do the same. If we asked the ‘Elder’ women, who bear kindness to their children, what would they do with our world today? Would they say yes to children being blown up out of their beds? Would they allow anyone to go hungry? Would they put manners on the world leaders of today? So many questions were rising up within me and I knew that there was a voice, a mischievous voice wanting to be heard. It’s time to call in the Cailleach and allow her to be heard.

The Research

I began to look at the menopause and what happens to us as women from that moment through to the otherside. The Cailleach research brought me on a journey to my own acceptance that someday I will no longer be able to bear children and will I then be invisible too? The beginning of the end or the end, so the beginning? I had so many questions. I booked myself into a menopause workshop with the awe inspiring speaker and author, Jane Catherine Severn, The world within women. I realised that although I am a woman, I am not yet experiencing this change myself and I could only speculate. I wanted to be informed and immersed in what light needed to be shone on our menopausal women. It is also very common that menopausal wisdom is not shared openly with us. There is some kind of silence that accompanies it (although the symptoms can be anything but silent).

I sat in a room with beautiful women. Strong, loving and honest. They had all come together to hear the words of Jane Catherine. I listened and asked questions and heard some wonderful stories. The two main visions I came away with were; 1)The hot flush that brings you outside, to the elements, in the middle of the night when all is quiet and only you and stars exist. 2)These women were badass, who couldn’t possibly be invisible and perhaps there’s a sense of freedom on the other side of fertility.

My Cailleach would be badass, unapologetic, cosmic and present. Old and new.

The Goddess

I was looking at the ending and beginning theme and began to see correlations with Kali (hindu goddess Kali). They are both connected as time keepers or signifiers and represent change.

The Woman

With references to the Austrian painter Gustav Klimt’s work, I reworked the shape of the Brigid’s cross to see a more cosmic shape and pattern. I remember hearing how if Klimt had painted you, you felt seen and beautiful. This was the goal.

The Colours

Working with Roisín Lennon as a stylist and a model, was a gift in itself. She deeply understood and respected my vision, but also had an otherworldly connection to the Cailleach herself. She told me so many stories that would have your artistic imagination running wild “very Cailleachy!”, as Roisín would say herself. When discussing the colours for our Cailleach, magenta, the colour of heather was ever present. The colour of the Beara peninsula, she said. The summer residents of the Cailleach. Green, Gold and Magenta.

The Cloak

We had a cloak, but wanted something longer to represent the HERSTORY theme of “there’s room for everyone under Brigid’s cloak”. We used green windbreak fencing mesh. It worked perfectly with our colours.

The Book

*A German burial of Mesolithic date contained the body of a female shaman covered in red ochre and accompanied by a large array of shells and animal stones. Artist's impression by Karol Schauer*

Pagan Ireland: Ritual and Belief in Another World by John Waddall. This book (above) was a gift, and it arrived just at the right time. The image of the headdress of the Bean Feasa (wise woman) immediately jumped out at me from the page. Our Cailleach was asking for a headpiece, a crown, and a ritual. I knew exactly where to go and what to do. It was definitely time for another visit to Roisin Lennon’s studio! I didn’t even for one minute think, where am I going to get bones and teeth, I just rang Roisin and set a date. As it turned out, Roisín had a whole horse skeleton ( in her closet!).

The Headdress

This was definitely the most exciting part of this project for me, and for Roisín too. It was so special to be informed by a druidess headpiece replica, while putting our own twist on it. We went into this part of the project with vibrant enthusiasm and no plan. The Cailleach would guide us! We brought the horse skeleton to the studio and looked at all the bones. How on earth were we going to do this! Just then, Roisín picked up the pelvic bone, which was the largest piece of the body, and placed it on her head. My jaw dropped. That was it. It even looked like an owl with the two holes for the hips. We had our base to work off.

We spent two days in the studio, adding and subtracting from this pelvis until we found the sweet spot of the willow fan extension. We wanted native tribal chief vibes.

The Teeth and Bones

We were literally pulling teeth out of jawbones, and to be honest we had to ask for assistance from Roisín's ‘partner in all things’, Neil . I loved this part of the creative collaboration. The two wild women were on a mission, and quietly being supported by the man behind the scenes drilling holes in bones and lending us his tools and strength. This is so important that we recognise the balance of the male and female. Yes we are doing the work for the Bean Feasa, the Cailleach and Brigid, but my wish is that we move forward with the understanding that the men are supporting and protecting us on our journey

The shoot

It was the winter solstice, a perfect window for us to capture the Cailleach at her own time of year. We did two shoots. Cosmic night, and the dawning of the day.

Cosmic Night

In the meantime I had been looking at lighting. I wanted the Cailleach to be cosmic and full of light and reflection.

Using a black light as a guide, I chalked up the headpiece and white lined Roisín’s face to highlight lines and have a blue (Kali) effect.

Looking at the lines on Roisín’s face was such a beautiful experience. Drawing the lines was a real marking of time and a recognition of her life and laughter.

It was something that Jane Catherine said in the workshop that really stayed with me. It was an understanding that the postmenopausal woman has access to the cosmos. They are no longer ruled by their monthly cycles and they have the ability to see all things. Their perspective is vast and wise. This would have been the reason why wise elder women were always consulted when the tribe was facing something of magnitude. They were respected and revered.

We set up the scene in my kitchen, in Kilfenora. In front of the bookcase I hung a brown velvet curtain (kindly borrowed from my mother, Eileen O’Brien). We began to dress the set. It really did feel like we were decorating a cave and the Cailleach was on her way to visit us.

It really was a magical night. We knew something special was happening and we fully embraced every minute of this Solstice preparation.

It was important to us to show that the grandmother protects us and we decided to feature my own daughter (Brigid) in the final film piece.

The Results

The Dawning of the Day

When someone says to you ‘dawn shoot’, it can sometimes put absolute fear through you! Lucky for us, it is the shortest day of the year. The only problem remaining was that the wind was seriously expressing herself and we had built quite a big costume. The twilight that we saw as we drank our ‘brace yourself’ coffees was haunting. A steely, blue, grey, ‘I’m up to something’ kind of feel to it. The team had stayed the night and we were all raring to go.

The headpiece was so spectacular as a silhouette. We were excited about capturing it against this solstice dawn sky.

Up the mountain (hill) we went. To give you an idea of the view we were working with, from this hill, we could see all the surrounds of Kilfenora with land that stretches all the way to the Burren and back as far as Lahinch with the Atlantic ocean peaking out between the land. The Atlantic ocean was definitely with us that morning, sending us the strongest winds that she could muster, just to remind us how mad we all were. It was invigorating.

The Results

Absolutely blessed

Working on another project for HERSTORY with Myriam Riand (and this time with Roisín Lennon) has been a highlight of 2023/2024. That, and I gave birth to my new Baby Brigid in the same year, what a dream. The wildness of this work is visceral and I feel like we are working the land, the elements and the ancestors all at once. Art has power. It will really come into its own once it is illuminating the three locations in Co.Clare for the St.Brigid’s festival. This is a really special ‘coming home’ for me. To be illuminating building’s that I have seen all my life, is an epic moment for me as an Artist. I am also so aware of the support of all my friends, family and community. They really are there for any artistic antics that may arrive! Thank you.

Melanie Lynch

16 April 2023

Pride in the Past & Present II

Melanie Lynch

16 April 2023

Dorothy Todd & Madge Garland

Vogue Editor (1922-26) & Fashion Editor

(1883 - 1966) (1898 - 1990)

*Madge Garland (left) and Dorothy Todd (right)*

Described as the ‘1920s lesbian power couple who transformed Vogue,’ Dorothy Todd as editor and Madge Garland as fashion editor ‘turned the magazine into a Modernist bible.’ Credited with bringing the likes of writers Virginia Woolfe and Aldous Huxley and photographer Cecil Beaton to the publication, their endeavors of creating a magazine ‘with serious avant-garde intentions’ were sadly short lived.

Little is known of Dorothy’s early life, but in 1922, aged 39, she was appointed the second ever editor of British Vogue (which had started up just a few years prior during WWI when it was impossible to get the American edition across the Atlantic). She was a ‘self-assured’ and ‘quick’ woman. Arriving shortly after her was 24-year-old recently-married Madge Garland. Madge, whose maiden name was McHarg, had been born in Australia and due to a spinal condition, had spent most of her childhood in a steel corset. Her interest in fashion flourished in Paris, but her parents refused to allow her to attend Cambridge for further study, so she ended up working as an errand girl in London before eventually finding employment as a receptionist at Vogue. Although she and her husband divorced just a year into the marriage, Madge continued to use his surname when she was informed by horticulturist and artist Gertrude Jekyll that ‘McHarg’ was ‘positively dreadful.’

With Dorothy’s help, Madge soon transformed herself into ‘a figure of glamour and grace’ and was promoted by Dorothy to fashion editor. Between them, they began to move Vogue from largely ‘confining its pages to hats and frocks’ to a magazine that had ‘fashion editorials [sitting] alongside articles devoted to modernist art and literature.’ With contributions from some of the 20th century’s most forward-thinking creatives such as Virginia Woolfe, Aldous Huxley, Man Ray and Cecil Beaton, Vogue became ‘thoroughly modern, unapologetically intelligent, and implicitly queer in both tone and appearance.’

At the same time as their professional relationship was making strides, so too was their personal one. The couple lived together in a flat in London and hosted lavish parties that were attended by the likes of photographer and Oscar-winning stage designer Cecil Beaton, socialite and niece of Oscar Wilde, Dorothy Wilde, and cabaret singer Florence Mills.

Sadly though, their trailblazing time at Vogue was short lived. In 1926, Dorothy was fired due to ‘falling sales and dissatisfaction from her superiors about the direction of Vogue’s very contemporary drive.’ Condé Nast himself - founder of the mass media company that published Vogue, Vanity Fair and The New Yorker - thought Vogue was becoming too ‘bohemian.’ Dorothy threatened to sue him for breach of contract, but was told that ‘her “private sins” would be exposed’ if she didn’t let it go. It’s unclear whether these ‘sins’ referred to her rather openly gay relationship or her illegitimate daughter Helen (born in 1905) whose fraternity is unknown. For her part, Madge walked out in protest. It is said that the ‘Vogue staff stood in appalled solidarity with the pair. Several resigned in protest, and freelancers refused to accept commissions.’ Madge’s biographer, Lisa Cohen, would later write that this ‘firing and attendant disgrace devastated Todd and Garland.’

The couple did not stay together for too long after this. Dorothy had many debts, which it’s believed Madge paid off for her. She also started drinking and reportedly got into a habit of making Madge cry, however Madge later stated that ‘other people will say she ruined my life, she ruined my marriage, she gave me a terrible time. To hell. I have no regrets at all. She fostered me and she helped me. She opened many doors. I repaid that debt in full, because I supported her later in life. But I owed her more than I could ever repay.’

Madge managed to make a comeback in the industry and in 1934 was re-hired by Vogue as fashion editor before she was invited to become ‘the first professor of fashion’ at the Royal College of Art, a role she took on in 1948. In 1953, she married Sir Leigh Ashton, but it’s been alleged that this was a marriage of convenience as both parties were gay. They divorced in 1962 and Madge was later linked to other women in the art scene.

Dorothy, sadly, met with far less success in later life. In 1929 she published a book - The New Interior Decoration - with Raymond Mortimer and for some time is believed to have run a gallery but by WWII, she was working as a social worker. She lived in extreme poverty toward the end of her life and was described by her grandson as a ‘frail, scruffy old lady’ whose clothes were held together with pins. Despite this, Dorothy apparently managed to woo a young Italian woman who left her husband for her. Dorothy died in 1966 aged 83.

Kate O’Brien

Author

(1897 - 1974)

Born in Limerick in 1897, Kate O’Brien would go on to write some of the ‘earliest examples of Irish literature to feature homosexual themes,’ which also meant she was one of the earliest Irish writers ‘to fall foul of the censor’ with two of her books - Mary Lavelle (1936) and The Land of Spices (1941) being banned in Ireland.

Kate was one of ten children born into a well-to-do horse-dealing family. She was just five when her mother died, and so she was sent to join her older sisters in a convent school where she became the youngest boarder. In 1919, Kate graduated with a BA in English and French from UCD and after spending a year in London, moved to Spain where she worked as a governess and began her creative writing. Spain would have a profound impact on her writing, however, she wasn’t there a year before she suddenly returned to England and married Dutch journalist Gustaff Reiner. It is widely believed now that this was a lavender marriage (‘Renier was probably bi- or homosexual; O'Brien was lesbian’) and it only lasted a few months.

Kate’s first successful play - Distinguished Villa - was released in 1926, and following this, she took up writing full time. It was also about this time, according to her biographer Eibhear Walshe, that Kate began to have relationships with women, the first being Margaret ‘Stephie’ Stephens, who was ten years her senior.

Kate’s first novel - Without My Cloak - was published in 1931 and ‘charted the lives and loves of a middle class family from Mellick, [Kate]’s fictional version of Limerick’ and ‘won both the Hawthornden and James Tait Black Memorial prizes. In later works, [Kate] would refine the scope of her narratives to consider more in greater depth the topics of personal desire and sexualities in the context of family, religion and society.’ But these topics were not welcomed by the powers that were in Ireland at the time and as a result, her work came into conflict with the Censorship of Publications Board in Ireland (CPBI), which had been formed in 1929. Kate’s Mary Lavelle published in 1936 was subsequently banned by the CPBI for depicting ‘an adulterous relationship between a young Irish girl and a married Spanish man (as well as a declaration of love for the girl from an older Irish lesbian).’ Five years later, a second book, The Land of Spices, was banned over one single line that made reference to homosexuality: ‘She saw Etienne and her father, in the embrace of love.’ Her last completed novel, As Music and Splendour, released in 1958 but set in the 1880s/90s, centers the lesbian relationship of the fictional Irish opera singer Clare and Spanish singer Luisa.

The positive representations of queer characters in her novels has made Kate O’Brien a pioneer in queer literature, and while her books fell out of popularity toward the end of her life, her exploration of sexuality and desire for independence through strong female protagonists, meant that her novels were reclaimed in feminist circles in the 1980s and have continued to intrigue modern readers ever since. She is now considered one of the most important Irish writers of the 20th century.

Kate died, aged 76, in 1974.

Gladys Alberta Bentley

Blues singer / Pianist / Entertainer

(1907 - 1960)

Blues singer, pianist and all-round entertainer, Gladys Alberta Bentley was ‘one of the most well-known and financially successful black women in the United States in the 1920s and 1930s.’ Dressed in her signature tailcoat and top hat, Gladys was a staple of Harlem speakeasies where she would sing about her female lovers and flirt with women in the audience.

‘It seems I was born different. At least, I always thought I was.’

Gladys was born in 1907 in Philadelphia and from this moment had a strained relationship with her mother who had wanted a boy and so ‘refused to touch me. She wouldn't even nurse me and my grandmother had to raise me for 6 months on a bottle before they could persuade my mother to take care of her own baby.’ Gladys was relentlessly teased by peers and brought to doctors in an attempt to ‘cure’ her gender nonconformity, so at 16 she ran away to New York.

She settled in Harlem in the mid-1920s just as the Harlem Renaissance was taking off, and became ‘an instant sensation after performing at the most popular gay speakeasy, the Clam House.’ Of the Harlem Renaissance, curator of music and evolution of African-Americans in the 20th century Dwandalyn Reece, has said: ‘[it] is really a critical point in the history and evolution of African-Americans in the 20th century. The creativity that came out of that period shaped music, theater, dance, literature, intellectual thought and scholarship in a way that has shaped who we are today.’ And Gladys Bentley had a lot to contribute to that; her ‘overstated performance and appearance destabilized the conventional identity roles assigned within the divisions of black / white, woman / man, high class / low class, and homo- / heterosexual and reflected the possibility of, in Marjorie Garber’s words, a ‘category crisis.’’

‘...When she pounds the piano the dawn comes up like thunder.’ - author Carl Van Vechten

Through the 1930s, Gladys was the ‘primary attraction at the well-known Ubangi Club’ with a chorus of eight drag queens backing her up. As well as being a gifted pianist, singer and performer, Gladys was also an ‘adept provocateur.’ At one point, she told a gossip columnist that she had just gotten married and when the columnist asked who the man was, Gladys ‘scoffed and said, ‘Man? It's a woman.’’ While no official record exists to prove this marriage, it is ‘still a glimpse into Bentley’s unapologetic openness about her sexual orientation, and her acute understanding of the power of shock value.’ In the following decade, she relocated to California where she continued to perform.

With the decline of speakeasies (due to the repeal of Prohibition in 1933) and with the rise of McCarthyism in the 1950s which saw gay people labeled as national security risks, Gladys was more and more frequently harassed for her attire and how she acted. So, she started dressing conventionally in dresses and in an article for Ebony magazine, declared ‘I am Woman Again,’ stating that she had ‘cured her lesbianism via female hormone treatments.’ In 1952, she married a man sixteen years her younger (they later divorced) and claimed she was married to another man around this time too, although he denied ever marrying her. Over the next while, Gladys moved more toward the church; however just as she was to be ordained a minister, she died suddenly of pneumonia in 1960, aged just 52.

Fiona Shaw

Actor

(1958 - present)

Born Fiona Wilson in Cork in 1958, Fiona Shaw is one of Ireland’s most recognisable actors across stage and screen (both big and small!) With accolades including two Laurence Olivier Awards for stage performances in the 1990s and a BAFTA Award for her performance in Killing Eve, Fiona has continued to engage audiences of all types since her debut in 1983.

After getting a degree in Philosophy from UCC, Fiona left for London in 1980 where she trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) and graduated two years later with the coveted Bancroft Gold Medal. Very soon after, Fiona was on the stage of the National Theatre, ‘garnering much critical praise for her role as Julia in Sheridan's The Rivals.’ Despite arriving in Hollywood at age 28 and being told ‘you’re very old,’ Fiona didn’t stick to just stage performances, appearing in the tv show The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes in 1984 and the award-winning My Left Foot in 1989. The following year, Fiona won her first Laurence Olivier Award for her performance in the lead roles of three major plays of the 1989 theatre season: Electra, As You Like It and The Good Person of Szechwan. Her second Olivier Award came just three years later in 1993 when she won for her performance in Machinal. In 1995, she took on the male lead role in The National Theatre’s ‘groundbreaking production’ of Richard II before performing T.S Elliot’s The Wasteland as a one-woman show to great acclaim in New York in 1996.

Fiona continued to appear on stage and screen throughout the end of the 1990s and became a household name in 2001 for her performance as Aunt Petunia in the Harry Potter franchise. She made her Broadway debut the following year in Medea, for which she was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play, the same year she began dating actor Saffron Burrows. Years later Fiona would tell a publication that realising she was gay ‘was a shock.’

‘I had this wonderful boyfriend, then another, then later I became gay. It was a shock. I was full of self-hatred and thought I would come back into the fold shortly. But I just didn’t. I wasn’t in any way gay until I was. One goes on developing.’

*Sonali and Fiona at the 71st Emmys Governors Ball*

The relationship came to an end in 2005, but in 2014 Fiona met and fell in love with Sri Lankan economist Sonali Deraniyagala after she read Sonali’s memoir about the 2004 Sri Lanken tsunami which claimed the lives of her husband, children and parents. Although they spoke only very briefly in their first encounter, Fiona says she came away from it feeling like she had ‘just met life’ and the couple married four years later.

More recently, Fiona has continued to entertain via the screen, with a BAFTA-award winning and two-time Emmy-nominated performance as Carolyn Martens in Killing Eve and an Emmy-nominated performance as supporting actress in Fleabag - a role which was created specifically for her by creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge. She also appeared in Ammonite, and Enola Holmes, one of Netflix’s most popular own movies, and as the titular character’s mother in the Star Wars TV series Andor, for which she was nominated for a Critics' Choice Super Award.

Now in her sixties, Fiona continues to amaze in the roles she takes on, be that on the stage, silver screen or in the movies, and there is promise of many more exciting performances to come.

Ranae Von Meding

Activist

Ranae was originally born in Chicago, moving to Dublin with her family at the age of 4. From a young age she was interested in the arts and at the age of 18 she began her training in performance arts. It was while in college she met her wife-to-be, Audrey. They began dating in 2008 and have lived and worked in Dublin ever since.

When Ranae became pregnant in 2016 with her and Audrey’s first baby, they didn’t expect that their child would be born unequal to other children in the eyes of Irish law. But when Ava was born, only one of her parents was allowed to be recorded on her birth certificate. Even though Audrey is Ava’s biological mother, only the birth mother - Ranae - was recognised, by law, as her parent. What this meant was that:

Audrey could not sign any forms to open a bank account for Ava and Ava was not allowed to inherit anything from Audrey or Audrey’s parents
Audrey was not allowed to consent to any medical treatment that Ava may need such as a blood transfusion, vaccinations or any surgery.
Audrey was not listed as her child’s parent and would only have been able to be listed on school forms as a ‘responsible adult’ who is allowed to collect her (but first she would have had to have been given consent from Ranae to do this)
Audrey was not allowed to travel with Ava without the written consent of Ranae.

Later, at a playgroup for children of LGBT+ parents, it was decided to start campaigning for change, and in 2019, after the birth of their second daughter Arya, they co-founded Equality for Children. For months they lobbied politicians, collected signatures on a petition and held demonstrations. As a natural storyteller, Ranae also began to publicize their fight through blog posts and the media.

In 2020, the Children and Families Relationship Act was brought in, but it was only life changing for some families. As Ranae explains, ‘If a child is born to two women, and meets all the criteria then they can have a claim to both of their parents. In order to meet that criteria, the child has to be conceived in a fertility clinic in Ireland, with an identifiable sperm donor that goes on a registry, and then that child has to be born in Ireland.’ Thankfully, with this new legislation, Audrey could be recognised as Ava and Arya’s parent alongside Ranae, after a somewhat delayed court process.

There are countless other LGBTQ+ families who are not covered by this Act, which is why Ranae and other couples are continuing the campaign for equality: ‘...for male couples there's nothing. Same-sex male couples or heterosexual couples, or a single person who goes through surrogacy - they're not in any way covered. That's what we're fighting for at the moment, legislation around surrogacy, retrospective recognition for kids already born through surrogacy, and then covering all the other same-sex female families who are left out of any legislation. So, that includes kids who are conceived in a clinic abroad, children who are born abroad, children who are conceived in a non-clinical setting.’

Outside of her campaigning, Ranae is a Marketing Manager with Thérapie Fertility. She is also a registered celebrant and solemniser and has been performing wedding ceremonies across Ireland since 2021. As she says herself, she ‘is a recovering perfectionist and people pleaser and adores cycling, horse riding and all forms of water.’

Learn more about the campaign here.

Thanks to Ranae for sharing her story with us.

Hayley Kiyoko

Musician / Actress

(1991 - Present)

Referred to as ‘lesbian Jesus’ by her fans, Hayley Kiyoko is familiar to most for her 4-episode portrayal of Alex Russo’s friend ‘Stevie’ in Wizards of Waverly Place back in 2010, but more recently, she has cemented herself as one of the most prominent voices in the queer music scene.

Born in Los Angeles, California in 1991, Hayley began acting at a young age, appearing first in national advertisements before graduating to tv and movies, however music was her main love throughout her school years. Taking up the drums aged 6, she founded a band named Hede in 2007 and released songs on MySpace and performed locally before the band broke up two years later. At the same time, Hayley was a member of the group the Stunners who were signed to Columbia Records and featured on the iCarly soundtrack before opening for Justin Bieber’s first world tour. But the group ‘fizzled out’ when Hayley decided she wanted more control over her music.

In 2009, Hayley starred as Velma in the live action Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins which went on to be Cartoon Network’s most-watched programme in its history at that point, with 6.1 million viewers. She reprised her role the following year, and also appeared on Wizards of Waverly Place as the protagonist’s friend, Stevie. Ever since, members of the LGBT+ community have felt that Stevie and Alex were more than just friends, and this was confirmed just recently by the showrunner who said ‘I wished we could have played more with what was quite obvious to a lot of us, which was the relationship between Stevie and Alex. We weren’t able to at that time, but it was pretty clear to all of us what that relationship was. That would have been fun.’

*Hayley as ‘Stevie’ alongside Selena Gomez as ‘Alex’ in Wizards of Waverly Place*

Sticking with Disney Channel, Hayley took on a leading role in the movie Lemonade Mouth, which premiered to over 7 million viewers in 2011. Two years later, she released her debut EP A Belle to Remember but it was her second EP This Side of Paradise, released in 2015, and particularly the single Girls Like Girls that saw Hayley garner a reputation as one of the leading sapphic voices in the queer music scene. The music video, directed by Hayley herself, ‘follows Coley and Sonya as they realize their love for each other extends beyond friendship.’

“I was so nervous because so many outlets didn't want to premiere it because it felt too — ‘explicit’ was a word that they used, even though it's just queer love. I was like, is anyone going to watch this video? Is anyone gonna relate to it?”

Upon release, the music video went viral, and is still referenced often today, eight years on. The song was also essentially a coming out moment for Hayley, who had only ever been out to her close friends and family up until this point, despite knowing she was gay since the age of 6. Seeing the reaction of fans, Hayley has said that she wished she would have embraced her true self sooner:

‘I think once you come out yourself as an artist, you're really allowing yourself to be your true authentic self because I was lying to myself for a long time as I was writing music. And I was so, so surprised to find my community once I released ‘Girls like Girls.’’

Hayley’s star has continued to rise since then. Her album Expectations released in 2018 and was followed by her debut live performance on the Jimmy Kimmel show. The same year, Taylor Swift invited her to perform with her on stage at the Gillette Stadium, which was followed a year later with an appearance in Taylor’s music video for You Need to Calm Down. Her most recent studio album, Panorama, released in summer 2022 after much anticipation, and in 2023 she kicked off The Panorama Tour in Glasgow. In May 2023, she will release her first novel - titled Girls Like Girls - a young adult story based on the characters from her 2015 Girls Like Girls music video.

‘Ever since I released the music video for ‘Girls Like Girls‘ [in 2015], it has been a dream of mine to tell the whole story of Coley and Sonya. I am so excited to explore these characters further in a novel — to really get inside their heads and their hearts, and to take readers on their quest for love. I am forever grateful for my fans who continue to champion me and help fuel my passion for storytelling.’

Nicole Maines

Actress / Activist / 1st person to portray a transgender superhero on television

(1997 - present)

Although just 25, Nicole Maines has been trailblazing for most of her life. In 2014 she won a landmark lawsuit against the Maine Supreme Judicial Court that established the right of trans students in the United States to use the bathroom that corresponds with their gender. Then, in 2018, she took on the role of ‘Nia’ in Supergirl, and became the first person to portray a transgender superhero on TV, blazing the way for others to follow.

Nicole and her twin brother Jonas were adopted at birth in 1997 and grew up in Maine, USA. Assigned male at birth, from the age of two, Nicole would ask her mother ‘when do I get to be a girl?’ and has more recently said that she knew she was not a boy from as young as three. Her brother was quick to accept her, and at nine, told their father - who was not as accepting - ‘Face it, Dad, you have a son and a daughter.’

When it came to choosing a new name, Nicole first wanted Raven (from Disney Channel’s That’s So Raven) but this idea was shot down by her father who insisted it was ‘not a real name’ but a ‘TV name.’ So next she chose Quinn for a character in Zoey 101, and when she couldn’t spell it, she landed finally on Nicole for a different character in the same show. But legally changing her name became a whole other hurdle when the family realised that per law in Maine, ‘name changes are announced in the newspaper.’ This was not what the Maines’ wanted for their child, particularly amidst local protests which were ongoing at that time by ‘a politically active organisation with vehemently anti-gay and anti-transgender views.’ So the only thing left to do was appear in court and ask the judge to allow Nicole to have her new name without needing to publicise it. After a sudden and impassioned plea by Nicole’s father (the first time he publicly supported his transgender daughter) the judge agreed that a private name change was what was best for Nicole, and allowed them to proceed. But unfortunately, this would not be the last time the Maines’ would appear in court.

*Nicole with her father and brother after the Court ruled in their favour, 2014.*
*Source: Robert F. Bukaty*

In 2007, when Nicole was in 5th grade (aged 10/11) a family member of a classmate complained that she was using the girls’ bathroom, causing her to be barred from using it again, and instead relegated to a staff bathroom. So the Maines family complained to the school district that their daughter was being discriminated against. Nothing came of this complaint, so they filed a lawsuit and eventually, the case made its way right up to the Maine Supreme Court. In 2014, the Court ‘ruled that the school district had violated the state’s Human Rights Act’ and awarded the family (and activist organisation, Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defender who had assisted them) $75,000. It was a monumental win as it was ‘the first time in the nation that a court ruled it unlawful to force a transgender student to use the bathroom associated with the sex they were assigned at birth.’

The following year, Nicole and her family were the focus of a book by The Washington Post writer Amy Ellis Nutt, and in 2016 Nicole was one of a handful of people featured in the HBO documentary The Trans List through which she relayed her personal story of being transgender. In 2018, Nicole took on the groundbreaking role of TV's first trans superhero Nia (aka Dreamer) in Supergirl, and continued in this role across the Arrowverse family of shows, appearing in both Legends of Tomorrow and The Flash.

‘With trans folks we have a lot of people accusing us of just playing dress-up for whatever reasons, and that’s just not true. Having trans people play trans roles shows that we are valid in our identities and we exist.’

Nicole’s connection to Nia has continued beyond TV; in 2021 and 2022 she co-wrote various comic books featuring her character in stories that will be woven into the DC comics universe. Although not a trained writer, the importance of this representation certainly hasn’t been lost on her:

‘It's a trans girl story written by a trans girl for trans girls. I'm really excited to bring that into the world.’

Most recently, Nicole joined the cast of the hit show Yellowjackets in a recurring role alongside the likes of Juliette Lewis and Christina Ricci, and continues to be outspoken about trans representation in every facet of life. Her dad too, who originally was slow to accept her, has become a strong advocate for trans youth, attending rallies and reaching out to other parents of trans children to help them navigate what he and his family did over a decade ago.

‘I started talking to other dads about it and I said ‘Listen, what are you afraid of?’ Once they could verbalise what they were afraid of, then we could have the real conversations we needed to have [...] It just breaks my heart to see these kids come here and put themselves at risk to testify, to ask legislators ‘let me be who I need to be’.’

Biographies by Katelyn Hanna.

Sources:

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Kate O’Brien

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Gladys Alberta Bentley

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Wilson, James F., Bulldaggers, Pansies, and Chocolate Babies: Performance, Race, and Sexuality in the Harlem Renaissance (Ann Arbour, 2010), p. 173.

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Fiona Shaw

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Hayley Kiyoko

Smith, Katie Louise, ‘Wizards of Waverly Place boss confirms Alex and Stevie were meant to be a couple,’ on PopBuzz, online at: https://www.popbuzz.com/tv-film/news/wizards-of-waverly-place-alex-stevie-gay-couple/ [accessed 11 April 2023].

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Factora, James, ‘Hayley Kiyoko Says Every Young Role Was “Foreshadowing” Her Future Self,’ on them, online at: https://www.them.us/story/hayley-kiyoko-disney-coming-out-lesbian-jesus-interview [accessed 11 April 2023].

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Washington, Jasmine, ‘Hayley Kiyoko Announces New “Girls Like Girls” Young Adult Novel,’ on Seventeen, online at: https://www.seventeen.com/celebrity/a41645160/hayley-kiyoko-girls-like-girls-young-adult-novel/ [accessed 12 April 2023].
Nicole Maines

Ellis Nutt, Amy, ‘Becoming Nicole,’ in The Washington Post, online at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/national/2015/10/19/becoming-nicole/ [accessed 13 April 2023].

Harrison, Judy, ‘Maine Supreme Court rules in favor of transgender girl in Orono school bathroom case,’ Bangor Daily News (30 Jan. 2014).

Stout, David, ‘Transgender Teen Awarded $75,000 in School Restroom Lawsuit,’ in Time, online at: https://time.com/3615599/transgender-student-restroom-lawsuit-maine/ [accessed 13 April 2023].

Wratten, Marcus, ‘Wayne Maines raised TV’s first trans superhero. Now, he’s fighting for trans kids everywhere,’ on Pink News, online at: https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/03/24/wayne-maines-nicole-maines-first-trans-superhero-interview/ [accessed 13 April 2023].

Dart, Chris, ‘Nicole Maines went from playing trans superhero Dreamer on the CW, to writing the new series,’ on CBC, online at: https://www.cbc.ca/arts/q/nicole-maines-q-tom-power-interview-1.6797810 [accessed 13 April 2023].

Lopez, Julyssa, ‘Actress and Activist Nicole Maines Will Be TV's First Transgender Superhero,’ in Glamour, online at: https://www.glamour.com/story/actress-and-activist-nicole-maines-will-be-tvs-first-transgender-superhero [accessed 13 April 2023].

Melanie Lynch

16 March 2023

Mothers of the World

Melanie Lynch

16 March 2023

Mothers of the World

On Mother’s Day, Herstory celebrates mothers of the past and present, maternal bonds, and mothers of social movements. Motherhood is complex and comes in all shapes and sizes. You don’t have to give birth to be a mother. Today we are spotlighting powerful and inspirational stories researched by Katelyn Hanna.

TW: racism, abuse, sexual abuse, homophobia

Mary Harris aka ‘Mother Jones’ (c. 1837 - 1930)

Born in Cork in about 1837, Mary Harris would go on to be known as one of the most dangerous women in America!

Mary and her family emigrated to Canada during the Famine when she was still a little girl. As a young adult, she moved to the United States and spent some time working as a teacher before taking up a job as a seamstress. In 1861, she married Robert Jones and together they had four children but tragically, her entire family died six years later during a yellow fever epidemic in 1867. Mary moved back to Chicago where she’d spent time before her marriage, and there set up her own shop only for it to be burned down along with all her possessions during the great Chicago Fire of 1871.

Despite these seemingly insurmountable blows, Mary helped to rebuild the city and from there, began her labour activism. Over the next few decades, she was an avid ‘union organiser [...] and a campaigner against child labour in America. Her cry would be: “Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living.”’ She was widely known for her oratory skills, capable of rallying large numbers of strikers.

In 1903, spurred on by the atrocious treatment of children workers, Mother Jones organised and led a ‘children’s march’ from Philadelphia to President Theodore Roosevelt’s home in New York, but he refused to see her. Ten years later, Mother Jones was convicted of ‘conspiracy to commit murder’ for her part in a strike the year before, but her sentence of 20 years imprisonment was commuted following campaigning from her supporters. She continued to support strikers right up until her death in 1930. She is buried in the Miner’s cemetery in Illinois and still remembered today as a heroic voice for the working class and children.

“There’s no way to be a perfect mother and a million ways to be a good one.”

— Jill Churchill

Jane Wilde, aka “Speranza” (1821-1896)

We’ve all heard of Oscar Wilde, but have you heard of his mother, Jane, who was an accomplished writer in her own right and influenced Oscar’s poetry? Born in 1821, Jane was just 3-years old when her father died and despite being largely self-taught, she is said to have become a polyglot - with fluency in up to ten languages! It was during the Famine when she began to contribute prose and poetry to The Nation - an Irish nationalist newspaper edited by Charles Gavan Duffy - under the name ‘Speranza.’ She even became co-editor for a time when Gavan Duffy was imprisoned. Jane was an advocate of women’s rights too, and campaigned for improved education for women. From the 1850s, her time was largely spent raising her three children: William, Oscar and Isola, but nonetheless, she continued writing and moving in literary circles.

The 1860s was a difficult decade for the Wildes. It began with a successful court case brought against Jane (and her husband) for libel, and this was followed by the sudden death of their daughter from fever in 1867 which ‘neither parent ever recovered from.’ When Jane’s husband died in 1876, she moved to England where she continued to write and publish her work into the 1890s. By then, however, her financial situation was pretty dire and she lived with her eldest son and his family in poverty, trying to supplement their income with her writing. Any help from her other son, Oscar, stopped when he was imprisoned in 1895.

Jane contracted bronchitis the following year and, dying, asked to see Oscar, but the request was refused and she died in February of that year and was buried in common ground. 100 years later, in 1996, a plaque memorializing her was added to the gravestone of her husband and read:

‘Speranza of The Nation, writer, translator, poet and nationalist, author of works on Irish folklore, early advocate of equality for women, and founder of a leading literary salon.’

“There was never a child so lovely but his mother was glad to get him to sleep.”

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

Alberta Williams King (1904-1974)

*Mrs. Alberta Williams King (left) with her son, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and daughter-in-law, Coretta Scott King. TONY CAMERANO/AP*

Alberta Williams King was born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1904. As a young woman she worked for a short time as a teacher, until her marriage to Martin Luther King I in 1926 forced her to quit her position (married women in Georgia were prohibited from working in certain jobs). Over the next few years she had three children: Willie Christine King, Martin Luther King Jr., and Alfred Daniel Williams King I. She was actively involved in her community as ‘organiser and president of Ebenezer Women’s Committee, organist for the Women’s Auxiliary of the National Baptist Convention, and active in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, and Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA).’

From the very outset, Alberta instilled ‘a sense of self-respect within her three children’ and had a strong influence on their ‘moral development.’ Martin Luther King Jr. later talked of her teachings, writing that ‘...she tried to explain the divided system of the south … as a social condition rather than a natural order. She made it clear that she opposed the system and that I must never allow it to make me feel inferior. Then she said the words that almost every Negro hears before he can yet understand the injustice that makes them necessary: ‘you are as good as anyone.’’

Alberta’s influence on her children, particularly that of one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement in America - Martin Luther King Jr. - cannot be understated. She was an activist in her own right, and passed on her teachings to her children, supporting them at every turn.

*Bob Fitch photography archive, © Stanford University Libraries*

Tragically, like her son, Alberta was assassinated. In 1974, just as she finished playing the organ in her church, a young man stood up and fired into the congregation, stating that ‘All Christians are my enemies.’ She was rushed to the hospital where she died, aged 69.

“Having kids—the responsibility of rearing good, kind, ethical, responsible human beings—is the biggest job anyone can embark on.”

— Maria Shriver

Josephine Baker (1906-75)

Josephine Baker was born Freda McDonald in Missouri in 1906. At just 8-years-old, she began her working life as a ‘live-in domestic for white families’ and at 11 in 1917 she was witness to the East St. Louis riots that left over 100 black people murdered and thousands homeless through violence perpetrated by white Americans. Around this time, Josephine began to seriously ‘embrac[e] her talents as a way out of discrimination and poverty.’ Two years later she was in New York dancing in Vaudeville shows, and is now considered a major contributor to the Harlem Renaissance of the time. In 1925, she moved to Paris where she became ‘one of the most sought-after performers’ and later one of ‘the first African American wom[e]n to star in a motion picture.’ During WWII, she aided the French resistance by passing on Nazi secrets she heard while performing in front of them and after the war, she returned to the US where she often refused to perform in front of segregated crowds. In 1963, she spoke at the March on Washington, saying:

"You know, friends, that I do not lie to you when I tell you I have walked into the palaces of kings and queens and into the houses of presidents. And much more. But I could not walk into a hotel in America and get a cup of coffee, and that made me mad.”

In the 1950s and 60s Josephine adopted 12 children from different countries around the world in what she called ‘an experiment in brotherhood’ to ‘show that racial and cultural harmony could exist.’ She called them her ‘rainbow tribe.’ Unfortunately though, Josephine wasn’t very present - she continued touring, sometimes taking the children with her - but oftentimes, they were at home with their adoptive father (until he moved to Argentina in 1964). When she was there, the children were, from time to time, dressed up and ‘put on display’ for guests to prove that people of different nationalities and ethnic backgrounds could get along. When her son Jari was 15, Josephine discovered that he was gay and sent him away to live with his father, despite her having relationships with both men and women throughout her own life. Asked in 2009 if Jari forgave his mother, he responded ‘Yes, who cares. She didn't want us to grow. Maybe she was afraid that we would out-grow her. It was like being liberated.’ Josephine’s eldest son Akio, when asked if it was right for Josephine to adopt so many children, replied ‘She was a great artist, and she was our mother. Mothers make mistakes. Nobody's perfect.’

“Motherhood was the great equalizer for me; I started to identify with everybody.”

— Annie Lennox

Ranae Von Meding

When Ranae became pregnant in 2016 with her and her wife Audrey’s first baby, they didn’t expect that their child would be born unequal to other children in the eyes of Irish law. But when Ava was born, only one of her parents was allowed to be recorded on her birth certificate. Even though Audrey is Ava’s biological mother, only the birth mother - Ranae - was recognised, by law, as her parent. What this meant was that:

Audrey could not sign any forms to open a bank account for Ava and Ava was not allowed to inherit anything from Audrey or Audrey’s parents
Audrey was not allowed to consent to any medical treatment that Ava may need such as a blood transfusion, vaccinations or any surgery.
Audrey was not listed as her child’s parent and would only have been able to be listed on school forms as a ‘responsible adult’ who is allowed to collect her (but first she would have had to have been given consent from Ranae to do this)
Audrey was not allowed to travel with Ava without the written consent of Ranae.

Later, at a playgroup for children of LGBT+ parents, it was decided to start campaigning for change, and in 2019, after the birth of their second daughter Arya, they co-founded Equality for Children. For months they lobbied politicians, collected signatures on a petition, held demonstrations and publicized their fight through blog posts and the media.

However that’s not the end of the story for Ranae and Audrey. At the beginning of this year (2023) they decided to grow their family again, and returned to Portugal to use their remaining embryos from their previous IVF. They were successful and Ranae is currently pregnant with their 3rd child. However, because their baby was conceived outside of Ireland, after the 2020 Act was commenced, when born, their youngest child will be treated differently to their two older sisters. Ranae will once again be in the position where she is viewed as a single parent and Audrey will be a legal stranger to her own genetic child.

Learn more about the campaign here.

"Having children just puts the whole world into perspective. Everything else just disappears."

— Kate Winslet

Margaret Stephen

Born in 1972 in Sudan, Margaret Stephen was separated from her mother as a teenager due to the outbreak of war and forced into marriage with a soldier at 16. Early in her pregnancy, Margaret’s husband had to ‘go off to fight’ and she was left on her own: ‘There were no cars or transport anymore, so people were walking for about two weeks to get into town. My mother was telling people who were coming in to please find me and look after me. So, a few people found me, and I went with them back home and I had the baby with my mother beside me.’

In 1994, Margaret was at the border of Uganda and Sudan. She had TB, and was there for treatment with her son and younger brother when fighting broke out again. She sent the two children across the border with her mother to escape the violence while she recuperated, before swimming across the Nile to join them.

The family stayed in Uganda in a refugee camp for about 14 years. In that time, Margaret remarried and her new husband began the process of getting them to America. Sadly, it never worked out because a small group of people had stolen their forms and went to America under their name. To make matters more desperate, Margaret’s new husband deserted her and her young son and left them to fend for themselves in the camp: ‘Everyone knew I was alone and anyone passing by looking for sex or for a fight could break in and did.’

When the civil war in Sudan ended in 2005, the Sudanese inhabitants were told to go home, but as Margaret pointed out, ‘we’d been in the camp so long that we didn’t have anyone back in Sudan anymore. Where were we going to go?’ So, along with a handful of other women, she fought for the right of Sudanese people to remain in the camp where they could work to find a home elsewhere. She also fought to establish an office in the camp where refugees could go to fill out their forms, rather than having to travel to the nearest town and ‘sleep on the streets there’ while their applications were being processed.

Now in Ireland, Margaret is recovering and living her life. ‘Being a migrant changed my life. Back in Africa you work so hard just to find food and survive, and your mind gets blocked, but since I’ve come to Ireland, I’ve learned new things and my memories have begun to come back.’

Read Margaret’s full story, in her own words, here.

“Women do not have to sacrifice personhood if they are mothers. They do not have to sacrifice motherhood in order to be persons. Liberation was meant to expand women's opportunities, not to limit them. The self-esteem that has been found in new pursuits can also be found in mothering.”

— Elaine Heffner

Mothers of Women’s Rights in Ireland - the National Women’s Council

In 2023, the National Women’s Council (NWC) celebrates its 50th anniversary. Founded in 1973, the NWC is the leading national representative organisation for women and women’s groups in Ireland. Originally called the Council for the Status of Women (CSW), it was founded by a group of feminists, and chaired by Hilda Tweedy of the Irish Housewives Association, with the goal of gaining equality for women. It wasn’t until 1979 that the CSW ‘got its first grant from the government. Its projects included managing the National Women's Talent Bank and hosting the National Young Women's Forum.’ Throughout the 1990s, ‘its activities included supporting projects funded by the European Social Fund, and running Women and Leadership Programmes’ and forums, and in 1995 it changed its name to the National Women’s Council of Ireland. Since then, the NWC has built its membership to include 160 groups, with a ‘growing concentration on marginalised women, poverty, violence against women and social partnership.’ In the past number of years, the NWC, and the women who make up the team, board and collaborators, has led the way on issues to ‘improve access to contraception and abortion, guarantee sex education for all schools, and end violence against women.’

‘We will not stop until women can have children without fearing financial punishment, until women and girls no longer have to fear sexual violence or exploitation, and until the contribution of women to society via care work is recognised and remunerated.’

Learn more about the NWC and sign up for their newsletter here.

“The fastest way to break the cycle of perfectionism and become a fearless mother is to give up the idea of doing it perfectly—indeed to embrace uncertainty and imperfection.”

— Arianna Huffington

Want to further explore the mothers in your family tree? Why not check out our handy guide to researching your family tree and get started!

Sources:

Mary Harris aka ‘Mother Jones’

McGinley, John Joe, ‘Mother Jones: ‘the most dangerous Irish woman in America’,’ on The Irish Story, online at: https://www.theirishstory.com/2021/11/02/mother-jones-the-most-dangerous-irish-woman-in-america/#.ZAG7BnbP3IU [accessed 3 Mar. 2023].

Jones, Mary, The Autobiography of Mother Jones (1925).

‘Jones, Mary Harris (‘Mother Jones’),’ on DIB, online at: https://www.dib.ie/biography/jones-mary-harris-mother-jones-a4333 [accessed 3 Mar. 2023].

Jane Wilde

Edwards, Owen Dudley, ‘Wilde, Jane Francesca Agnes (‘Speranza’)’ on Dictionary of Irish Biography, online at: https://www.dib.ie/biography/wilde-jane-francesca-agnes-speranza-a9035 [accessed 22 Feb. 2023].

McHugh, Connell, ‘Who was Jane Wilde? Mother of Oscar Wilde born 200 years ago today,’ on The Irish Post, online at: https://www.irishpost.com/life-style/who-was-jane-wilde-mother-of-oscar-wilde-born-200-years-ago-today-226604 [accessed 22 Feb. 2023].

Haverty, Anne, ‘The other woman in the other Wilde case: The Diary of Mary Travers – A Novel,’ in The Irish Times, online at: https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/the-other-woman-in-the-other-wilde-case-the-diary-of-mary-travers-a-novel-1.1931889#:~:text=In%20the%20earlier%20case%20Jane,and%20chastity%20had%20been%20impugned. [accessed 22 Feb. 2023].

Donovan, Katie, ‘Like Mother, Like Son,’ in The Irish Times, online at: https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/like-mother-like-son-1.26539 [accessed 22 Feb. 2023].

Alberta Williams King

Morris, Sonya, ‘ALBERTA CHRISTINE WILLIAMS KING (1904-1974),’ on BlackPast, online at: https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/people-african-american-history/alberta-christine-williams-king-1904-1974/ [accessed 24 Feb. 2023].

‘King, Alberta Williams,’ on Stanford University, online at: https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/king-alberta-williams [accessed 24 Feb. 2023].

Tharpe, Stephanie, ‘The Historic Power Woman Behind The Dream: Alberta Williams King,’ on Forbes, online at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestheculture/2021/01/18/the-historic-power-woman-behind-the-dream-alberta-williams-king/?sh=66de35f47d9b [accessed 24 Feb. 2023].

Malaika Tubbs, Anna, ‘Alberta King, Martin Luther King Jr.'s Mother, Made Her Own Contributions to Civil Rights,’ on Time, online at: https://time.com/5928623/martin-luther-king-jr-mother-alberta-king/ [accessed 24 Feb. 2023].

Josephine Baker

Whitaker, Matthew C., Icons of Black America: Breaking Barriers and Crossing Boundaries, (2011), p. 64.

Keyes, Allison, ‘The East St. Louis Race Riot Left Dozens Dead, Devastating a Community on the Rise,’ in the Smithsonian Magazine, 2017. Online at: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/east-st-louis-race-riot-left-dozens-dead-devastating-community-on-the-rise-180963885/ [accessed 21 Feb 2023].

‘Harlem Renaissance’ on History, online at: https://www.history.com/topics/roaring-twenties/harlem-renaissance [accessed 21 Feb 2023].

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Norwood, Arlisha R., ‘Josephine Baker’ on National Women’s History Museum, online at: https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/josephine-baker [accessed 21 Feb. 2023].

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Theile, Von Merlind, ‘Josephine Baker's Rainbow Tribe’ on Spiegel International, online at: https://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/adopting-the-world-josephine-baker-s-rainbow-tribe-a-652613.html [accessed 21 Feb. 2023].

Ranae Von Meding

Von Meding, Ranae, ‘Marriage Equality and what it means for your family’ on Ranae Von Meding, online at: https://www.ranaevonmeding.com/post/marriage-equality-and-what-it-means-for-your-family [accessed 23 Feb. 2023].

McKenna Barry, Sarah, ‘Ranae von Meding: "This is for our children, and all children who are like them”,’ on Her.ie, online at: https://www.her.ie/life/ranae-von-meding-digital-cover-556925 [accessed 23 Feb. 2023].

Dunne, Peter, ‘Campaigner Ranae von Meding achieves parental rights for wife after five-year battle,’ on GCN, online at: https://gcn.ie/ranae-von-meding-parental-rights-wife/ [accessed 23 Feb. 2023].

Margaret Stephen

‘Margaret Stephen and Sally Mulready OBE,’ on Herstory, online at: https://www.herstory.ie/movementblog/2021/5/7/7-margaret-amp-sally [accessed 28 Feb. 2023].

National Women’s Council

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Melanie Lynch

14 January 2023

MODERN BRIGIDS 2023

Melanie Lynch

14 January 2023

MODERN BRIGIDS 2023

To mark Brigid’s Day, Ireland’s first ever national holiday dedicated to a woman, we are celebrating the modern women who embody her qualities and share her passions as environmentalist, feminist, Pride icon, healer, pioneer, human rights activist, goddess of the arts, alchemist and wisdom weaver. St. Brigid may be a woman who lived 1,500 years ago and the Celtic goddess Brigid pre-dates Christianity, but she continues to inspire today…

Dr. Diana Beresford Kroeger - visionary botanist & biochemist

Dr. Diana Beresford–Kroeger is a medical biochemist and botanist known all around the world for her dedication to trees and nature, and the knowledge she draws from her deep Celtic ancestry. A self-ascribed ‘renegade scientist,’ she is ‘one of the world’s leading experts on the many medicinal properties of trees. Discover herstory.

“Without trees, we could not survive. The trees laid the path for the human soul.”

— Diana Beresford Kroeger

Dr. Easkey Britton - surfer, artist & academic

For many years now, Easkey Britton has been pioneering women’s big-wave surfing in Ireland. A professional marine social scientist with a PhD in Environment and Society, Easkey’s work ‘explores the relationship between people and nature’ and more recently has revolved around ‘exploring the use of blue and green space to restore health and wellbeing.’ Discover herstory.

Kari Cahill - visual artist

Kari Cahill is a visual artist who paints using natural earth pigments and through ‘harnessing the elemental and solar energy of our landscapes.’ She characterises her work ‘as site-responsive and experimental, based on an attempt to capture the essential aspects of colour, texture and energy that I find rooted in landscapes.’ Discover herstory.

“Artistically, my aim is to drive artists and the experience of art outwards into the wild environments of the natural world. My artistic practice contributes to the development of new perspectives on our cultural, historical and natural landscape.”

— Kari Cahill

Ailbhe Smyth - activist

Ailbhe Smyth is well known in feminist and activist circles for her decades of women’s rights’ and LGBTQ+ activism. She was a founding member of Marriage Equality and a co-director of the Together for Yes campaign in the lead up to the Repeal the 8th referendum. In 2019, she, alongside two other co-directors of Together for Yes, were listed as one of the Time 100’s most influential people. Discover herstory.

Nancy Cárdenas - actor, poet, feminist

Born in 1934, Nancy Cárdenas was the first person to come out in Mexico on live television and went on to pioneer the Mexican gay movement. A writer, journalist, playwright and director, Nancy helped to ‘increase the visibility of Latina lesbians’ and in 1974, founded the first gay organization in Mexico - Frente de Liberación Homosexual Mexicano. Discover herstory.

“Of course, if we change the future we change the past.”

— Nancy Cárdenas

Ifrah Ahmed - activist

Ifrah is an Irish/Somali activist and campaigner. Having arrived in Ireland in 2006, aged 17, she set up her first organisation, United Youth of Ireland in 2008, in response to youth immigrant integration issues in her country of adoption. From personal experience, she leant her voice to the FGM campaign in Ireland and further afield in Europe and turned her focus to the specific gender issue of FGM by founding the Civil Society Organisation that carries her name, Ifrah Foundation in 2012. Discover herstory.

Dr. Riane Eisler - social systems scientist, cultural historian

Riane Eisler was born in Austria in 1931 before she and her family fled from the Nazis in 1939 to Cuba, eventually settling in the US. Her writing ‘pioneered the expansion of human rights theory and action to include the majority of humanity: women and children’ and her most well-known book The Chalice and the Blade, published in the 1980s, introduced domination and partnership theories which still have relevance today. Discover herstory.

Sinéad Burke - Irish writer, academic and disability activist

From the moment Sinéad entered primary school, she ‘understood the power of education and its value in being a catalyst to combat ignorance, to challenge the status quo and to give agency and opportunity to the most vulnerable.’ Since then, she has worked tirelessly to ‘highlight the lack of inclusivity within the fashion and design industries and consult with leadership to ensure the process of designing for, with and by disabled people is embedded into their business model.’ Discover herstory.

*At the Met Gala, 2019. Photo: Theo Wargo/WireImage*

Dr. Rosaleen McDonagh - activist, playwright and Irish Traveller

Rosaleen McDonagh is ‘a Traveller woman with a disability’ and is known for writing largely ‘within the framework of a Traveller feminist perspective.’ An activist too, she is a board member of Pavee Point Traveller and Roma Centre and was appointed a Human Rights Commissioner in 2020. In 2021 she released her first book, Unsettled, which ‘explores racism, ableism, abuse and resistance as well as the bonds of community, family and friendship.’ Discover herstory.

Anna Cosgrave - activist, founder of the Repeal Project

“Students are absolutely pivotal to social movements…change comes from the voices of young people, opening up the conversation to the older generation.”

— Anna Cosgrave

In 2016, when abortion in Ireland was illegal, Anna Cosgrave launched the Repeal Project to ‘move the conversation onto a jumper’ as a ‘stigma-buster for the lonely unsupported women, living with shame, to feel supported.’ The black jumper with just the word ‘Repeal’ in white lettering across the front brought the conversation into the open and onto the streets. As well as this, the Repeal Project helped ‘raise hundreds of thousands for volunteer organisations working on the campaign’ and brought young activists and old, musicians, artists and emigrants together to fight for abortion rights. Discover herstory.

Marley Dias - founder of the campaign #1000BlackGirlBooks

When she was just eleven years old in 2015, Marley Dias launched #1000BlackGirlBooks with the intention of collecting 1,000 books with black female protagonists to donate for black girls at other schools. Within a few months, she had far surpassed her original target while highlighting the lack of diversity in children’s books. In 2018, Marley was ‘the youngest member of the Forbes 30 under 30’ list and since 2021, she has been the Ambassador for the National Education Association's Read Across America programme. Discover herstory.

“It was the desire to see black girls and our experiences in the books that I was given to read at school that forced me to speak my truth. I launched #1000BlackGirlBooks, a book drive to collect the stories of women of color.”

— Marley Dias

Asieh Amini - Journalist

As a journalist, Asieh Amini has been a leading voice in the campaign to end stoning and juvenile executions in Iran since the early 00s. In 2006, she and her friend, human rights lawyer Shadi Sadr, founded the Stop Stoning Forever (SSF) campaign but increased scrutiny on her activism meant she was forced to flee Iran for Norway in 2009. Irrespective of this, Asieh continues to fight against censorship and other human rights abuses in the country to this day. Discover herstory.

Hilary Barry - founder of LadyAgri

Hilary Barry is founder and Secretary General of the LadyAgri Impact Investment Hub established ‘to tackle the specific needs of women in agri-business with tailor made solutions to overcome systemic constraints, improve quality and market access.’ Since her first experience in Ghana in 1993, Hilary has ‘dedicated her entire career to social impact programmes across sub-saharan Africa’ as an ‘avid supporter of the Africa-EU partnership.’ She is a strong believer that ‘patient investment in women in agri-supply chains, though challenging, will have a ‘rising tide’ effect and wide social impact.’ Discover herstory.

Sonita Alizadeh - rapper, activist

Sonita Alizadeh was born in Afghanistan but grew up a refugee in Iran where she faced forced marriage at the age of just 10. Luckily, this didn’t come to pass, but again at the age of 16, her mother came to her with the news that she would be sold into marriage. Instead, Sonita recorded her powerful and evocative video — Daughters for Sale — and uploaded it to YouTube where it went viral. In 2015, she was recognised as one of BBC’s 100 Women of the year and with the help of the nonprofit Strongheart Group, Sonita moved to the US where she continues her advocacy. Discover herstory.

“The world is full of girls with bright minds and big hopes. Imagine what could happen if their true value was seen, and everyone, both boys and girls, could make their dreams come true.”

— Sonita Alizadeh

Ilwad Elman - peace activist

Following in the footsteps of her parents, Ilwad Elman is a prominent Somali peace activist. When her father was assassinated in 1996, she and her family moved to Canada as refugees, however in 2010, as the conflict continued, they returned as adults and set up the Elman Peace Centre. Aged just 20, Ilwad co-founded Somalia’s first rape crisis centre and since then has ‘become a champion of building peace through giving all those impacted by conflict – particularly women and girls – a seat at the table.’ Discover herstory.

“When you hear about war or conflict, you never really are able to understand it really until you’re in it. Everything that we see in Hollywood productions — in big movies — was in my backyard.”

— Ilwad Elman

Josephine Hart - poet, novelist

Born in Monaghan in 1942, Josephine Hart was ‘a word child. Poets were not only my heroes, they were indeed the gods of language.’ It was her husband Maurice who encouraged her creative career however. Having listened to her complain of the lack of poetry events in London, he suggested she start one herself – and thus, the Josephine Hart Poetry Hour was born! From 1987 onwards, Josephine organised poetry readings at the British Library, occasionally visiting the National Theatre or the New York Public Library. Discover herstory.

Nandi Jola and her daughter Anesu Mtowa - poets

Nandi Jola is a South African born poet, storyteller and playwright. Her one woman play of monologues and dance, The Journey opened the International Literature Festival Dublin in 2020. Her work often explores the concept of home, of belonging and connection. Her daughter, Anesu, born in Northern Ireland, is also a writer and has explored her identity as a second-generation immigrant through her work, such as with her first piece Where am I from?, published in 2017 for the Northern Ireland Youth Forum’s Black history month campaign. Discover herstory here and here.

“As a minority growing up in Northern Ireland, I have always been the one expected to explain race to people. If someone says something racist, I am expected as a black person to call that person out and then have a long discussion with them about their actions. It gets tiring. Especially when you are doing it from a young age and looking around at the world and nothing seems to be changing.”

— Anesu Mtowa

Laura Murphy - poet, activist

Laura Murphy is a poet, activist, healer and award-winning senior communications strategist. In addition to her work for leading Irish brands, she consults for and contributes to Herstory as their poet-in-residence. Laura is the daughter of a Mother and Baby home survivor and is an outspoken campaigner on issues surrounding equality, environmental and social healing in Ireland. Discover herstory and follow her on Insta here.

Tara Flynn - writer, performer, activist

Tara Flynn is a well-known Irish actress, voice artist, writer, comedy improviser and occasional columnist. In 2015, she went public with her own story of travelling abroad for an abortion and from then became one of the leading activists in the campaign for a repeal of the 8th Amendment. Since then, she has spoken out about how difficult that campaign was, and the coming back from it, through her 2022 show Haunted which ran in the Abbey Theatre to great acclaim. Discover herstory.

Susan Quirke - musician, meditation teacher

Susan Quirke is a singer, songwriter, and recording artist who released her debut album ‘Into the Sea’ in 2021. An advanced certified meditation teacher and a leader of mass meditation experiences, she has brought meditation to thousands of people throughout Ireland and globally. Susan is also a multi award-winning social entrepreneur for her work in the field of mental health and wellbeing. Discover herstory.

Una Taaffe - socialite, Galway legend

Una Taaffe, who died in 2006, isn’t widely known, but to those native to Galway, she is one of the great characters of the city. As a young woman she was ‘a renowned beauty and socialite who would host fabulous tennis parties in the family home’ but as an older woman, she took over the family knitwear shop which was very popular amongst tourists. Una bucked the trend and took in those who were rejected by society at the time. She hired single mothers when no one else would and her shop became home to stray dogs and cats and for some time, homeless people took up residence there too.

Ellen O’ Malley Dunlop - co-founder of Bard Mythologies, advocate

From her early life, Ellen O’Malley Dunlop has been ‘fighting the system.’ In the 1980s, she set up a marriage and parenting counselling centre with the Dominicans and later established her own private practice and ‘worked, as a psychotherapist, with individuals who had suffered from sexual abuse, both as adults and in their childhood.’ In 2006, she became the CEO of the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre. Together with her husband, she founded Bard Mythologies to ‘revive the Bardic Tradition, a wisdom of the people, which helps us to view life beneath the surface and make sense of the world around us through story, folklore, symbols and archetypal characters.’ Discover herstory.

Mari Kennedy & Dolores Whelan: the Celtic Wheel

Almost two decades ago, Mari Kennedy ‘left a career as a strategist in the public and private sector that included seven years spent working with the President of Ireland’ due to burn out. Since leaving that path she has ‘dedicated herself to reweaving the healthy feminine and healthy masculine in her own life.’ Over the last 17 years, she has been a student of many wisdom traditions and has worked closely with Dolores Whelan, author, teacher, spiritual guide, healer, way-shower and pioneer. Together, they are the Celtic Wheel - ‘re-enchanting our world with the lost wisdom of our ancestors.’ Discover herstory.

Dr. Karen Ward - founder of MoonMná & Brigid’s Way

Karen Ward has ‘always loved the archetypal energies of Grandmother Moon and combined with a yearning to sit in Irish themed Women’s Circles, she founded Moon Mná in 2009.’ Brigid’s Way, then, was founded by Karen and Dolores Whelan, an initiative ‘inspired by a strong desire in these two Irish women to revive the ancient art of pilgrimage, a spiritual practice central to the indigenous spiritual traditions of this land.’ Discover herstory.

Nora Twomey & Giovanna Ferrari - Cartoon Saloon

In 1999, Nora Twomey co-founded Cartoon Saloon - an award-winning Irish animation film, short film and television studio based in Kilkenny. Since then, she has worked as co-director on The Secret of Kells - which was nominated for an Oscar, head of story on Song of the Sea and as sole director of The Breadwinner. Giovanna Ferrari was a storyboard artist at Cartoon Saloon and has since climbed the ladder to Director and has worked with Nora on some of Cartoon Saloon’s most highly acclaimed features, including most recently, My Father’s Dragon which released on Netflix in 2022. Learn more here.

Researched by Katelyn Hanna.

Sources:

‘Cárdenas, Nancy (1934-1994),’ by Tina Gianoulis, 2002, online at: http://www.glbtqarchive.com/arts/cardenas_n_A.pdf [accessed 16 Dec. 2022].

‘Riane Eisler,’ online at: https://rianeeisler.com/about/ [accessed 16 Dec. 2022].

‘About’ online at: https://www.sinead-burke.com/about [accessed 16 Dec. 2022].

‘Dr. Rosaleen McDonagh,’ online at: https://www.ihrec.ie/about/chief-commissioner-members-of-ihrec/dr-rosaleen-mcdonagh-2/ [accessed 16 Dec. 2022].

‘Rosaleen McDonagh,’ on Skein Press, online at: https://skeinpress.com/writer/rosaleen-mcdonagh/ [accessed 16 Dec. 2022].

‘Anna Cosgrave,’ on Hozier, online at: https://hozier.com/activitsts/anna-cosgrave/ [accessed 16 Dec. 2022].

‘About me,’ on Marley Dias, online at: https://www.marleydias.com/about/ [accessed 16 Dec. 2022].

‘Asieh Amini,’ on National Women’s History Museum, online at: https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/asieh-amini [accessed 19 Dec. 2022].

‘FOUNDERS & THE TEAM BEHIND LADYAGRI,’ on LadyAgri, online at: https://www.lady-agri.org/who-we-are-ladyagri [accessed 19 Dec. 2022].

‘Sonita Alizadeh,’ on AsiaSociety, online at: https://asiasociety.org/asia-game-changers/sonita-alizadeh [accessed 19 Dec. 2022].

‘Sonita Alizadeh,’ on GirlsNotBrides, online at: https://www.girlsnotbrides.org/about-us/our-champions/sonita-alizadeh/ [accessed 19 Dec. 2022].

‘Sonita Alizadeh,’ on National Women’s History Museum, online at: https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/sonita-alizadeh [accessed 19 Dec. 2022].

‘Ilwad Elman,’ on ExtremelyTogether, online at: https://www.kofiannanfoundation.org/extremely-together/ilwad-elman/ [accessed 19 Dec. 2022].

‘Josephine Hart,’ on Herstory, online at: https://www.herstory.ie/news/2016/5/22/josephine-hart-novelist-poetry-evangelist-theatre-producer [accessed 19 Dec. 2022].

‘WNIMTM — Nandi JOLA,’ on SharedFutureNews, online at: https://sharedfuture.news/wnimtm-nandi-jola/ [accessed 19 Dec. 2022].

‘Poet Anesu Mtowa speaks to Shelley Tracey – Part 1,’ on CAP, online at: https://www.capartscentre.com/2020/06/poet-anesu-mtowa-speaks-to-shelley-tracey-part-1/ [accessed 19 Dec. 2022].

‘Tara Flynn: How I lost all my marbles - and how I found them again,’ in The Irish Examiner, online at: https://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/people/arid-41002856.html [accessed 19 Dec. 2022].

‘Susan Quirke,’ online at: https://susanquirke.com/ [accessed 19 Dec. 2022].

‘Gone but not forgotten – Una’s life to become play,’ online at: https://connachttribune.ie/gone-not-forgotten-unas-life-become-play/ [accessed 19 Dec. 2022].

‘The life of Una Taaffe and a young man's struggle with MS,’ online at: https://www.advertiser.ie/Galway/article/100465/the-life-of-una-taaffe-and-a-young-mans-struggle-with-ms [accessed 19 Dec. 2022].

‘'Having sex is a fabulous thing, but in the right environment, with the right person',’ on the Journal, online at: https://www.thejournal.ie/ellen-omalley-dunlop-seanad-2705272-Apr2016/ [accessed 20 Dec. 2022].

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Melanie Lynch

1 January 2023

Women in Sport

Melanie Lynch

1 January 2023

Ireland boasts a long history of exceptional sportswomen, from Lena Rice, who to this day is the only Irishwoman to have won at Wimbledon (in 1890!) to Katie Taylor, the current undisputed lightweight champion in boxing. From football and swimming to golfing and rugby, from the paralympics to the Women’s Rugby World Cup - Irish women have traveled all over the world competing, winning accolades and inspiring the next generation to do the same.

Here are just a few sports stars in a long list of Irish sportswomen…

Sophie Eliott-Lynn (neé Peirce-Evans), better known now as Lady Mary Heath, was, for a time in the 1920s, one of the most well known women in the world. Having moved to London in 1922, she immediately became a founding member of the Women’s Amateur Athletic Association and represented the WAAA at International Olympic Council meetings. Throughout the 1920s, she represented Britain at various Women’s Olympiads and won medals in the long jump, javelin and the high jump. In 1925, Sophie took her first flying lesson, and in 1928 she became the first pilot, male or female, to fly a small open-cockpit aircraft from Cape Town to London. In 1929 she became the first woman to hold a commercial flying licence in Britain AND she was also the first woman to parachute from a plane (and landed down on a football match!) Sadly, in the same year, she was badly injured in a near fatal crash and ‘it was probably as a result of long-term head injury that she died after falling from a London tram in May 1939.’ You can read more about Sophie here.

Born in 1926, Iris Kellett won her first award at a horse show aged just nine in 1935, and would go on to be ‘one of Ireland’s most celebrated, and decorated, equestrians.’ Before Iris was born, her father had purchased an old British army cavalry academy in Dublin and opened a riding school. The school closed for some time but reopened again in 1939 by which time Iris was helping with the training of kids and teenagers. In 1945, by which time she was considered Ireland’s leading woman show jumper, she passed the instructor’s examination and as chief instructor at the family riding school, she began training riders and horses for showjumping. In 1947, Iris competed on the first ever Irish all civilian Nations Cup team, and with her beloved horse Rusty, won the Princess Elizabeth Cup for the European Ladies Championship in 1949 and again in 1951! A year on from this though, Iris suffered a fall and broke her ankle and then contracted two bouts of tetanus. For some time it was thought that she would be unable to ever walk again (and it was this experience that ‘later made her the prime mover in Ireland for providing riding courses for the disabled’). It took 10 years, but finally Iris almost fully recovered and returned to competing. Not only that, but in 1968, she was chosen for Ireland's Olympic team (but she chose not to go). Iris retired in the 1970s but continued to train riders and breed horses, and since her death in 2011 has been regarded by the Royal Irish Academy as someone who ‘contributed more to Irish equestrianism than any other individual in its history.’

Maeve Kyle (neé Sharkey) born in Kilkenny in 1928, would in 1956 become the first Irish woman athlete ever to go to the Olympics representing Ireland. Her achievement was not always met with joy however, as she explained later: ‘there was more opposition from, say, my mother’s age group than anyone else. They did not approve and I think I made them feel uncomfortable. I had the distinction of having a letter in the Irish Times saying what a disgraceful hussy I was going off to the Olympics, leaving my husband and small child behind. That shows you the attitude of certain sections of what was a very conservative society.’ A complete amateur, Maeve trained where and when she could, ‘I remember training once on the local school cricket pitch and was sent packing! So I just trained where I could. My husband, Sean, was my coach and I used to train in his lunch hour on a cycle track at the local football ground.’ Maeve competed in the 100m and 200m in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics and subsequently in the 1960 Rome and 1964 Tokyo Olympics where she reached the semi-finals. Maeve also went on to represent three of the four provinces in hockey, and competed in swimming, tennis and cricket. She attended her fourth Olympics in 2000 as a coach and in the 2008 New Year Honours she was appointed OBE.

As a senior level GAA player, Valerie Mulcahy was part of the Cork team that saw TEN All-Ireland wins between 2005 and 2015, as well as nine Ladies' National Football League titles. Valerie scored in all finals she played in bar one and even scored a hatrick in 2008! In 2015, she helped to launch the Women’s Gaelic Players Association, founded the year before, to represent the interests of intercounty players and in 2016 they were successful in securing financial support from the Irish government for Intercounty Ladies Gaelic Football and Camogie players. Valerie’s activism didn’t stop there. During the campaign for marriage equality in 2015, she came out as a lesbian to coincide with her taking part in the Donal Óg Cusack/RTÉ documentary, Coming Out of the Curve, which explored the history of gay rights in Ireland. Later that year, following the legalisation of gay mariage, she married her partner of six years, choreographer Meg Blyth.

Although Sophie Spence was born and raised in England, we’re including her in this list because she is a former Ireland women's rugby union international (she qualified to represent Ireland through her mother, who was originally from Lisburn, Co. Antrim). Even though she had never seen a women’s rugby game before the age of 21, Sophie began playing women's rugby union while at University between 2005 and 2010 and went on to represent Ireland at the 2014 and 2017 Women's Rugby World Cups! She was also a member of the Ireland teams that won the 2013 and 2015 Women's Six Nations Championships and was nominated as player of the year by RTÉ and World Rugby in 2015. Following Ireland’s disappointing performance as host nation in 2017, Sophie ‘fell out of favour’ and retired. ‘It was a disappointing finish and not a good tournament for us. There were a lot of factors and it wasn’t a happy camp which showed in our rugby. It’s unfortunate we didn’t do anything to rectify it. At the time I was sad, angry, and frustrated and I vocalised how I felt by trying to speak to people to try to make the women’s game stronger. I wanted to emphasise I wasn’t happy with how things were going. Unfortunately sometimes you’re then out of favour.’ Following her time as a player, Sophie found that there were a lack of job opportunities in the sporting field in Ireland, so she moved to Wales where she set up her own coffee business. In 2020, she took on the role as coach of the Welsh Division One West team Penclawdd RFC and also became a World Rugby coaching intern with the Welsh national women’s team, a ‘position set up to increase the number of women in high performance across the world of rugby.’

Katie Taylor is arguably the most outstanding and highly regarded Irish athlete of her generation and as the current undisputed lightweight champion in boxing with an Olympic gold medal under her belt, it’s no wonder why. Katie first began boxing aged 12 and was coached by her father Peter. From 2005, she began competing and doing very well (even winning) at the Women's World Boxing Championship and the European Amateur Boxing Championship. Excitingly, Katie qualified for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London (the first time women's boxing had been considered for inclusion) and won gold, making her the first ever Olympic female lightweight champion! In 2016, Katie made her professional debut at Wembley, London and won her first world title the following year. Since then, Katie has boasted 22 wins and zero losses! This includes a win at Madison Square Garden in New York in 2022, the first women's boxing match to headline the iconic venue, and was described as the 'biggest women's fight of all time' in the build up. What’s next for Katie? Croke Park! In 2023, she hopes to take on a fight in front of 80,000 fans - and win, we hope!

Katie isn’t the only boxer Ireland can boast of these days. In recent years, Irish amateur boxer, Kellie Harrington, has been making the country proud in the ring. Kellie first took an interest in boxing when she was 15, and tried to join her local boxing club in Dublin, only to be refused because she was a girl. She persevered however, and in 2017 won a silver medal in the lightweight division at the 2017 Women's European Union Boxing Championships. The following year she won gold at the Women's World Boxing Championships. In 2021, Kellie travelled to Japan as part of the Ireland team at the 2020 Summer Olympics where she became Ireland’s third Olympic boxing champion when she won gold (the others to hold this title are Katie Taylor and Michael Carruth). In late 2022, Kellie released her autobiography, Kellie, which she wrote with author Roddy Doyle and in November it was crowned the Irish Sports Book of the Year. In it, one of the many things she discusses is the growing awareness and appreciation of the fact that many women in sport have a menstrual cycle: ‘It’s only in recent years, I think, that there’s an awareness and appreciation of the fact that women in sport have a menstrual cycle – that it’s natural. I make no secret of it, because I’ll eat people without salt during my period. Sometimes I can’t train; I’m bedbound. If I’m feeling a bit tired, I’ll tell my coaches. [...] I had my period during the World Championships in 2016, and at the Olympics in 2021.’ What’s next for Kellie? The Paris Olympics in 2024!

Ellen Keane holds the record for Ireland’s youngest ever athlete to compete at the Paralympics when she swam in the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games, aged 13! Ellen was born in 1995 with an undeveloped left arm but nonetheless, she began swimming when she was just two-years old. Growing up was not easy for Ellen, and she would ‘wear baggy hoodies and coats to try and hide her stump and pretend that she was just like everyone else’ but eventually, as she explained in her 2017 TedX talk My Lucky Fin, she eventually changed the way of looking at her own disability and her life changed from there. In 2016, she won a bronze medal in the 100m breaststroke at the Rio Summer Paralympics and at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics she won gold at the same event. In 2022, Ellen appeared in the Irish Dancing With the Stars and finished second overall. Watch her TedTalk below!

Katie McCabe and Amber Barrett, captain and forward of the Republic of Ireland women's national football team, made history in 2022 in a World Cup qualifying game against Scotland. Coming on toward the end, Amber scored the goal that won them the game and advanced them to the World Cup, the first Ireland’s women’s national team to reach that milestone. In a touching tribute to the victims of the Creeslough explosion which occurred just days before, Donegal-native Amber - whose grandparents are from Creeslough - kissed her black armband immediately upon scoring. Katie, who became the youngest captain in the history of the team when she was made captain in 2017 also plays for Arsenal and in the 2018-19 season she helped lead Arsenal to the FA WSL title, playing the most minutes of any player on the squad.

Born in 1994, Cavan twins Lisa and Leona Maguire are both well-known names in the women’s golfing scene and have been since they were quite little. Beginning in 2005, both girls worked hard to rise through the ranks, taking part in various competitions around Ireland and beyond. After experiencing life on tour as a professional golfer playing on the Ladies European Tour for two years Lisa retired from professional golfing and became a player manager at Modest! Golf. Leona, meanwhile, made her Ladies Professional Golf Association debut in 2020 and finished in the top five. The following year, she broke into the top 100 on the Women's World Golf Rankings and at the time of writing, currently stands at 11th in the world ranking!

*Patience, Gina, Ciara Neville and Molly Scott. Source: The42*

The youngest sportswomen in our photo essay are Gina Akpe-Moses, born in 1999, and Patience Jumbo-Gula, born c.2001. Gina began athletics aged 11 and moved to England a few years later. It was in 2015 that she first competed at the European Athletics Under-20 Championships and came fourth as part of the relay team, and two years later won gold for the 100m at the European U20 Championships in Italy. Patience, meanwhile, has been described as ‘one of Ireland’s most exciting young track and field athletes.’ In 2018, Gina and Patience were both in the same Irish relay team and placed second at the U20 World Championships. Speaking in 2019, Patience said ‘Everyone wants to make the Olympics, that’s what I want to do. But it’s important for me just to enjoy the experience. I want to be competitive but smile, enjoy it and not let the pressure get to me.’

Sources:

‘Irish women’s athletics and the Olympic Games,’ by Lindie Naughton in History Ireland, Issue 4 (July/August 2012), Volume 20.

‘Iris Kellett, renowned equestrian,’ on the RIA, online at: https://www.ria.ie/news/dictionary-irish-biography/iris-kellett-renowned-equestrian [accessed 7 Dec. 2022].

‘IRIS KELLETT: SHOW JUMPING LEGEND,’ on RDS Collections, online at: https://digitalarchive.rds.ie/exhibits/show/digitalhorsesshow/iriskellett [accessed 7 Dec, 2022].

‘Irish suffragette Maeve Kyle,’ by Stuart Weir for AthleticsWeekly, online at: https://athleticsweekly.com/featured/irish-suffragette-maeve-kyle-47943/#:~:text=The%20first%20Irish%20woman%20athlete,had%20only%20selected%20male%20athletes. [accessed 6 Dec. 2022].

‘MAEVE KYLE: IRELAND'S FIRST EVER TRACK & FIELD ATHLETE,’ on HerSport, online at: https://www.hersport.ie/athletics/maeve-kyle-irelands-first-ever-female-olympian-15227 [accessed 6 Dec. 2022].

Irish Examiner, 4 Nov. 2016.

Independent, 27 Jun. 2015.

‘Sophie Spence: There was no work for me so I had to go make work,’ on SportsJoe, online at: https://www.sportsjoe.ie/rugby/sophie-spence-no-work-go-make-work-188327 [accessed 7 Dec. 2022].

‘SOPHIE SPENCE'S FAST-TRACKED CAREER INTO INTERNATIONAL COACHING,’ on OffTheBall, online at: https://www.offtheball.com/womenssixnations/spence-coaching-career-1187781 [accessed 7 Dec. 2022].

‘Spence finds green pastures in coaching after sour end to international career,’ on The42, online at: https://www.the42.ie/sophie-spence-coaching-wales-ireland-sour-end-4706256-Jul2019/ [accessed 8 Dec. 2022].

The Irish Times, 30 Oct. 2022.

‘KATIE TAYLOR VS. AMANDA SERRANO IS THE BIGGEST WOMEN'S FIGHT OF ALL TIME, WORTHY OF A PLACE IN MADISON SQUARE GARDEN HISTORY,’ on DaznNews, online at: https://www.dazn.com/en-US/news/boxing/katie-taylor-vs-amanda-serrano-is-the-biggest-womens-fight-of-all-time-worthy-of-a-place-in-madison-square-garden-history/f7wcc8yoyzmz1eew6jroz4jei [accessed 8 Dec. 2022].

Katietaylor.ie, online at: https://katietaylor.ie/ [accessed 8 Dec. 2022].

Irish Mirror, 15 Nov. 2022.

The Irish Times, 22 OCt. 2022.

‘Kellie Harrington's autobiography wins the Irish Sports Book of the Year,’ on The42, online at: https://www.the42.ie/kellie-harrington-boxing-olympics-5928634-Nov2022/ [accessed 8 Dec. 2022].

Irish Mirror, 17 Mar. 2022.

‘Inside the personal life of Paralympic gold medallist Ellen Keane: growing up, relationship and career,’ on RSVP Live, online at: https://www.rsvplive.ie/news/celebs/inside-personal-life-paralympic-gold-24847417 [accessed 8 Dec. 2022].

‘ELLEN KEANE,’ on Paralympics Ireland, online at: https://paralympics.ie/team-ireland-profiles/ellen-keane/ [accessed 8 Dec. 2022].

‘Ellen Keane,’ on International Paralympic Committee, online at: https://www.paralympic.org/ellen-keane [accessed 8 Dec. 2022].

‘Amber Barrett,’ on FAI, online at: https://www.fai.ie/ireland/player/888844750 [accessed 8 Dec. 2022].

‘Amber Barrett Enjoying Life In Germany Despite Lockdown Challenges,’ online at: https://www.balls.ie/football/amber-barrett-life-in-germany-462935 [accessed 8 Dec. 2022].

‘Supersub Amber Barrett sends Ireland to the World Cup,’ on RTÉ, online at: https://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2022/1011/1328411-super-sub-amber-barrett-sends-ireland-to-the-world-cup/ [accessed 8 Dec. 2022].

‘'Watching her kiss the armband, that was massive' - the rise of Amber Barrett,’ on The 42, online at: https://www.the42.ie/amber-barrett-ireland-world-cup-5891489-Oct2022/ [accessed 8 Dec. 2022].

‘LEFT-BACK BUT NEVER LEFT OUT: ARSEBLOG EXCLUSIVE WITH KATIE MCCABE,’ on Arseblog, online at: https://arseblog.news/2020/05/left-back-but-never-left-out-arseblog-exclusive-with-katie-mccabe/ [accessed 8 Dec. 2022].

‘Lisa Maguire,’ on Modest Golf, online at: https://www.modestgolf.com/team/lisa-maguire [accessed 8 Dec. 2022].

Irish Mirror, 22 Nov. 2022.

‘Leona Maguire,’ on LPGA, online at: https://www.lpga.com/players/leona-maguire/98270/overview [accessed 8 Dec. 2022].

‘Leona Maguire is just getting started as she discusses meteoric rise,’ on Buzz, online at: https://www.buzz.ie/sport/leona-maguire-started-meteoric-rise-28452294 [accessed 8 Dec. 2022].

‘Leona Maguire,’ on Golf Live 24, online at: https://www.golflive24.com/player/maguire-leona/p62zRKEq/#:~:text=World%20Ranking%3A%2011. [accessed 8 Dec. 2022].

‘“WHY IS THERE A BLACK GIRL ON THE IRISH TEAM?”,’ on Off the Ball, online at: https://www.offtheball.com/other-sports/gina-akpe-moses-ireland-sprinter-1022563 [accessed 8 Dec. 2022].

‘‘When I passed the baton, I stopped for a split second - and then I ran down the home straight behind her’,’ on The42, online at: https://www.the42.ie/ireland-4x100m-silver-world-u20-4227984-Sep2018/ [accessed 8 Dec. 2022].

‘History makers! Ireland women's relay team take silver medal at World U20 Championships,’ on The42, online at: https://www.the42.ie/ireland-womens-4-x-100m-relay-silver-medal-athletics-4127549-Jul2018/ [accessed 8 Dec. 2022].

‘Ireland's Patience Jumbo-Gula Has Record-Breaking Run Into 100 M Final,’ online at: https://www.balls.ie/athletics/patience-jumbo-gula-u18-championships-392283 [accessed 8 Dec. 2022].

‘'My Dad has always said, 'this is the land my children are going to prosper in'',’ on The42, online at: https://www.the42.ie/patience-jumbo-gula-athletics-interview-4458117-Jan2019/ [accessed 8 Dec. 2022].

Melanie Lynch

20 May 2022

Pride in the Past: A Photo Essay

Melanie Lynch

20 May 2022

PRIDE in the Past: A Photo Essay

The well-known initialism LGBT has only been in common use since the late 20th century, and has undergone various transformations since then, but members of that community have always existed (you just probably weren’t taught about them growing up). In honour of Pride 2022, we’re taking a look back at some international trailblazing women of the LGBTQIA+ community.

(Content Warning: Some of the following biographies contain instances of homophobia, transphobia, Nazism, drug and alcohol abuse, and physical and child abuse which may be hurtful to some readers).

You can scroll down through all of the biographies at your own pace, or, to get quickly to one of them, click on their name below:

Sappho Dorothy Arzner

Ladies of Llangollen The Sewing Circle

Anne Lister Pat Walker

Lucy Hicks Anderson Ernestine Eckstein

Dora Richter Marsha P. Johnson & Sylvia Rivera

Dorothy Wilde Leslie Feinberg

Sappho

(c.620BC - c.570BC)

‘Like the sweet apple that reddens upon the topmost bough,

Atop the topmost twig, - which the pluckers forgot, somehow, -

Forget it not, nay; but got it not, for none could get it till now.’

*Sappho and Erinna by Simeon Solomon, 1864*

Sappho was an Archaic Greek poet from the island of Lesbos who today is revered as a feminist lesbian icon, with the words sapphic and lesbian inspired by her name and home island. Born in c. 620 BC Sappho frequently professed a love and desire for women in her poems, which were so popular that she had coins made in her honour and many ancient texts declared her the ‘Tenth Muse.’ Unfortunately, extremely little is known about her life now and her sexuality has been debated (and suppressed) for millennia. Very little of her work has survived, and while most was likely lost through time and a failure to write it down, there are legends that say some of her poems were ‘purposefully destroyed by the medieval church to suppress lesbian love poetry’ and there is some evidence to suggest that Pope Gregory VII ordered her works burned (c. 1073CE) for this very reason. Regardless of the attempt to suppress her voice, Sappho remains ‘a figurehead of lesbian iconography’ today.

Ladies of Llangollen:

Eleanor Butler & Sarah Ponsonby

(1739 - 1829) (1755 - 1831)

In 1778, Eleanor Charlotte Butler (b. 1739) and Sarah Ponsonby (b. 1755) ran away together. They had met ten years prior in Kilkenny, Ireland and had formed a close ‘intense’ relationship very soon after. By 1778 they faced a crisis. Eleanor, now 40 and unmarried, was perhaps going to be placed in a convent by her family and Sarah’s family were attempting to marry her off. She declared that she planned to ‘live and die with Miss Butler’ and in their first attempt at elopement, she allegedly ‘leapt out of a window, in male attire, armed with a pistol and her small dog, Frisk.’ Their families found them and forced them apart, but this did not deter them, and another attempt a few months later was a success. They renovated a small cottage they called Plas Newydd in Wales with their maid Mary Caryll (who had escaped with them) and settled into what they called ‘exquisite retirement.’ They enjoyed working on their estate, studying, and hosting friends together.

Their situation was the subject of fascination to many at the time, and visitors to Plas Newydd included William Wordsworth, Charles Darwin and Anne Lister. They were inundated with so many visitors, in fact, that Eleanor once lamented in her diary ‘when shall we ever be alone together?’ Of course, the nature of their relationship has been debated for centuries. Prince Puckler-Mukau – a contemporary of the couple - is known to have said of them that they were ‘certainly the most celebrated [virgins] in Europe’ while others called them ‘damned sapphists.’ More recently, Prof. Fiona Brideoake of American University in Washington DC has suggested that queer would be a more appropriate label than the specific label of lesbian, ‘particularly as queerness is a broad concept and significantly defined by its difference from typicality.’

Eleanor and Sarah lived together with a successive line of dogs they named Sappho – rarely ever leaving Plas Newyyd – until the day they died (Eleanor in 1829 and Sarah two years later in 1831). They were buried together with their maid, Mary.

Anne Lister

(1791 - 1840)

“I love and only love the fairer sex and thus beloved by them in turn, my heart revolts from any other love than theirs.”

— Diary of Anne Lister, 29th January 1821

Born in 1791, Anne Lister was a prolific diarist and wrote religiously between 1806 and her death in 1840. Known also as ‘Gentleman Jack,’ she was a charismatic and ‘phenomenally intelligent’ woman who inherited her uncle’s estate – Shibden Hall – after his death in 1826. As a wealthy landowner, she remained, disappointingly but unsurprisingly, "interested in defending the privileges of the land-owning aristocracy." An astute businesswoman, entrepreneur, and traveller, Anne lived life to the beat of her own drum. She had relationships with women from when she met her first love, Eliza, at boarding school as a young teenager. It was with her that Anne developed a code in which to write the most intimate details of her life in in her journals. Mariana Belcombe, however, was who became her life’s love. For years, the couple travelled about 40-miles to see each other and wrote to each other constantly. But in 1815, Mariana married a widower which broke Anne’s heart.

‘Surely no-one ever doted on another as I did then on her.’

After a year apart, they reignited their affair. Anne wrote, ‘Sat up lovemaking. She [asked me to swear] to be faithful, to consider myself as married. I shall now begin to think and act [as] if she were my wife.’ It wasn’t to last though as Mariana grew increasingly fearful that their relationship would be found out, and by 1823 the affair was over for good.

*Anne Lister 1822, probably by a Mrs Taylor*

After some time spent travelling, Anne met Ann Walker and in 1834 they ‘took communion together’ in a church and exchanged rings, after which they considered themselves married. Ann moved into Shibden Hall, and they lived there until Anne’s early death, aged 49 in 1840.

While providing important detailed accounts of social, political, and economic events of the time, Anne’s diaries also contain a great deal about her lesbian identity and relationships she had with women. For this reason, they were kept hidden (and almost burned) by a descendant who was afraid that should her relationships be made public it would ruin his family’s name. Thankfully, the journals were later found and then uncoded in the 1980s by Helena Whitbread. In the end, it was Anne’s ‘comprehensive and painfully honest account of lesbian life and reflections on her nature’ that was deemed so important in 2011 that her diaries were added to the register of the UNESCO Memory of the World Programme.

Lucy Hicks Anderson

(1886 - 1954)

TW: Transphobia

Born in 1886 in Kentucky, USA, Lucy insisted on wearing dresses to school as a child, so her mother took her to a doctor who told her that she should allow Lucy to live as a female. By 1901, aged 15, she left home and worked as a domestic servant before moving to Texas, and eventually, to New Mexico where she married her first husband, Clarence Hicks in 1920. Together they moved to California where Lucy became a very popular member of the community and was known as a nanny, skilled chef and a talented socialite who hosted the best parties. Eventually, Lucy saved up enough money (and made enough connections in town) to open a brothel and speakeasy. Her parties were so good, in fact, that on one particular occasion when she was arrested for selling liquor in prohibition America, ‘Charles Donlon, the town’s leading banker, promptly bailed her out [because] he had scheduled a huge dinner party which would have collapsed dismally with Lucy in jail.’

*Lucy with some local children c. 1940s. Source: Oxnard: 1941-2004.*

In 1929, Lucy divorced her husband and in 1944 she married retired soldier, Reuben Anderson. All seemed to be going well until the following year when ‘an outbreak of venereal disease in the Navy was traced back to Anderson’s brothel.’ All of the women employed there, including Lucy, were examined by the doctor who then went public with what he found out about 59-year-old Lucy. Upon this discovery, the local District Attorney voided Lucy’s marriage to Reuben and arrested her for ‘perjury’ on her marriage license. During the trial, Lucy strongly defended herself by stating:

“I defy any doctor in the world to prove that I am not a woman. I have lived, dressed, and acted just what I am—a woman.”

— Lucy Hicks Anderson

Lucy and her husband were convicted and sentenced with jail time and were both then further charged with fraud when they concluded that Lucy had been ‘illegally receiving Anderson’s allotment checks as the wife of a member of the U.S. Army.’ They were both sent to a men’s prison where Lucy was banned by court order from wearing women’s clothing. When they were finally released from jail, they were prohibited from moving back to the town they had lived before, and so they relocated to Los Angeles where Lucy died in 1954.

Dora Richter

(1891 - 1933?)

TW: Transphobia, Nazism, Homophobia

In 1931, Dora Richter became the first known person to undergo gender confirmation surgery under the care of sex-research pioneer Magnus Hirschfeld in Berlin.

Born into a poor German family in 1891, Dora always identified as a woman. When she was a little older, because it was extremely hard (if not impossible) to find work as a trans woman, she used to dress in what was regarded as male clothes and work as a waiter during the summer under her birth name while spending the remainder of the year living as the woman she was. This wasn’t exactly easy though, and she was arrested and imprisoned on a handful of occasions for ‘cross-dressing.’

Eventually, she was released into the care of Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld at Berlin’s new Institute for Sexual Science where she was able to obtain genital reconstruction surgery, including a vaginoplasty when she was 40, making her the first known trans woman to do so. To pay her way, she worked as a housekeeper within the Institute alongside other trans women and according to some sources, she liked to knit, sew and sing ‘old folk-songs.’

*Two Women Dancing (1928) by Jeanne Mammen, Berlin*

The Institute had been opened in 1919 by Dr. Hirschfield and his collaborators and as well as having the medical division that Dora would have visited, it also housed a research library and a vast archive reputed to have been ‘the world’s first repository of LGBTIQ history.’ Berlin, at this time, was ‘a haven and refuge for gays and lesbians from all over the world’ boasting ‘170 clubs, bars and pubs for gays and lesbians, as well as riotous nightlife, […] a gay neighbourhood’ and political parties that were being set up to advocate for equal rights.

*Students of the Deutsche Studentenschaft, organized by the Nazi party, parade in front of the Institute for Sexual Research*

Horrifically though, by 1933 the Nazi Party had basically obtained absolute control of the country, and almost immediately began its ‘purge’ of gay clubs in Berlin, forbade sex publications, and banned organised gay groups. In May, a group of fanatical right-wing students attacked the Institute, and the state authorities then burned the library and archives publicly on the streets, erasing years of LGBTQIA+ research and history. Extensive lists containing names and addresses were seized and it is believed that these were later used by the Nazis to round-up, imprison, and murder gay people – specifically gay men. Sadly, there is no record of Dora after this attack, and it is widely assumed that she was killed during, or shortly thereafter it, with at least one source stating that she was beaten to death inside the Institute where she had lived happily for so many years.

*German students and Nazi SA members plunder the library of the Institute*

Dora had lived her life showing incredible perseverance and determination in the face of extreme adversity and while she is still not nearly as recognised as she should be today, to those who do know her story, she is considered a true role model.

Dorothy ‘Dolly’ Wilde

(1895 - 1941)

In 1895, the famous Irish playwright, Oscar Wilde, was sentenced to prison for the crime of ‘gross indecency’ (AKA consensual homosexual relations. Same-sex sexual activity was illegal in Ireland until 1993!). Three months into his imprisonment, his niece Dorothy ‘Dolly’ Wilde was born in London.

Although she would never meet Oscar, who died in 1900, she idolised him and anyone who knew the two of them remarked how alike they were, both in appearance and personality. Dolly never talked much about her childhood, so little is known, but as a teen during WWI, she went to France to drive an ambulance where she began a relationship with her fellow ambulance driver Marion ‘Joe’ Carstairs.

After the war, she remained in Paris and became a frequenter of private parties and literary circles. She was known for her ‘quick wit [and] charming conversation,’ and was a great addition to any gathering. She was known to many as a talented storyteller, but unfortunately, she never took advantage of this by writing anything down. Much like Oscar used to do, Dolly spent this time ‘liv[ing] out of her suitcase moving between hotels, borrow[ing] apartments and the spare rooms of her well-off friends.’ Even though she enjoyed garnering the attention of men, Dolly was only interested in pursuing women, and in 1927 she began a long relationship with openly lesbian American playwright, poet and novelist, Natalie Clifford Barney.

Distressingly for Dolly, while her relationship with Natalie continued right up until her death, Natalie was simultaneously having relationships with other women. Dolly was also an alcoholic and drug-addict and even though she tried to get clean on a few occasions, none were successful. In 1939, she was diagnosed with breast cancer, for which she refused treatment, opting instead for alternative therapies, and sadly she died in 1941, aged 45.

Dorothy Arzner

(1897 - 1979)

Born in 1897, Dorothy Arzner was the only female director working in Hollywood from the late 1920s until her retirement in 1943. Her film career began after WWI in 1919 when she took a job in the script department and within a few months she became an editor, eventually rising up the ranks to edit films for Paramount studios. By 1927, Dorothy ‘had an offer to write and direct a film for Columbia’ which appealed massively to her, as she had known from her first week on the job back in 1919 that ‘if one was going to be in this movie business, one should be a director because he was the one who told everyone else what to do.’ She threatened to leave Paramount and when she was made an offer to discuss directing sometime in the future, Dorothy responded that she’d ‘rather do a picture for a small company and have my own way than a B picture for Paramount.’ Walter Wagner, head of Paramount’s New York studio then offered her the chance to direct a comedy which was later titled Fashions for Women (1927). This was Dorothy’s directorial debut, and it was a commercial success, so Paramount hired her for a string of more silent movies and in 1928 she became the first woman to direct a sound film – Manhattan Cocktail.

The following year, in 1929, Dorothy directed Paramount’s first ever talkie feature film The Wild Party. It starred Clara Bow in her first talking picture and when she found it awkward to act and move about the set due to the sound equipment, Dorothy had a microphone put at the end of a fishing rod to allow her leading lady to move about freely. Yes, Dorothy invented the first ever boom mic!

After she directed a few more features for Paramount, Dorothy went freelance and made some of her most well-known, well-received movies starring Katharine Hepburn (Christopher Strong, 1933), Rosalind Russell (Craig's Wife, 1936); Joan Crawford (The Bride Wore Red, 1937) and Lucille Ball and Maureen O’Hara (Dance, Girl, Dance, 1940). Dorothy’s movies often gave actresses of the time ‘intelligent, complex roles centring around moral dilemmas and a cynical attitude to marriage’ and ‘independent, strong-willed female protagonists whose decisions reflect a conflict with stereotypes.’

Dorothy retired from filmmaking in 1943 and founded the first class on filmmaking at the Pasadena (California) Playhouse (Francis Ford Coppola was one of her students!) She directed over 50 Pepsi ads throughout the 1950s at the request of her friend Joan Crawford and in 1976 she was honoured by the Directors Guild of America (of which she was the first female member).

While she liked to keep her private life private, Dorothy never exactly hid the fact that she was a lesbian. She had a 40-year relationship with choreographer Marion Morgan which began about the time she made her directorial debut in 1927. The couple worked together on a handful of Dorothy’s films, with Marion choreographing some of the scenes in Fashions for Women (1927), Get Your Man (1927) and Manhattan Cocktail (1928). They lived together in Hollywood from 1930 until Marion’s death in 1971. Dorothy died in 1979, aged 82.

The Sewing Circle

(1920s - 1950s)

Marlene Dietrich

Greta Garbo

Joan Crawford

Katharine Hepburn

Tallulah Bankhead

Mercedes de Acosta

From the very early days of cinema, any portrayal of same-sex relationships was expressly forbidden, but this didn’t mean that Hollywood wasn’t populated with gay people. Many of the most famous women in Hollywood during the Golden Age (1920s-50s) were queer; actresses like Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Marlene Dietrich, Tallulah Bankhead and Katharine Hepburn, and others in the creative industry like poet and playwright Mercedes de Acosta, and director Dorothy Arzner, were all members of an informal network of lesbian and bisexual women, known as the Sewing Circle. It isn’t certain where the term originated, although many attribute it to Russian American actress, director, and producer Alla Nazimova (godmother of US First Lady Nancy Reagan) who had confirmed romantic relationships with Mercedes, Dorothy, and Dolly Wilde.

Secrecy and privacy were of the utmost importance to most members. These women were working in an industry that sought to silence them, in a society that for the most part believed that women-loving-women were ‘neurotic, tragic, and absurd,’ under a government that actively suppressed them. Things became even more difficult for gay people in America from 1938 on with the introduction of the Committee on Un-American Activities, established ‘to investigate alleged disloyalty and rebel activities on the part of private citizens, public employees and organizations suspected of having Communist ties.’ Known as the Lavender Scare, gay men and women were dubbed ‘national security risks’ because it was believed that they would be more susceptible to manipulation and blackmail. This is the context in which the Sewing Circle was set.

Pat ‘Dubby’ Walker

(1938 - 1999)

“‘Most of us had two strikes against us as lesbians and as women. She was discriminated against on four counts – because she was also blind and an African American.’ ”

— Del Martin

Pat Walker (nicknamed Dubby because she was short) was born in 1938, America. Growing up Black, female, blind, and a lesbian at this time may seem like it would have been incredibly hard, and no doubt it was at times, but luckily, she had a very supportive family. Speaking in the 1980s she recalled, ‘when I was eleven or twelve, my mother told me about gayness. [She] had gay friends and my sister is also gay. At fourteen I realized I liked girls. I never felt bad about myself because of it.’

Independence was very important to Pat who spent a year at an independent living centre ‘learning how to survive, how to use a cane, and how to use her other senses to ‘see’ her way on downtown traffic-filled seats.’ To support herself financially, Pat worked at a telephone wake-up service and then operated a shop in the lobby of an office building.

It wasn’t until 1958 that she heard about the Daughters of Bilitis (DOB). Founded in 1955, DOB was the first lesbian civil and political rights organisation in the US. The priorities of some of the original members included: having a place where they could dance (because dancing with someone of the same sex was illegal in public spaces), providing a social alternative to lesbian bars (which were subject to raids) and privacy (from parents, families and ‘gaping tourists in the bars’). Whilst visiting Oakland’s Orientation Centre for the Blind, one of the co-founders of DOB, Billye Talmadge, met Pat and immediately ‘picked [her] out as gay.’ Billye began taking Pat to various meetings, picnics and get-togethers and had Pat work with her on The Ladder, a magazine published monthly by the DOB.

Eventually, Pat was elected President of the San Francisco chapter of the DOB and ‘proved to be a strong leader who had no trouble delegating authority.’ She was one of the representatives of the DOB present at a retreat in 1964 that saw the coming together of lesbian and gay leaders as well as fifteen clergymen for a discussion on ‘The Church and the Homosexual.’ Those present spent a few days together ‘breaking down stereotypes.’ As well as this role, she volunteered her time answering a night helpline set up by San Francisco’s Suicide Prevention Agency.

In her later life, Pat moved into a house in the desert with her dog and two cockatiels where she could play her instruments (she played the saxophone, piano, flute, piccolo, and guitar) as loudly as she wanted. She died in 1999, ‘surrounded by friends and family, who prompted the hospice volunteer to observe, “You are all so different. She must have been quite a person.”’ Writing about her a few years later, Del Martin – co-founder of DOB – wrote that ‘with her humour, her sensitivity and warmth, her caring and patience with people, and her funny stories’ Pat was an immensely popular character within every circle she had moved in.

Ernestine Eckstein

(1941 - 1992)

This photo, taken in October 1965 of a picket line in front of the White House and organised by Frank Kameny, founder of the Mattachine Society of Washington DC was one of the first times gay people had organized to come together and publicly demand their rights in America. The only person of colour in attendance was Ernestine Eckstein. Her sign read: Denial of Equality of Opportunity is Immoral

Though known as Ernestine Eckstein now and throughout her activism, she was born Ernestine Delois Eppenger in 1941 in Indiana (the change of name came as a way to protect herself from being outed in her hometown and fired from her job). Her involvement in political activism began when she attended college in Indiana and became a NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People) chapter officer, although extremely little is known about her involvement at this time. Following her graduation in 1963, she moved to New York City. She met up with a friend from college who informed her then that he was gay. While she had ‘been attracted to various teachers and girlfriends’ before, she said:

“I had never known about homosexuality, I’d never thought about it. It’s funny because I’d always had a very strong attraction to women. But I’d never known anyone who was homosexual […] I didn’t know there were other people who felt the way I did.”

— Ernestine Eckstein

Her friend explained to her what gay meant and ‘then all of a sudden, things began to click. Because at that time I was sort of attracted to my roommate, and I thought: am I sexually as well as emotionally attracted to her? And it dawned on me that I was […] I went through the soul-searching for several months […] the next thing on the agenda was to find a way of being in the homosexual movement – because I assumed there was such a movement…’

*Some members of the Daughters of Bilitis c. 1956*

Ernestine had experience in the Civil Rights movement and had expected to find a similar one pertaining to gay people – but at this time, in the early 1960s, there wasn’t so much of a gay movement as what there is today, and what she did find were many debates around the direction any such movement should go in. Many of the older generation were still trying to gain rights by negotiating with doctors and psychologists (who believed homosexuality was a mental illness) while younger activists wanted to take the issue to the people and to government officials. Ernestine became one of the earliest advocates of the latter, saying in 1966 that ‘any movement needs a certain number of courageous people […] They have to come out on behalf of the cause and accept whatever consequences come. Most lesbians that I know endorse homophile picketing but will not picket themselves...’

Ernestine was the first black woman to feature on the cover of The Ladder, a magazine run by the DOB. The photo was purposefully taken from the side so as she wouldn’t be overly recognisable (and outed)

Ernestine became the Vice President of the New York chapter of the Daughters of Bilitis (DOB) in 1964. By this time time, the wider debate of which direction the ‘homophile’ movement should go in was happening within the organisation too.

*Frank Kameny marching in the first Pride parade in 1970, holding a sign with the slogan he coined ‘Gay is Good.’*

Some members of the DOB, such as Ernestine, were inspired and influenced by the success of the Civil Rights movement and tried to move the lesbian and gay struggle for equality in the same way. In 1965, Ernestine began to reach out to Frank Kameny – one of the most significant figures in the gay rights movement in the US, co-founder of the Mattachine Society of Washington (one of the earliest national gay rights organisations in the country), and creator of the slogan ‘gay is good’ – with the idea of having him speak at an event organised by the NY DOB. Writing to him in early 1966, she said, ‘I want you to be free enough to say whatever you want, so to speak – about any aspect of the movement. Keep in mind my particular aim: to get these people to realize there is such a thing as the homophile movement and possibly begin to develop a fuller concept of themselves as part of it.’ Just a few days later, however, she had to write to inform him that the DOB had decided to uninvite him. This was probably because some within the DOB disliked Frank and disliked the fact that a man was telling them what to do, while others were simply put off by the idea of social action.

Towards the end of the 1960s, Ernestine left the DOB (which eventually fell apart in 1972) and moved west to California. It is alleged that she left because she had ‘gotten tired of all the political wrangling and disagreements within DOB over strategies and tactics.’ In California she joined the radical, activist group Black Women Organized for Action (BWOA), founded in 1973 ‘in response to the lack of representation of Black women in local women's organising.’ There is hardly any record of Ernestine after this, however. She died in 1992 – although her cause of death is not publicly known.

Ernestine was undoubtedly one of the most progressive thinkers of her time within the gay liberation movement. In 1965 she said she’d ‘like to find a way of getting all classes of homosexuals involved together in the movement’ (including trans people) and was resolute in that ‘the homosexual has to call attention to the fact that he’s been unjustly acted upon. This is what the Negro did.’ Journalist, Eric Marcus, said it best when he said of Ernestine: ‘She was a visionary. She anticipated, predicted, and foreshadowed so many of the issues that would face the LGBTQ community in the decades to come.’

Marsha P. Johnson & Sylvia Rivera

(1945 - 1992) (1951 - 2002)

TW: Transphobia, Homophobia, Child Abuse

Marsha P. Johnson was born in 1945 in New Jersey, the fifth of seven children, and from a very early age she felt most comfortable in clothes made for girls. After graduating high school in 1963 and a brief stint in the Navy, she moved to New York City ‘with only $15 and a bag of clothes.’ Here, she was able to dress almost exclusively in the clothes she wanted and began going by the name Marsha P. Johnson (the P stood for her life motto ‘pay it no mind!’)

At the time, Marsha went by she/her pronouns and described herself as ‘a gay person, a transvestite, and a drag queen’ but most people today (including her friends) say that if she were still alive, she would probably consider herself a trans woman, a term that was not commonly used in Marsha’s time.

Shortly after arriving in the big city, Marsha met Sylvia Rivera – a Puerto Rican, New York-born trans girl six years her junior. Sylvia was an orphan who had been homeless from the age of 11 and was being exploited as a ‘child prostitute’ until a group of drag queens took her under their wing. The pair became instant friends and Marsha taught Sylvia everything she knew about make-up and living on the streets. Eventually, to make money, they ‘hustled’ which meant working as sex workers, but this was an incredibly dangerous profession in 1960s New York, particularly for people like Marsha and Sylvia, and they faced violence and the threat of arrest every single day. Despite their difficult day-to-day life, they made the most of what they had and were known for their charismatic and fun-loving personalities.

*The only known photo from the first night of the Stonewall riots*

Then, in the early hours of 28 June 1969, the ‘most significant event in the history of the gay liberation movement and the catalyst for the modern fight for LGBTQ rights’ – the Stonewall riots – began, when police raided the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village. When the police became violent, people who had been in Stonewall and other lesbian and gay bars in the area, fought back, and this continued over a few days. Marsha was there on the first night and is widely regarded now as one of the initial instigators, although she herself refuted this.

“I didn’t get downtown until about two o’clock […] the place was already on fire. And it was a raid already. The riots had already started. And they said the police went in there and set the place on fire.”

— Marsha P. Johnson

There are conflicting reports about Marsha’s role at Stonewall that night, but whatever the details, she was there on the frontlines, standing up for herself and for the LGBTQIA+ community at large. In fact, drag queens and trans women – who were often overlooked and turned away by other members of the community - were at the forefront of the uprising.

*Sylvia and Marsha at a gay rights protest in 1973*

Following the Stonewall riots, Marsha and Sylvia attended many demonstrations, sit-ins, and meetings but still, they felt excluded within the community even though trans people were more likely to face abuse, police brutality and homelessness. So, in 1970, they set up STAR (Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries), a place where homeless queer youth could live in relative safety with each other. It was a ‘slum building’ with few amenities, but it was all they could afford.

“When we asked the community to help us there was nobody […] We were nothing! We were taking care of kids that were younger than us. Marsha and I were young, and we were taking care of them […] We tried. We really did […] We went out and made money off the streets to keep those kids off the streets. We already went through it. We wanted to protect them. To show them that there was a better life.”

— Sylvia Rivera

*Marsha and Sylvia at a protest in 1973*

STAR was shut down after about two years because there was no money to support it. In the mid-70s, Sylvia moved upstate with her partner while Marsha remained in the city and performed in drag shows. In 1980 she moved in with a friend and when that friend’s partner became terminally ill with AIDS, Marsha looked after him. She became a frequent visitor to those ill with AIDS in hospitals and spent hours sitting with them. She herself contracted the virus in 1990. Two years later, shortly after the gay pride parade of 1992, Marsha’s body was found in the Hudson River. Her death was ruled a suicide but her friends, including Sylvia who moved back to New York, were convinced that she had been the victim of a hate crime as there was a large gash to the back of her head. In 2002 her death was reclassified as ‘undetermined.’

The 1990s were a difficult period for Sylvia but in 2001 she resurrected STAR as an active political organisation and campaigned for the New York City Transgender Rights Bill and for a trans-inclusive New York State Sexual Orientation Non-Discrimination Act. Sadly, she died in 2002 of liver cancer, aged just 50.

Leslie Feinberg

(1949 - 2014)

“…an anti-racist white, working-class, secular Jewish, transgender, lesbian, female, revolutionary communist.”

— How Leslie described herself

TW: Transphobia, Homophobia

In about 1963, aged 14, Leslie Feinberg dropped out of school and soon after became estranged from her family. She had been ‘mercilessly abused and discriminated against for being gender variant and non-conforming.’ Biologically a woman, but male presenting, she would later explain:

“I am female-bodied, I am a butch lesbian, a transgender lesbian — referring to me as ‘she/her’ is appropriate, particularly in a non-trans setting in which referring to me as ‘he’ would appear to resolve the social contradiction between my birth sex and gender expression and render my transgender expression invisible. […] I like the gender-neutral pronoun ‘ze/hir’ because it makes it impossible to hold on to gender/sex/sexuality assumptions about a person you’re about to meet or you’ve just met. And in an all trans setting, referring to me as ‘he/him’ honors my gender expression in the same way that referring to my sister drag queens as ‘she/her’ does.”

— Leslie Feinberg

Feinberg spent hir early life working low-paying jobs as well as pursuing many causes as an activist and by her early 20s she became a member of the Workers World Party - a revolutionary Marxist–Leninist political party in the US that ‘supports the struggles of all oppressed peoples.’ Leslie worked extensively as editor and columnist for the organisation’s newspaper and is considered the first theorist to have advanced a Marxist concept of transgender liberation – which ‘understands the oppression of trans people as not just the result of individual people’s prejudice, but as a part of capitalist exploitation.’

Leslie later moved to New York where ze became involved in confronting oppression wherever she could see it. She was a very vocal advocate for minorities, the poor, AIDS patients, women’s reproductive rights, and gay, lesbian, and transgender people. In 1993 ze published the coming-of-age novel Stone Butch Blues which encouraged conversation about ‘the complexity and fluidity of gender’ and won many awards.

“[Stone Butch Blues] changed trans history. It changed dyke history. And how it did that was by honestly telling a brutally real, beautifully vulnerable, and messy personal story of a butch lesbian.”

— Shauna Miller, writer and contributor to The Atlantic

*Leslie and Minnie, 1993 Copyright: Jonathan G. Silin.*

Hir non-fiction book Transgender Warriors: Making History from Joan of Arc to Dennis Rodman, published in 1996, is considered to be ‘one of the first books to articulate a trans-historical understanding of transgender identity and argue for the inclusion of gender nonconforming people throughout history.’

In 2011, she married her long-time partner - educator, activist, and essayist Minnie Bruce Pratt. Sadly though, Leslie died, aged 65, just three years later from complications of multiple tick-borne infections that she’d been suffering with since the 70s. Hir last words were:

“Remember me as a revolutionary communist.”

— Leslie Feinberg

Researched and written by Katelyn Hanna.

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Melanie Lynch

27 January 2022

Student Power

Melanie Lynch

27 January 2022

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HERSTORY SHINES A LIGHT

ON STUDENT POWER FOR BRIGID’S DAY

#Herstory #StudentVoices #Brigit2022

To celebrate Brigid’s Day 2022, Herstory and the Irish Second-Level Students’ Union present STUDENT POWER, a spectacular #Herstory Light Show to amplify #StudentVoices and spotlight the causes close to their hearts: climate action, girl’s education, mental health, racism, migrants rights, preserving indigenous cultures and more. Never before in history have young people risen up together on this scale across the world. Power to students as they lead the light.

Graphic design students from the National College of Art and Design and Colaiste Dhulaigh created new portraits of 30 young visionary change-makers which will be illuminated on Trinity College Dublin and The GPO on the 31st January, Brigid's Eve. The event is part of the #Brigit2022 Festival by the Lord Mayor of Dublin and Dublin City Council. It's free and open to the public. Check it out.

For now, continue down the page to read about the work that student activists around the globe have done and are continuing to do today to effect change in their communities and across the world.

“The Amazon’s like the vagina of the world because it’s where people come from. It’s like the entry door of the world. When this opening is sick, the future generations, they will be sick also”

Célia Nunes Correa, born in 1990 and better known as Célia Xakriabá, is an indigenous educator and activist of the Xakriabá people of Brazil. Xakriabá has been an activist for indigenous rights since she was 13 years old and is known best for giving lectures at universities in Brazil promoting the advancement of the status and rights of indigenous women, indigenous land rights, and indigenous education. She was also the first member of her tribe to receive a graduate degree.

“Apakah gunanya memaksa orang laki-laki menyimpan uang, apabila perempuan yang memegang rumah tangga tiada tahu akan harga uang itu!

[Roughly: ‘What’s the point of forcing men to save money, if the woman who runs the household doesn’t know the price of the money!’]”

Raden Adjeng Kartini, in full Lady Raden Adjeng Kartini (1879-1904), was a Javanese noblewoman whose letters made her a crucial symbol for the Indonesian independence movement and for Indonesian feminists. In her letters Kartini bore concern for the plight of Indonesians under conditions of colonial rule and for the confined roles open to Indonesian women. She resolved to make her own life a model for emancipation and in 1903 she pursued plans to open a school for Javanese girls. Sadly, she died aged just 25 due to complications in childbirth, however, the publication of her letters in 1911 led to the foundation of the Kartini Foundation which in turn opened the first girls’ school in Java in 1916, thus fulfilling Kartini’s dream.

Source: Britannica

“I decided to be a water defender after taking part in a ceremony in a village that had no access to clean, safe drinking water. I was struck by the fact that people my age didn’t even know what a drinking water tap was. I saw this as a profound injustice.”

Autumn Peltier (b. 2004) is an Anishinaabe Indigenous rights advocate from the Wiikwemkoong First Nation on Manitoulin Island, Ontario, Canada. Since the age of 8, Peltier has been advocating for the preservation of water for First Nations people in Canada. She’s spoken before the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the United Nation General Assembly on the realities of water pollution. Peltier was recently appointed chief water commissioner of the @anishinabeknation, a political advocacy group representing 40 member First Nations across Ontario.

“Right now, the Amazon, home to (a) million of my relatives, is burning. If it goes on like this, 20 years from now my house will become a desert and my people will be at risk of becoming history.”

Artemisa Barbosa Ribeiro (known as @artemisa_xakriaba) is a human rights activist from the Xakriabá community in Brazil whose work focuses on the Amazon jungle and environmental destruction. Xakriabá is a representative of the Global Alliance of Territorial Communities and was a speaker at the US Congress and the 2019 Climate Strike in New York City.

“We were born into an unjust system; we are not prepared to grow old in it.”

Bernadette Devlin (b. 1947, Tyrone) was a founding member of the college-based civil rights movement, People’s Democracy. Her election to Westminster in April 1969 in a byelection in the Mid-Ulster constituency was celebrated as a seismic political event in the burgeoning struggle for Catholic civil rights. Her victory, a week before her 22nd birthday, made her the then youngest-ever woman MP (a record only broken in 2015 by the Scottish National Party MP Mhairi Black, who was elected aged 20). If her success in the Mid-Ulster byelection upset the political hegemony of the Unionist Party, her maiden speech in the House of Commons five days later was a clarion call against the brutality, bigotry and discrimination the Catholic community was subjected to daily. It was described by some at the time as the finest maiden speech since Benjamin Disraeli’s in 1837 and it defied the convention that such speeches should not be controversial. She told parliament: “There is no place in society for us, the ordinary ‘peasants’ of Northern Ireland . . . because we are the have-nots and they are the haves . . . The situation with which we are faced in Northern Ireland is one in which I feel I can no longer say to the people, ‘Don’t worry. Westminster is looking after you.’

Source: Irish Times article. More info on RTÉ Archives

“I wanted the young African-American girls also on the bus to know that they had a right to be there, because they had paid their fare just like the white passengers.”

Claudette Colvin: The 15-year-old who came before Rosa Parks

‘In March 1955, nine months before Rosa Parks defied segregation laws by refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, 15-year-old Claudette Colvin did exactly the same thing. Eclipsed by Parks, her act of defiance was largely ignored for many years. She herself didn't talk about it much, but in 2018 she spoke to the BBC…’

See here for more.

“…What does my death matter if by our acts thousands are warned and alerted…”

Sophia Magdalena Scholl (1921-1943) was a German student and anti-Nazi political activist. She was eventually convicted of high treason after having been found dispensing anti-war leaflets at the University of Munich (LMU) with her brother, Hans. For her actions, she was executed by guillotine.

See here for more.

“When the whole world is silent, even one voice becomes powerful.”

As a young girl, Malala Yousafzai defied the Taliban in Pakistan and demanded that girls be allowed to receive an education. She was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman in 2012 but survived. Nine months after being shot, Yousafzai gave a speech at the United Nations on her 16th birthday in 2013. Yousafzai highlighted her focus on education and women's rights, urging world leaders to change their policies. In 2014, she became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

See here for more.

“I have learned you are never too small to make a difference.”

Greta Thunberg became well-known after she protested outside the Swedish parliament in 2018, when she was 15. She held a sign saying, "School Strike for Climate", to pressure the government to meet carbon emissions targets. Her small campaign had a global effect, inspiring thousands of young people across the world to organise their own strikes. In 2019, Thunberg sailed across the Atlantic on a yacht to attend a UN climate conference in New York. Delivering what is probably her most famous speech, she angrily told world leaders they were not doing enough.

"You all come to us young people for hope. How dare you? You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words," she said.

See here for more.

“I was inspired to become an activist by realising my generation might not have a future planet to live on.”

Flossie Donnelly (born 2007) is an Irish marine environmentalist. A secondary school student, Donnelly was the first to bring seabins to Ireland, securing funds for two of the devices which remove plastic trash from bodies of water. Donnelly regularly engages in climate strikes either outside her school or the Dáil and organizes beach cleanups in Dún Laoghaire and Sandycove. She also started an environmental charity and action group called Flossie & the Beach Cleaners (@flossieandthebeachcleaners) when she was 11 to raise awareness about plastic pollution and its consequences for oceans and marine life.

See here for more.

The Coláiste Bríde nominee for the 2022 #Herstory Light Show is 5th year Yuliya Petruk. Yuliya is a truly inspirational young lady. She is highly motivated in her classes & her work is always of an exceptional standard. She works so hard in everything she puts her mind to. She is enthusiastic & shows a genuine interest in learning.

Aside from the academic side of things, more importantly is Yuliya's kindness & generosity of spirit. She is kind, caring, & inclusive & her friendships are important. Yuliya's positivity is infectious, & her beaming smile is never too hard to see when walking down the corridors of Coláiste Bríde. Yuliya is passionate about many things but where she really shone brightly is when she became involved in our Green Schools campaign for Climate Change awareness. Inspired of course by Greta Thunberg, Yuliya approached our principal about rallying the troops to march in Dublin's city centre to shine a light on the global issue of Climate Change. She gathered quite the troop of passionate followers. She came with solutions about how best to facilitate the marches among the various year groups which was very impressive.

Yuliya has spoken many times at Year Group assemblies where she has presented on many pertinent issues, her most impressive being on Empowering Women when she blew teachers & student away with a Powerpoint on St Brigid - the saint & the pagan Goddess. Yuliya does all her great work effortlessly & quietly without looking for anything in return. However, she has won the spirit award many times due the number of rewards and well-done cards she has received from all her teachers.

“While I’m glad my hard work and dedication came to fruition, many other refugees haven’t been embraced and afforded the opportunities I have.”

‘Just a few years ago Suaad Alshleh was a 14-year-old asylum seeker who had just arrived in Ireland with dreams of becoming a doctor. She & her parents had fled Syria in 2011 & relocated to the United Arab Emirates for a few years before seeking asylum in Ireland in 2016. They spent nine months in a Direct Provision centre in Monaghan waiting for their papers, after which they moved to Laois. In 2019, she was named as the first recipient of a new State scholarship for disadvantaged students studying science in higher education.

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen delivering her maiden state of the union speech mentioned Alshleh when she spoke of the need to harness the skills, energy and talent of refugees in building a future for the EU. “I think of Suaad, the teenage Syrian refugee who arrived in Europe dreaming of being a doctor,” von der Leyen said. “Within three years she was awarded a prestigious scholarship from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. ”

See here for more.

“The Ireland I grew up in is different from the Ireland of today. We are now awake, and I hope we continue to be, so we cherish who we now are and who we might become.”

Ola Majekodunmi (@ola.majekodunmi) was born in Lagos, Nigeria and raised in Dublin, Ireland. She is an Irish language broadcaster, Gaelgeoir, filmmaker, co-founder of Beyond Representation and Board of Directors member on both Foras na Gaeilge & Mother Tongues Ireland.

In 2018, Ola directed and produced the viral video- ‘What Does “Irishness” Look Like?’ which was screened at the Belfast Feminist Festival, Belfast Film Festival and Rathmullan Film Festival.

In 2019, she co-founded an initiative with her cousin and friend to create a platform to celebrate women of colour’s achievements in Arts, Media, and Business.

See here for more.

In 2021 the National Women’s Council of Ireland appointed Amina Moustafa to the All-Island Women’s Forum. Using sport as a non-formal learning tool to tackle numerous social issues such as racism, discrimination, and gender inequality, she has worked with various organisations on a local, national, and international level such as Swim Ireland, the GAA and FIFA Foundation to emphasis the need for cultural and religious considerations in the design of community development programmes. She is a Board Member of Sport Against Racism Ireland and has previously been the Project Coordinator of their Hijabs and Hat-Tricks programme encouraging Muslim women to play football after the lifting of FIFA's hijab ban in 2014.

Born in Kenya in 1980, Sveva Gallmann’s passion for nature and culture was instilled early on. When she was just four years old, her mother, Kuki Gallmann (best-selling author of I Dreamed of Africa), founded the Gallman Memorial Foundation as a tribute to her late husband and son. The estate is dedicated solely to conservation and acts as a natural temple for various wildlife.

One of Sveva’s biggest accomplishments to date has been the formation of the “4 Generations Project.” Over the years, Sveva became more and more aware of the dwindling connection between African youth and their customs. She developed this project, which has since become part of the Kenyan school curriculum and been adapted around the world, as a way to curtail the gradual loss of traditional tribal knowledge and also encourage a reconnection with the natural environment. In partnership with the Gallmann Memorial Foundation, “4 Generations” brings together local kids from main tribes in Kenya - Kikuyu, Turkana, Samburu, Nandi, Kalenjin - and inspires them to actively seek out and share the wisdom of their elders.

See here for more.

Plorentina Dessy Elma Thyana or Dessy, was born in Balai Semandang village, 10 December 1996. Since she was a kid, Dessy has gone to the forest with her parents to gather food, traditional medicine and attend rituals. Her love of her culture, tradition, and local wisdom brought her, with her family, to establish Yayasa Arus Kualan (the customary School Arus Kualan), a place dedicated to preserving the traditional knowledge and values of her culture. It also works to connect the new generation with the elders to learn about the Dayak traditional knowledge, traditional music, games, food, medicine, rituals, local wisdom, language, traditional story, and carving. Furthermore, Yayasan Arus Kualan also facilitates literacy classes for children and encourages the Dayak youth to make a documentary film in which they record a story from their elders and community. Dessy has established 5 Sakolah Adat in 5 different places with a total 149 students. Her dream is to build a school building in the forest and involve as many people as possible, especially the Dayak people, to encourage them to join and continue the Dayak identity.

“…had it not been for women we would not have seen any references to integrated education, to integrated communities, to the advancement of women in political and public life, and particularly the issue in relation to supporting victims. That is the legacy of the Women’s Coalition….”

Bronagh Hinds (born 1951) founded DemocraShe in 2000 to empower women in politics, policy influence and peace-building. She is involved in Women in Local Councils, the Women’s Policy Group, and the Women’s Budget Group. She participated in the 1996-98 Good Friday Agreement negotiations for the Women’s Coalition and was the Deputy Chief Commissioner of the Equality Commission for N. Ireland 1999-2003. She was a Senior Practitioner Fellow at Queen’s University Institute of Governance for six years following twenty years in the voluntary sector as director of Gingerbread NI, regional director of Oxfam and director of the Ulster People’s College. Active in the Northern Ireland Women’s Rights Movement in the 1970s, she was the founder and chair of the Northern Ireland Women’s European Platform 1988-1998. She served as a Commissioner on the Northern Ireland Local Government Staff Commission 2005-2010 and the final Northern Ireland Commissioner on the UK Women’s National Commission 2007-2010.

See here fore source.

“I think racism in Northern Ireland is more of a problem than people would like to admit, completely, whenever the protests started I noticed a lot of ignorance.”

As a child growing up outside Belfast, Angel Arutura (@angelarutura )was “always fascinated by the world around us and people and the planet.” During lockdown the 20-year-old geography student used social media to join the dots between racial justice and climate justice. Climate activists “are talking about climate justice as rising sea levels and plastic pollution. But what they’re not talking about is how it’s affecting people.” Black Lives Matter and environmentalism are “incredibly interlinked,” she says, “because people that are least contributing to the climate crisis are suffering most from it.” She’s fascinated by the need to “unlearn and relearn” ideas about climate justice in the same way that feminism had to widen out its focus from middle class white women. Climate leaders “need to pass the mic, to give it to the people whose voices need to be heard,” primarily those with first-hand accounts, Arutura says. And the Covid effect? “I’m hopeful that eventually we’ll be in a place where everyone can treat people on the planet with much more kindness.”

Source: 50 people to watch in 2021: The best young talent in Ireland, Irish Times

“Minahil & I have known each other since we were 11. We clicked immediately because, at the time, she was the only person who I could speak to about life in Direct Provision & the constant fear of deportation.”

— Maimba

“…the truth is that strength is not about pretending to be okay: it’s about accepting you’re not okay and picking yourself up.”

— Sarfraz

Natasha Maimba and Minahil Sarfraz met whilst growing up as asylum seekers in Direct Provision, their childhoods spent in cramped caravans on the outskirts of Athlone. Many years have been defined by uncertainty and struggle, as they attempted to build homes in a country where their mothers were denied basic citizenship rights. Both are powerful advocates for issues facing asylum seekers and through their work for UNICEF Ireland they have already reached mass audiences around the world.

Source: RTÉ

“The best things in life are not easy but they are worth it. I have left college a new person ready to #riseup. Mental health is such an important discussion and the lack of services available is disheartening. We need more research, services, and education brought into this area.”

Jessica McMahon studied business management and anthropology at Maynooth University and during her time there, volunteered with @text50808 crisis helpline and @turn2me.ie a nonprofit for professional mental health support. She has been an ambassador for @mu_futureready, a training development coordinator in the Maynooth Access Program, president of the mental health society, and a Co-Captain for the Movember society in 2020.

Source: STAND

Florentini Deliana Winki or Deli was born in Balai Smandang, Borneo, Indonesia, in 2001. Deli is a multi-talented Dayak artist currently studying tourism at university Jakarta, Indonesia. She is the third child of four siblings. Together with her sister Dessy she started Arus Kualan, the non-formal-education customary school for the indigneous Dayak people in 2014 when she was only 13 years old. Deli has a passion for the children, her culture and tradition. She plays the sapé, the traditional Dayak instrument call. She also loves to dance and sing. At Arus Kualan, Deli teaches the students to write songs, play the sapé and dance to the music.

Deli is a big hit on social media: on Instagram she has 12K followers and on Youtube she has 10K subscribers. She uses these mediums to introduce her culture and tradition to the world. She never expected that so many people would love what she does, especially the young people. As a Dayak Youth Ambassador, she was invited to speak at events and encourage young people to be changemakers. As an activist and educator, she also shares powerful messages through her music and songs. The songs that she wrote by herself are “Oh Inok (oh Mother), “TORUN (Forest)”, “kramat (Secret Place), “Makaseh keluarga (Thank You Family).

“I was elected by the women of Ireland, who instead of rocking the cradle, rocked the system.”

When she finished school, Mary Robinson (b 1944) wanted to be a nun. After taking a year out, however, she began to ‘see from a distance so many things I’d resented for so long but didn’t voice.’ The inequality around her was too much, and so, she headed to Trinity to study law. As an auditor of Trinity’s Law Soc she decided to debate on the theme of law and morality in Ireland – which she was strongly advised against doing. She argued for the ‘legislation of family planning, removal of the ban on divorce [and] the decriminalisation of homosexuality and suicide.’

After studying in Harvard, she became ‘not only radical, but impatient’ and so she stood for the Seanad aged 25 where she tried to legalise family planning (contraception). ‘It was the only bill in the history of the Oireachtas that was never given a first reading. One member of Fianna Fáil wore gloves so as not to contaminate his hands with holding such filth on the order paper.’

Eventually, Mary became an Irish independent politician who then served as the 7th president of Ireland from 1990 to 1997, becoming the first woman president of Ireland. She also served as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights from 1997 to 2002 and as a local councillor on Dublin Corporation from 1979 to 1983.

Source: Trinity Today

The Raphaela’s Secondary School nominee for the 2022 #Herstory Light Show is Jessica Dunne.

She first got involved in activism through the climate crisis. In late 2018, Jessica was involved in many ‘beach clean ups’ in Bray, Co. Wicklow. During these ventures she was shocked and appalled by the amount of rubbish, particularly plastic, that she found on the beach. She used this as her design inspiration for her entry into the Junk Kouture fashion competition. This is a fashion competition based around ‘recycling’. It encourages students to be creative and design garments made from recycled materials. Jessica chose the theme of ‘The Sea’ to reflect her design. She created a futuristic mermaid design, with a statement '2050' headpiece, to attract attention to the issues around pollution in our oceans. It emphasised the idea that by 2050, there will be more plastics in the ocean than fish.

This led Jessica to further becoming involved in general activism, as she realised the connectivity between all social injustices. She is a member of ‘Fridays For Future’, working at a local, national, and international level. She was the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown regional officer for the Irish Second Level Students Union, from 2019 to 2021. She is a TEDx speaker and mentor. She delivered a talk stressing the importance of intersectionality in 2020.

As well as her work in organisations, she is a songwriter and poet, channelling her frustrations with injustices into her work. She performs songs or poems at the majority of the climate strikes in Dublin, believing that: “Music is what unites us in times of hardship."

Florentin Sry Dewi Wulandari was born in Tahak in 1999. The 2nd child of four siblings from the Dayak Simpankng tribe family, Ketapang regency, West Kalimantan, Borneo Island, Indonesia. People call her Dewi, and her special local name is “Ragak'' which means the weaving basket from the rattan. She is strong and can weave, carrying everything in her life.

In 2021, she graduated cum laude with a History degree from IKIP Pontianak University. Dewi is a writer, and she uses her skill in writing to raise awareness of the stories, knowledge and wisdom of her culture and the Dayak people. She captures the complete story through researching, interviewing, and recording the stories of people who deserve to be heard.

Dewi has contributed to academic journals, writing papers for the following topics: “Barus port as an economic booster”, “SRIWIJAYA PEOPLE”, “THE EXISTENCE OF THE MILLENNIAL DAYAK GENERATION IN THE EFFORT OF FOREST CONSERVATION IN KETAPANG REGENCY”, “THE ROLE OF “SENG HIE” WORLD HISTORICAL SITES FOR PONTIANAK PEOPLE”, “THE ORAL TRADITION OF THE DAYAK SIMPAKNG COMMUNITY IN MANAGING THE PANDEMIC”.

Dewi’s degree thesis entitled “THE WOMEN’S ROLE IN PRESERVING THE DAYAK SIMPANK CULTURE AND TRADITION” received a commendation from her lecturer - she is the first person to record in writing the stories of Dayak women. Now she is helping her sister Dessy to teach at Arus Kualan, the non-formal education customary school. Dewi encourages the Dayak youth to write and record the stories of their people.

“Unity is the key to overcoming the climate crisis because people power is the only way. We have to put aside our individual differences and band together to send a message to the ones in power that enough is enough, and we want change.”

In Limerick, Saoirse Exton first became aware of the severity of the climate crisis when she was 14 and heard about the thousands of Australian students who went on strike on 30 November 2018. By researching what was going on, Exton came across Greta Thunberg and like many, was inspired into action. ‘Sick of the negligent government and the dying planet’ she reached out to Fridays For Future Ireland and was told that there was no local group in Limerick, but this didn’t stop her. After considering where would be best to draw attention to her protests, she made some posters, started up some social media accounts and from there, the Fridays For Future Limerick group was born.

Since then, Exton has not stopped working. In May 2020, she was elected as Equality Officer of the @issu4u, where she began work on various projects, such as writing ISSU's first Accessibility Guidelines, and creating the role of Disability Officer. In January 2021, she finished up her year with the Climate Ambassador Program and was awarded an Outstanding Achievement Award for her year of action. She also finished up her term as Public Relations Officer with Comhairle na nÓg. In March, she became a Youth Advisory Group member for the Environmental Protection Agency, where she contributed to the Youth Engagement Strategy and presented the report's findings to the Senior Leadership Team. In May, she became a member of the National Youth Council Ireland's Young People's Committee, in June she became a member of Friends of the Earth's System Reset team, and in July, she became a member of the European Youth Parliament.

Retelling the Irish myths from the perspectives of the women by Karina Tynan

Melanie Lynch

26 November 2021

Myth is like great theatre holding endless wisdom and insight. To quote the Irish poet Eavan Boland, from her poem, The Pomegranate, “And the best thing about the legend is/ I can enter it anywhere. And have.”

Here she speaks about the Greek myth Ceres and Persephone. In the poem she shows how that same myth held her experiences as the mother of a daughter through the many stages of her mothering.

That is how I understand myth. Over my life, along with my journey as a psychotherapist, myth has harrowed me, taught me, accompanied me and held me.

To explain my process as a re-teller of myths I will start at the beginning with Aoife from The Children of Lir. This is not a story from the Táin but from the Irish Mythological Cycle, but I will start here because it is the beginning. I remember the moment; I had already fallen into a myth because I had just spent a week at The Bard Summer School with The Children of Lir, that same story that is so well known in Ireland. I knew it as a child. A king left all alone with four children after his wife Aoibh had died and so, High King Bodhbh Dearg gave King Lir another one of his foster daughters Aoife, to be his wife. She who was Aoibh’s younger sister.

Lir adored his children and missed Aoibh terribly and it would seem that his new wife Aoife, was in the way. It is said that he slept with the children in his bed while she slept in a cot. Unfortunately, Aoife’s jealousy ran away with her. She found a spell and cast it to banish the children so they would live in the shape of swans for nine hundred years. It is told their suffering was harsh until they fell into the comfort of death. However, Aoife’s punishment was never to end. She was cast by King Bodhbh to the four winds forever. I remember as a child hearing it said and believing, that she could still be heard wailing on a windy night in Ireland.

So back to that moment, just home from the Bard. I was still processing the story and I was angry. I began to suspect that it was on Aoife’s behalf or, maybe it was she who was showing me my own anger. For me that is how myth works and from there l wrote Aoife's perspective. I wanted to give her a voice, bring her to ground for good or for bad. To me she represented an aspect of the darker side of the feminine or might it have been feminine power gone bad? What happens when a woman’s power is repressed, when she can see no place to go? There is so much to being a human being, so much potential, vibrancy, ability to love. If all that is repressed then where does it go? Maybe some of it is still wailing on a windy night in Ireland.

Since that fateful day I have written many more retellings. Not one of them has answered me or satisfied me fully. I am always left with questions and hopefully an openness to the next conclusion. To me that is the gift of myth.

My first book is called Táin: the women stories, which is from the Ulster Cycle. Táin aspires to give a sense of the great epic tale, the Táin Bó Cúailnge from the perspectives of the women. Táin means raid and the raider in this case is Meadhbh Queen of Connacht or maybe she is Meadhbh the goddess!

As I said the contract for me in engaging with these myths means there will be a process. Firstly, I have to get to know the myth very well. That is not as easy as it might seem. It resembles a dream which means it will be difficult to remember so it has to be read, re read, even dreamed. John Moriarty one of the regular speakers at the Bard summer school would have said, myth must be harrowed.

Macha, the goddess associated with horses sets the scene for the fate of Ulster. She comes into a widower’s house one evening and begins to do his domestic chores, ‘women’s work’ as it is often put. But, it would seem that she and he knew that her wildness must not be known in the world outside. The seal woman story has a similar motif. She who can change her shape from seal to woman who, to marry a man must leave her seal skin in the attic. One day a drop of seal oil falls through the ceiling and onto her tongue. She then remembers her seal nature and so she must choose. The story is a tragic choice is between her children and her true nature.

It is similar with the story of Macha. Her man, who is obviously delighted with her, boasts at a horse fair at the king’s court that his fine wife could outrun the lot of them. The ending is bad. She is forced to race the king’s horses while heavily pregnant with twins. She wins the race but dies after giving birth but before she goes, she curses the men of Ulster, to be struck down with the pains of childbirth in their hours of greatest need. That is the reason why Cú Chulainn, not quite a man yet had to fight the whole of Meadhbh’s army singlehandedly, until the men of Ulster could awaken from the curse.

I wonder why Macha and the seal woman couldn’t have had both wild nature and domesticity. What would that look like? Have we figured out how much of ourselves we repress? I have no answers, only questions and I don’t think that finding an answer is only women’s work. As the Bard’s great friend John Moriarty would say, “Let’s not replace 2,000 years of men talking to men with women talking to women, let’s talk to each other.”

So what about Queen Meadhbh of Connacht? There are many stories about her. She has been characterised, given a personality. She is, ‘She who intoxicates.' She is also the great manipulator. It is easy to see how attributes such as these would suffer from projections from both men and woman over the centuries but maybe there is another way to look.

When I went to write her, I found it difficult to find her. I struggled and no matter how much I tried I still wasn’t able to see such promiscuousness and hedonism in myself that I could write about. It wasn’t until I realised that it is mother nature herself who is the most promiscuous and hedonistic of all. I marvelled at how I had been able to suspend disbelief when it came to a woman changing her shape from horse to woman. Strangely I could relate to that but when it came to such a force as Meadhbh, to such female entitlement, with an ability to manipulate for her own end, it is safe to say I was sorely lacking or maybe I was unable to own the great manipulative skills I already possessed but the good thing was, I was being harrowed.

As a 20th/21st century woman I am still being harrowed by Meadhbh. Inspired by her I see manipulation is a great skill and only sometimes used for bad. I thank the myth of Meadhbh, not so much for giving it to me as I already had that skill. We all do, but I thank it for my consciousness around it. I thank her so that, to me, ‘Manipulative woman’ is now a quality to be admired and not the skill of an evil witch.

For me Meadhbh goes beyond equality. She defies all identities given to her. She is equal to herself before being equal to anyone else. She has the power to awaken and name the great might of the feminine, dark and light and she is also more than that duality.

Another way to look at her could be as the land itself. In one of the stories about her she is violated, in another she uses her daughter to get what she wants. It would seem she is fighting for herself but maybe she is fighting for something greater? If so what is that? How do we look at these myths? These are merely my perspectives. There is room for everyone when it comes to myth because myth can hold us all.

Karina is an author, playwright and psychotherapist. She cites that unearthing a love of myth and a desire to find their underlying contemporary meanings, came from her participation and association with the Bard Summer School which was a turning point in her life and in her creative career. Since then, inspired by the Irish myths and over 25 years of exploration, she has written back the women’s perspective. The Táin; from the Ulster Cycle is her first collection to be published. www.karinatynan.com

Order the book TÁIN: The Women’s Stories on Karina’s website and follow her on Instagram.

If you missed the book launch of TÁIN: The Women's Stories by Karina Tynan you can watch the recording now on #Herstory's YouTube Channel.

Melanie Lynch

26 September 2021

Taoist Sexuality and the Feminine

Melanie Lynch

26 September 2021

Taoist Sexuality and the Feminine

“Woman is stronger in sex and constitution than man, as water is stronger than fire” Su Nu ~ Sexual Advisor to the Yellow Emperor, Huang Ti circa 2600 BCE

Taoism originated in ancient China and can be viewed as a philosophy, a way of living - with no dogma, no gurus, no church. Taoism is unique in that the feminine is integral to it - represented in its mythology, history and core principles like the Mysterious Feminine - representing ultimate emptiness, from which time and space and all creation came. In fact, the Tao itself was said to be feminine or Yin - the Mother of all Beings. Yin is an embodiment of the principles of surrendering, listening, receptivity, intuitive flow. There was a real reverence and respect for the feminine - “softness overcomes hardness’ as written in the Tao Te Ching, a Taoist book of wisdom, the second most translated book in the world after the bible.

When it came to Taoist practices, women were viewed as having a more natural ability to connect with it and draw in the forces of nature, Heaven and Earth. It was said that a woman could reach enlightenment far quicker than a man. In the era of the Tang Dynasty, women played a special role at this time where they could reveal the higher secrets of the Tao - they were holders of the tradition. Women transmitted the teachings of herbs, magic, sex, healing and esoteric practices. Taoist women founded schools like the Highest Clarity School set up by Wei Huanan. Lao Tzu, the great Master who wrote the Tao Te Ching is said to have had a female teacher.

Tao translates as “The Way” - the way of nature, the way of not forcing. Taoists were great observers of the natural world and saw our internal processes as a microcosm of nature, Earth and the Universe. The famous Yin- Yang symbol represents the balance of the masculine and the feminine - two polar opposites, yet complementary and interdependent. One does not exist without the other.

The poet and mystic Sun Bu’er (12th century) took to Inner Alchemy Taoist practices at the ripe age of 51, after she had raised her three children and contributed to her community. Sun Bu’er practiced diligently and was soon a well-respected Taoist adept of great spiritual abilities. Her Taoist title was ‘Calm and Clear Free Human' and she played a central role in the revival movement of Inner Alchemy Taoism. Sun Bu-Er later became known as one of the Immortal Sisters (a term for female adepts of the practice) and was one of the Seven Masters. She is attributed to playing a key role in the revival of Inner Alchemy Taoism and one of the most accomplished masters of the tradition.

Sun Bu-Er embraced the practices later in life, around the time of menopause. This is viewed very positively in the Tao and was known as ‘the Second Spring’ - a time of real liberation for women. In these modern times, women who follow the Taoist practice frequently report a symptom free menopause, primarily because the practices focus on the production of sex hormones, recycling internal energy and emotional balance. For women who are in their reproductive years they can experience pain-free periods, devoid of PMS after just a few weeks of practice. This is in stark contrast to our Western culture which sees pain during menstruation, PMS and hot flushes as normal and women are expected to soldier on.

The ancient Taoists were the first sexologists and led the sexual revolution a few thousand years before the sexual liberation movement of the 1960’s. Their observations on the female sexual response was extremely detailed and mirrors the findings of early modern sex researchers like Masters & Johnson and the Kinsey Institute. The art of lovemaking in the Tao was viewed as central to one’s physical and mental health, and a path to longevity. This was in sharp contrast to other religious doctrines worldwide, which viewed sex as an issue of morality.

Sexual energy in the Tao is seen as the most powerful energy we have - after all it has the potential to create another human being! The goal of (Inner Alchemy) Taoist practice is to preserve, cultivate and harness this life-giving essence which leads to a long and healthy life. For those inclined towards spiritual development, sexual practice is used to accelerate heightened states of consciousness and fast track enlightenment. Sex becomes an expression of a deeper cosmic balance - the harmony of Yin and Yang.

In the Tao, sexual skills were to be practiced and developed. The Yellow Emperor had three sexual advisors, three of whom were women. There was a strong emphasis placed on female satisfaction which required a man’s deep awareness and observation of his lover’s arousal level. Initiated men trained to delay their ejaculation and followed the advice of giving “a thousand loving thrusts” to satisfy the inexhaustible desire of a woman. Sexual anatomy was described in poetic and loving terms and were to be lavished - the vagina was known as ‘Jade Fountain’, breasts were called ‘Bells of Love’ and the clitoris was called ‘Yin Bean’. Alchemy practices such as Ovarian Breathing were also known as Sexual Kung Fu - a nod to its potency and the martial arts branch of Taoism.

One of the Eight Immortals, Lan Caihe was gender fluid

There’s no taboo in the Tao when it comes to sex and sexuality - it was never a matter of morality but a matter of health and wellbeing. Taoism took a very liberal and inclusive approach. One of the Eight Immortals, Lan Caihe was gender fluid. Lan was a homeless street entertainer who shared knowledge of medicinal herbs for longevity and is still celebrated today with the emblem of the basket at Chinese New Year.

The role of women was somewhat written out of history in part because of the Taoist principle to do the sage’s work and then retire. No accolades or praise or acknowledgement were sought. Spiritual works were done in secret and never spoken of.

The Confucian era heralded a time of rapid descent for women and their role in society - this was a dogmatically patriarchal model, which continued through to the modern Communist regimes. Thomas Cleary, a scholar of Chinese classical culture refers to Confucianism as “masculine authoritarianism” and to Taoism as “feminine nurture”. Sexual practices took a darker turn and there is literary evidence of a kind of sexual vampirism being practiced.

Kuan Yin, Taoist Goddess of Love & Compassion

However, behind closed doors the Taoist Inner Alchemy practices were preserved, practiced and passed on. Luckily, they are available to us now with the help of some great Taoist masters like my teacher, Grandmaster Mantak Chia who brought this wisdom to the West. One of the jewels of Taoist teachings is in creating the inner harmony of yin and yang - the balance of the masculine and feminine within. This helps to dissolve any charge of the battle of the sexes and embrace mutual respect and a deep honouring for each other.

Taoism has a lot to offer our modern world on its very empowering and revolutionary approach to sex. By releasing the ingrained burdens of morality and embracing the power of this health-giving force, one can lead a life of exceptional vitality and robust health.

Discover more in Máire NÍ G’s free masterclasses on the 29th and 30th March 2022: https://www.femininesexualalchemy.com/free-masterclass

Máire Ní G is a certified Universal Healing Tao Instructor - teaching Inner Alchemy practices to women all over the world. She runs an online programme called Feminine Sexual Alchemy - the next one starts on April 9th 2022. Discover more: www.femininesexualalchemy.com

Watch the conversation on ‘Taoist Sexuality: Ancient Feminism for Modern Mastery’ with Herstory Founder Melanie Lynch and Máire Ní G.

Melanie Lynch

6 April 2021

Brigit: Soulsmith for the New Millennium by Dr Mary Condren

Melanie Lynch

6 April 2021

Brigit: Soulsmith for the New Millennium

Mary T. Condren

Concilium 2000/5

The nuns went to Mass. The circle-dancers danced. A yoga group was in full session in the corner. A tree-hugging group swayed around the trees. Chanters wafted Indian music in the distance. Some just went to breakfast.

The amorphous group and the texture of that morning in the West of Ireland testified to the far-reaching changes in the landscape of Irish religion and spirituality. These women--Catholic, post-Catholic, Protestant, pagan--met to celebrate, excavate, and liberate the traditions and legends surrounding the spirit of Brigit.

For the past 150 years, clerical and religious abuse, the betrayal of innocence, a dead hand of colonising clericalism, and wars fought ostensibly over religion, have paralysed the Irish religious imagination. But against this backdrop, the figure of Brigit-- metaphor, muse, goddess, saint and keeper of the flame--emerges today to re-kindle Irishwomen's spirit.

For the past seven years, we in the Institute for Feminism and Religion have taken various aspects of the traditions surrounding Brigit and woven them into a festival celebrating her feast-day: February 1st, the first day of spring in the Celtic calendar. The journey has just begun; our questions have barely been asked.

This year the quest took us to Belfast. One hundred and thirty women from all traditions and none gathered to explore the spirit of Brigit through music, crafts, poetry, artwork, dance, and reflection: peace workers, community activists, artists, poets, psychotherapists, teachers, full time parents, musicians, and theologians. All returned at the end of the weekend to their homes in Ireland and abroad: renewed, refreshed, energised.

The darkness of winter was over: a new spring had arrived. Hope had triumphed over despair; life over death. Brigit's daughters, Keepers of the Flame, committed themselves to nurturing the seeds of her fire for the coming year.

But one might be entitled to ask: Why Brigit? Why does her spirit still inspire today's Irish poets, artists, musicians, and soul seekers? What might the traditions of Brigit have to offer to contemporary women's search? In this article I will attempt to sketch out some of the possibilities and point toward some of the implications.

Although in the Roman tradition Brigit is known primarily as a fourth or fifth century saint, and foundress of a monastery at Kildare, the spirit of Brigit reaches back much further than that. By taking over shrines, churches, and mythological sites, the figure of Brigit has effectively incorporated many aspects of the wisdom literature of ancient Ireland.

Today, we draw on her pre-christian roots, the archaeo-mythology of her sites, her Christian Lives, and the rites to be found even in contemporary folklore, to bring women together in search of new cauldrons to hold, ferment, and nourish our hungry spirits. Against the backdrop of marching bands, violent oppositions, and the patriarchal mythologies crucifying Irish cultural and political life for the past thirty years, Brigit's spirit is fresh, untainted, and multivalent.

Lighting candles, we explain --tongue-in-cheek--that these are pre-Reformation candles. The old dichotomies collapse under the weight of laughter; the old orthodoxies strain to the sounds of music; the old dogmas sway in the dancing of freed spirits.

But this is not to say that the spirit of Brigit is ungrounded. The female spirit of Old Europe personified, her healing shrines are found in the most remote places. In European history, her sons, Brigantia, fought off the colonising efforts of the Romans--the last defenders of old Europe.

Given her European background, the newly emerging Christian church needed to negotiate with her. Brigit is said to have acted as Mary's midwife in giving birth to Jesus. Moreover, according to popular culture, she saved their lives. When Herod's men sought to slaughter the Innocents, Brigit (drawing on ancient Lupercalia imagery) ran through the streets to distract them, allowing Mary to escape.

In Irish folklore, when Mary was too embarrassed to submit to the rite of churching Brigit again came to her rescue. She took a rake, inverted its prongs, stuck candles in each one and placed it on her head. Preceding Mary into the church, she drew the congregation's attention away from her friend, allowing Mary to enter without shame or embarrassment.

In return for such great friendship, Mary is said to have granted Brigit a feast day ahead of her own Feast of the Purification, February 2nd. In reality, February 1st was too deeply rooted in popular rite and tradition to be amenable to the Gelasian policy of converting ancient pagan festivals to those of the church.

Brigit's ambivalent status, her rootedness in the rites, artefacts, and rituals of the Celtic soil ensured that her stories and legends have been passed down from generation to generation; her relegation to folk-culture, that her rites have remained relatively free of clerical intervention; her female gender (she can't be taken seriously), that she escaped the efforts to colonise the female spirit. Her multivalency now ensures that meditating, reflecting and theorising on her images, symbols, stories, and rites can once again inspire, encourage, and nurture the emerging struggle toward integrity of women today.

In the Lives of Brigit, mythological and saga themes constantly emerge and are indistinguishable from her legends. At her birth, her mother had one foot inside the door and the other outside, bridging the world of pagan and christian. Her mother was a slave; her father, a free and rich man. She forms a perfect bridge or threshold between the worlds of pagan and christian, rich and poor, women and men. Brigit in her saintly aspect constantly eludes the attempts of hagiographers to tame, colonise, or neutralise her.

Among her many characteristics, Brigit was patronness of healing, poetry and smithwork. For the millennium year in Belfast, our theme was Brigit as Soulsmith. In the words of poet, Anne Kelly, we invoked her:

You who turned back the streams of war

whose name invoked stilled monsters in the seas

whose cross remains a resplendent, golden sparking flame

come again from the dark bog

and forge us anew.

Patronness of smithwork

The blacksmith, the traditional figure of alchemy, magic, and culture, was a feared and revered figure in most traditional societies and Indo-european mythology. He transformed nature to culture, forged the instruments of agriculture, shod the animals and often maintained the village fire.

As we will see when we turn to the sources, there is much more to Brigit and the blacksmith than originally meets the eye: Brigit's smithwork proves to be quite unique.

Old Irish mythology

In old Irish mythology, in The Book of Invasions, we find evidence that the figure of the blacksmith was distinctly problematic. The king of the Tuatha Dé Danaan (People of the Goddess Danu), King Nuadu, lost his arm in battle. Because he was now physically blemished, Nuadu had to resign from the kingship.

His resignation made way for Bres, of the Fomorian race, (one of the invaders) who was granted the kingship provided he treated the people well. However, Bres began to levy heavy taxes on the people and they groaned under the weight of the oppression.

In the meantime, Dian Cecht, blacksmith of the Tuatha Dé Danaan, had made Nuadu an arm of silver, but he was still technically blemished and the arm had begun to fester. But Dian Cecht, had a son, Miach and a daughter, Airmid, both doctors. Going to Nuadu, they actually grew another arm for Nuadu, using the words, sinew to sinew, and nerve to nerve be joined. Nuadu was able to resume the kingship and dethrone the oppressive powers.

But they had reckoned without Dian Cecht. Profoundly jealousy of his son's achievement, Dian Cecht attempted to kill Miach. Three times he wounded him seriously, but on each occasion, Miach was able to heal himself. On the fourth and final attempt, Dian Cecht succeeded.

Airmid was grievously distressed at what had happened and went to her brother's grave. On Miach's grave, three hundred and sixty five types of herb were growing: one for every day of the year, for every nerve in the body, and every human ailment. She began to gather the herbs, arranging them carefully on her cloak, systemising their properties. Dian Cecht, incensed at the powers of his son and daughter, irretrievably scattered the herbs.

The legend ends that had it not been for the jealousy of Dian Cecht, the blacksmith, we might have lived forever with medicines to cure all ills. The story clearly reverses some mythological themes. Death enters the world, not through Eve's sin or Pandora's chaos, but through the jealousy of the blacksmith father. Like Antigone, Airmid attempted to honour her brother's memory, but was caught up in patriarchal jealousy and rivalry.

Already, therefore, the figure of the blacksmith is problematic. Miach and his sister, Airmid, drew, not on the transformative power of metal, but the transformative powers of life to bring about their healing. The culturally constructed silver arm cannot compete with the power of life itself. The rejection of their arts would have far-reaching consequences.

The ambivalence of the blacksmith recurs in another tale, The Battle of Moytura. Irish legend tells of many invasions, but the invaders were always made welcome, provided they respected the ways of the Irish and honoured their goddesses. For instance, they were allowed to come to Ireland provided they honoured the ways of the goddess by giving the goddesses' names to the land. Marriage and syncretism traditionally enabled the Irish to tolerate diversity, to welcome the stranger.

In The Battle of Moytura things began to take an ominous turn. Goibniú was the smith of the People of the Goddess Danú, but the weapons he made were magical. Brigit was a member of the Tuatha Dé Danaan and in order to cement relations between two distinct peoples, she married one of the invaders, Bres of the Fomorians.

Goibniú made a weapon for Brigit's son, Ruadán, who thanked him by turning the weapon on him and attempting to kill him. Goibniú survived the triple attack but then turned the weapon on Ruadán killing him. On hearing of the death of her son, Brigit shrieked and wailed. According to the text: this was the first time shrieking and wailing was heard in Ireland. The Battle of Moytura ends with an ominous intonation from the Goddess, Morrigú, signalling the end of matri-centred I reland:

Peace up to heaven,

Heaven down to earth,

Earth under heaven,

Strength in every one,

I shall not see a world that will be dear to me

Summer without flowers,

Kine will be without milk,

Women without modesty,

Men without valour,

Captures without a king...

Woods without mast,

Sea without produce...

Wrong judgements of old men,

False precedents of lawyers,

Every man a betrayer,

Every boy a reaver.

Son will enter his father's bed,

Father will enter his son's bed,

Every one will be his brother's brother-in-law...

An evil time!

Son will deceive his father,

Daughter will deceive her mother.

Lives of Brigit

Clearly the culture of weapons, made possible by the arts of the blacksmith, is distinctly problematic: the spirituality of the old pre-Celtic matri-centred Ireland was antithetical to the new spirit now being introduced. In the Christian Lives of Brigit, this theme continues.

In one version of her Life, Brigit had a bishop, Conlaed who was particularly fond of fine vestments. Brigit gave these vestments away to lepers, beggars, or to whomsoever she felt needed them more. Several times she had to make the clothing reappear to appease Conlaed's wrath. A crisis arose when he appeared one day in search of them, and all she had to offer was a garment like to the skin of a seal's head. Exasperated, Conlaed set out for Rome for the third time, presumably to get more vestments, but Brigit said to him: You will not get there and you will not come back. And so it was fulfilled, for wolves devoured him.

Possibly it was in relation to this and other incidents that a famous refrain of the early Celtic church was composed:

To go to Rome, much labour, little profit

The King whom thou seekest here,

unless thou bring him with thee, thou findest him not.

Much folly, much frenzy, much loss of sense, much madness (is it), since going to

death is certain, to be under the displeasure of Mary's Son.

In another version of this story, however, Connlaed is not a bishop, but a smith. The garments of the religious officiaries of old Europe, the garment like to a sealskin, referred to the power to be found by returning to the womb, symbol of the source of life itself. We know that in the old Indo-European tradition officiating priests curled up in such garments during their rites. The seal was a symbol of immortality, but equally, the sealskin garment simulated the womb. In other rituals (possibly later) kings bathed in the blood of the slain mare, or entered menstrual huts at specific boundaried times to immerse themselves in female entropy.

The old European priests entering the sealskin garment, the cave of Newgrange, or Loch Derg were returning to the womb of the earth for re-birth and regeneration. Even the early Christian churches remembered this: figures known as sheela-na-gigs were often placed on the door lintels. Foetal-like in appearance, they held their genitals apart signifying to the person coming in that they were re-entering the womb/church, a place where our origins were honoured and remembered. The church was a place of peace: weapons must be left aside; the power of life and death remained the prerogative of divinity.

This anecdote by the early church historian, Bede, is telling in this respect: When the Chief Priest of the British, Coifi, had heard the message of Christianity, (C.E. 627) he, together with the king, renounced his faith and set about destroying the temples and altars that he himself had previously dedicated. And so Bede relates, "He formally renounced his empty superstitions and asked the king to give him arms and a stallion-for hitherto it had not been lawful for the Chief Priest to carry arms or to ride anything but a mare-and thus equipped, he set out to destroy the idols."

In the culture of the blacksmith, social prestige has resided not in the ability to enhance and co-operate with the life-force and the earth, but in the military ability to effect victory, develop weapons, and dominance based on grandiosity.

Whether smith or bishop, Connlaed represented the emerging culture where nature was not enhanced but superseded. The bishop, Connlaed's, fine vestments were outer garments of grandiosity, pretension, and power. Holiness and awe was not naturally encountered in the artefacts of nature, but socially, culturally, and artificially induced by the ostentatious garments of religious culture.

It goes without saying that only privileged members of the privileged sex could wear such garments. Moreover, such new religious officiaries would have to free themselves of all the symbols of abjection, that is to say all reminders of origins: menstrual blood, milk, contact with women. Not accidentally, the twelfth century Synod of Cashel forbade the Irish to baptise their children in milk--one of the last symbolic remnants of matrilinearity.

A clear set of oppositions appears to be emerging. The first is the cultural transformation represented by the blacksmith: the culture of rivalry, ostentatious, war, destruction and death. The other is the transformation found when entering the womb/earth/cave or other representation of birth and re-birth, the transformation made possible by contact with the sources of life itself. The fires of the blacksmith apparently turn nature into culture, but what kind of culture and at what cost?

The culture of the blacksmith

The problem may well be related to the profound cultural changes induced by the manufacture and culture of weaponry that the blacksmith made possible. Scholars as diverse as Marija Gimbutas, René Girard, and Riane Eisler have argued that profound cultural changes were brought about with the introduction of weaponry.

Girard points out that while animals fight, they seldom fight to the death. However, the human development of projectiles and missiles short circuits the instinctual brakes to mimetic crisis found in animals. Therefore, he argues, the rise of weapons and the ability of humans to use projectiles in their battles is what finally distinguishes humans from animals.

Patriarchy has thrived on developing and maintaining various dualisms: heaven/earth, sacred/profane, male/female, culture/nature, pure/impure. Such dualisms and logical oppositions are now clearly exposed as predicates of power relations. Nevertheless, they continue to grip unsuspecting imaginations in their power.

This culture was sacrificially achieved by the profound cultural splitting at the heart of the last two thousand years of patriarchal development. As I have argued elsewhere, such sacrificial practices and theologies are lethal in their consequences.

At the turn of this century, against the sacrificial fires of the First World War then burning throughout Europe, a young Irishman, James Joyce, set out, self-consciously in his own words: to encounter for the millionth time the reality of experience and to forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race.

At a time when the boundaries of Europe were being re-drawn, Joyce's definitive gesture embodied Nietzsche's critique:

But blood is the worst witness of truth; blood poisons and transforms the purest teaching to delusion and hatred of the heart. And if someone goes through fi re for his teaching--what does that prove? Truly, it is more when one's own teaching comes out of one's own burning!

Joyce's craft was exile; his anvil, loneliness, and his gesture broke definitively with the security of his upbringing. One of the first post-modernists, his intellectual and moral courage inspired a whole new generation of intellectuals to break with the sacrificial oppositions and their political and religious counterparts.

Today, Irishwomen are perhaps being asked to go further: to encounter again the transforming powers of Brigit, our Soulsmith for the new millennium.

The Fire that does not Burn

Brigit as patroness of smithcraft had transformative powers that lay in a very different kind of fire than that used by the blacksmith. Fine vestments and military weapons both signified a culture of power, dominance and elitism.

Brigit used very different weapons. At times of battle, like the Morrigan, she used magic mojo, psychic warfare, rather than weapons to confuse the opposing sides. She put them to sleep and gave them sweet dreams of victory without harming anyone; she placed clouds between opposing sides in battle so they could not see one another. At one of her major sites, the Curragh in Kildare (the Church of the Oak), no weapons were allowed to touch her sacred oak tree. Not only did Brigit give vestments away, but she also gave her father's sword away to a passing beggar.

The smith fires of Brigit are also quite different. In her church at Kildare in the fire-temple (it can be seen to this day), her nuns tended the fire for twenty days. On the twenty first, they left it to Brigit to tend it herself. Like the Vestal Virgins of ancient Rome, whose dedication and purity of intention safeguarded the integrity of the political order, Brigit's nuns were charged symbolically and actually with maintaining the fires, the symbolic heart (hearth?) of the state.

Fire was also the means through which Brigit knew if her nuns had been faithful. Every morning, one of her nuns, Darlughdacha (the Daughter of Lugh) went to collect the seed of the fire. On one unfortunate morning, when she returned, the fire had burned through her apron, symbolising that her purity had been compromised. Shamefully, she confessed to Brigit that indeed a blacksmith had admired her ankles Brigit told her to put coals in her shoes to purify herself once again, and Darlughdacha eventually became her successor at Kildare.

The stories bear evidence of an old purification fire ritual, but the importance for us is that Brigit's followers were charged with holding the seed of the fire on behalf of the community. The fire would not burn providing they remained focussed, and undistracted by flattery.

Like her counterpart, Sul/Minerva, in her fires at Bath, the fires of Brigit did not burn. This theme emerges clearly in her Lives.

When she was born, the surrounding people saw pillars of fire shoot from her house, but were amazed that the house was intact. At her ordination as bishop (another story!) a fiery column shot from her head and was seen for miles around. Brigit was known as the Fiery Arrow.

In an old Genealogy of Brigit those who invoke her protection chant the following words:

I shall not be slain

I shall not be wounded

I shall not be prisoned

I shall not be gashed

I shall not be torn asunder

I shall not be plundered,

I shall not be downtrodden,

I shall not be stripped,

I shall not be rent in two,

Nor will christ let me be forgotten.

Nor sun shall burn me,

Nor fire shall burn me,

Nor beam shall burn me,

Nor moon shall burn me.

For Irishwomen today our questions are these: What kind of fire does not burn? How do we keep Brigit's flame alive? How can we guard and protect the seed of the fire? These were the questions we wrestled with in Belfast at Brigit's festival. In the space here, I can only make hints and suggestions for our future journeys.

As a nun in the prophetic tradition Brigit took mercy as her distinct virtue. Her transforming powers, her smithwork, are allied to those of healing and poetry. Her fire is the fire that burns within, the life-force infused at birth into each one of us.

Her festival traditions recognised as much. On the morning of Brigit's day, traditionally women took a seed of the fire, put it in a sock, and went out to pound the earth. They were waking the gnéart (life-force), reminding the cold winter earth that spring had come. Their song was significant:

Today is the Day of Bride

The serpent shall come from the hole

I will not molest the serpent,

Nor will the serpent molest me.

On February 1st the serpent, the symbol of regeneration, was said to come out of the depths and was referred to as the noble queen. As part of the festival, an effigy of the serpent was pounded.

On Brigit's Eve, women placed her cloak outside the house. Through the night, the spirit of Brigit was said to pass over blessing the cloak with her spirit. In the morning, the women took the dew soaked cloak back in, cut it up into little pieces and used the pieces to cure the sick--animals, pregnant women, and even delicate birds.

At one of our festivals, a woman told how her grandmother used the brat (the cloak) to wrap sick birds which she then placed in the ample folds of her breast for warmth. Her chirping granny came alive again through her memories.

Brigit may be patroness of smithcraft, but her anvil was that of the soul; her alchemy, that of the spirit; her fire that does not burn, the life-force within. Attentive to our soul-work, we keep the life-force ablaze and focussed on the work of justice and mercy.

Conclusions

This exploration has barely scraped the surface of the rich traditions surrounding Brigit, or even her patronage of smithwork. Many other aspects can be explored and in our future festivals we will continue to gather together under her cloak diverse groups of women committed to soul-work.

At the festival in Belfast, in our final gathering, we forged our spiritual weapons for the year ahead drawing on her symbols. We invoked the protection of her dew-soaked cloak; we cleansed ourselves with water from her wells; we drank milk from the pure white cow; we dipped her bread in the honey of her bees to nourish us for the journey ahead.

In a nuclear world, the old images no longer serve us. Our attitude toward the earth, our bodies and our souls must change. Our repudiation of the earth and our origins in women's bodies must give way to a profound sense of gratitude and responsibility. From the sacrificial fires of patriarchy, we must shift toward the burning fires within. From the burning fires of the Inquisitions, we must now turn towards authentic sources of empowerment by committing ourselves once again to becoming, daughters of Brigit: Keepers of the Flame.

Dr Mary Condren

My interdisciplinary work concerns the interface between worldviews and gender, with a specific focus on cultures that promote violence. My degrees are in theology, sociology, social anthropology (University of Hull); religion and society (Boston College); religion, gender and culture (Harvard University).

My research draws on mythology, political psychology, psychoanalytic, philosophical and feminist theories, and I currently have several books in progress. The first concerns the contemporary cultural possibilities offered by the pre-Celtic and Celtic figure of Brigit, (goddess and saint) matronness of smithwork, healing, poetry and mercy. The second focuses on the role of sacrifice, violence and legitimation, using Aeschylus' Oresteian trilogy. The third concerns the role of myth and religion in promoting internalised oppression and horizontal violence among women.

Melanie Lynch

9 March 2021

Humans are Migrants

Melanie Lynch

9 March 2021

By Ai Chaobang

On the extreme edge of an Asian peninsula called Europe, in a small archipelago, two island nations drift side by side.

Their stories share a basic structure. Both were written by many different peoples who arrived from elsewhere over thousands of years. From both too did many people leave, adding their hands to the stories of peoples far away.

Immigration and emigration have been the building blocks of the Irish story. At times these movements have involved terrible pain – uninvited colonial aggressors in, fugitives from catastrophe out. Yet from the effort to build a nationhood comfortable with its nature as “the people from somewhere else” has emerged an Irish modernity enriched on the contributions of immigrants, and whose diaspora enriches the world in turn.

Immigration and emigration have also been the building blocks of the English story. Alas, that there is a nation which never came to terms with its nature, instead retreating behind an imagined paradoxical fortress: the “island country”. In inventing race, abusing the very immigrants who kept coming to build it, and otherising most of the known world through the imperialist violence of its emigrants, its own modernity is made brittle and now stands on the brink of collapse.

Humans are migrants. All societies are either wholly or partly built upon migration; no people and no peoples, if they go back far enough, originate from where they stand now. To be human is to have a story, and thereby a journey – a journey which, even if it does not go far, makes meaning out of its intersections with the journeys of others. Every people in the world, then, is to some extent like the Irish and the English: that is, defined by movements in and movements out, of people, of things, of ideas, with all the challenges and opportunities of how to write them into your story for the better. Ethnicity is imaginary. There is no homogenous society, no monolithic culture.

Every journey is unique. Every person is unique. Diversity is the first fact of what it means to be human – but so too, first equal, is common humanity. All categories of people, all notions of in-groups and out-groups – of gender, of race, of class and so forth – are in the first instance meaningless. They have only the meanings to which we most often in error have given them, for we all have more in common than in contrast. We each have a journey; we each deserve to live in a love-based world as sovereigns of our own bodies; and we all hurt when we bleed.

The story of humanity together is a story of migration. Our emergence from Africa; our long journeys into Europe, Asia and across to the Americas; our great voyages along the Silk Road and upon the Indian Ocean trade routes; the migrations of the Austronesian peoples across the Pacific, the Vikings across the Atlantic, the peoples of the steppes into Europe, the Bedouin across North Africa; and alas, more problematic movements like the Mongol conquests and the reach of the European colonial empires. For better and for worse, every aspect of the world in which we live today is built upon migration. So it will always be – and the task of making it work well for everyone falls to us all.

Our minds travel where our feet cannot. Even sitting in one spot, in a living room or a library, a train carriage or a prison cell, we grow ourselves by journeying far away through books, films, video games, the internet or our imaginations alone. As humans we imagine our realities. Nations, religions, companies, even our favourite sports teams – these exist first and foremost only in our minds, such that to participate in them is to cast our imaginations on journeys of unification with millions of other participants we will never physically meet.

As a wise poet once said, Everything passes on and everything remains,/ but our lot is to pass on,/ to go on making paths,/ paths across the sea. Across the sea – and across worlds. In every land, in every individual, a universe; and all universes are connected.

So it has been, so it will be, and so it is now in a globalised world facing climatic, ecological and socio-political calamity. A world, that is, where these same existential challenges loom upon us all, and make plain more than ever in history our shared humanity. From climate change to mass extinctions, from authoritarianism and prejudice to COVID-19 – these are universal menaces which cross all walls, and so must we if we are to prevail over their common threat to the future of our kind.

In a world with an unhealthy fixation with walls, to cross from world to world brings great vulnerability. It is to be the eternal other, wandering in a liminal space that touches multiple worlds at once but is never sufficiently of them to belong to any. In liminality there is danger, alienation and pain – but also incredible power. You belong in no world, but can draw on your experiences of them all. To walk in this liminal space is to become conscious of the water of which the fish knows nothing; to see for what they are the mere shadows which those chained in Plato’s cave insist are absolute reality. The perspective of the liminal outsider offers wisdom that no-one else can; sees the strengths and weaknesses of any one society in the bigger picture of them all. By sharing it, it can enable that society to improve as a home for us all – enable a world in which we all belong.

We cross worlds. We push down walls so that they become bridges. There is no possible future in which we do not.

Discover more of Chaobang’s enlightened writing

You can listen to Chaobang narrate his essay in the video below.

Ai Chaobang narrates his essay 'Humans are Migrants.'You can read the essay for yourself here: https://www.herstory.ie/photo-essays-2/2021/3/9/humans-are-mig...

Melanie Lynch

26 February 2021

Compassionate Feminism

Melanie Lynch

26 February 2021

On the precipice of a new world, men too can be saved from trauma of the patriarchy

Irish Independent article by Herstory founder Melanie Lynch, Friday 19th June 2020

To celebrate Father's Day, Herstory honours the dads who have empowered their daughters throughout the centuries and Herstory's godfathers who have played a pivotal role in co-creating the Irish Herstory movement

Long before a man walked on the moon, a lunar crater was named in honour of Cork woman and 19th-century pioneering astronomer Agnes Mary Clerke. It was her father who nurtured her childhood curiosity in the stars, teaching her the basics of astronomy and lending his telescope to explore the night's sky.

In the same era, aspiring young naturalist Mary Ward collected insects and studied them under her father's magnifying glass, recording the specimens in intricate drawings.

When she was a teenager, her father gifted her one of the finest microscopes in Ireland at the time, leading to a life-long passion and esteemed scientific career.

Article in the Irish Independent 19.06.20

In the 18th century, the young Maria Edgeworth received a diverse education from her father on subjects such as law, economics, science and politics. Later she worked as her father's assistant in estate management and the father-daughter duo collaborated on a series of educational books for children.

Dubliner Oonah Keogh became the first female stockbroker in the world when her father nominated her to the Irish Stock Exchange in 1925. As Dr Angela Byrne explained: "No stock exchange had ever had a woman working in one before and the suggestion was not completely accepted. But Ireland had a new constitution which guaranteed equality and there was no reason to reject Keogh except for her gender."

History is full of feminist fathers who backed their daughter's dreams and rewrote the gender rulebook, challenging the patriarchal structures of their time.

Looking back at my childhood, it's an anomaly that I founded Herstory. Growing up in our family, there was no question women were equal to men. To be honest, feminism wasn't even on my radar. I never felt my gender was a disadvantage. My father had a formative influence on me: gifting my love of music, nature, philosophy and meditation.

When I was a nipper, he would bring me on epic hikes and island escapades to bird-watch and hunt for fossils. Education was paramount and he shaped my worldview with the 'National Geographic', David Attenborough documentaries and Disney animations.

I am the eldest of five and I have three strong, spirited sisters. I confess my only brother, who is six years my junior, was an outspoken feminist long before me.

My rose-tinted glasses were shattered when I discovered countless lost and overlooked women's stories, leading to the creation of Herstory. I became an angry feminist overnight. A new laser-sharp feminist lens made it impossible to avoid the subtle and explicit sexism everywhere.

A turning point occurred when I caught myself projecting my newly awakened feminist rage on the men in my life. I held a mirror up to myself and a realisation dawned: it's unfair and quite absurd to project thousands of years of suppressed collective wrath against the patriarchy on to modern men, especially the men who have supported and empowered me.

I began a process of rethinking my relationship to anger. There's big energy in this formidable emotion. It's empowering stuff. It's also potentially explosive and highly unpredictable.

As a catalyst, it's the tipping point emotion and can be used to destruct or construct. So I decided to wield and alchemise my anger to create an inclusive and compassionate feminist movement.

A beautiful thing happened when my perspective shifted from fury to compassion. Anger had previously blinded me from some liberating insights. One night I was immersed in fascinating women's biographies when I spotted a trend.

In nearly every remarkable woman's biography, there is at least one man who saw her as an equal and championed her talents. They were fathers, brothers, husbands, sons, teachers and friends.

In the depths of patriarchal suppression, there are heartening examples of equality throughout history and today's culture. Evidence equality is not only possible but realistic. This insight is the inspiration behind a future Herstory project.

I delight in how my assumptions have been challenged one by one. At the beginning I believed Herstory's greatest champions would be women. Today, Herstory has as many godfathers as godmothers, supported by godfathers who have created portraits, penned biographies, opened doors, forged partnerships and funded projects. In 2019, Tánaiste Simon Coveney closed his speech to the United Nations with the affirming statement: "History needs Herstory. It is not only the right thing to do, but the smart thing to do."

On the contrary, I have experienced more toxic femininity than toxic masculinity. Shadow exists throughout the gender spectrum, especially when polarities are stretched to breaking point.

The truth is both sexes have suffered at the hands of the patriarchy. As a woman, I can't imagine being forced to conscript, trained to kill and sent to war.

They say history is written by the victors. There's no victory in creating trauma that torments generations. Humanity is still recovering from the wars of the last century and beyond. How can men and women collectively heal from the trauma of the patriarchy?

In the pandemic, there is a sense we are on the precipice of a new world. "Human doings" have been forced to become human beings again. During the pause the cracks appeared and the blind spots became obvious. We live in triggering times. In this liminal space, our ability to process and alchemise anger will determine the trajectory of humanity.

As we move beyond the old paradigm that is naturally deconstructing, accelerated by the coronavirus, there's an opportunity to reimagine gender and rewrite the future. What if the war of the sexes became a dance to equality?

Heartfelt thanks to all Herstory Godfathers: James Harrold, Stephen Plunkett, John Ennis, Justin Lynch, Szabolcs Karikó, Seán Branigan, Courtney Davis, Jim Fitzpatrick, Bill Felton, Mervyn Greene, Theo Orton, Neville Isdell, Patrick Greene, Darragh Doyle, Nathan Mannion, Cormac Bourke, Andrew Simpson, Damien Duffy, Donal Maguire, Sandy Dunlop, Geoff Fitzpatrick, Jeff O’ Riordan, Callum Mathieson, David Clarke, Justin Moffitt, Marty Mulligan, Rónán Nelson, Ruairí McKiernan, Patrick Carton, Conor Plunkett, Conor English, Derek O’ Connor, Adrian Lynch, Neil Leyden, Aron Hegarty, Oisín Ryan, Padraic Vallely, Duncan Walker, Derek Dignam, John Mc Cullagh, Christopher Campbell, Simon Coveney, Cian Connaughton, John Kennedy, Rónán Whelan, Tim Lucey, Paddy Matthews, Lee Breslin, the Lord Mayors of Dublin and President Michael D. Higgins.

On Father's Day 2020, Herstory hosted an online storytelling event in honour of Herstory's Godfathers and all the dads who have empowered their daughters throughout the centuries. You can watch the show on Herstory's YouTube channel.

Melanie Lynch

30 January 2021

SOVEREIGNTY

Melanie Lynch

30 January 2021

SOVEREIGNTY

A photo essay about the creation of the Sovereignty project by conceptual artist Áine O’ Brien and photographer Myriam Riand.

“The time has come for women to reclaim our sexuality, spirituality and sovereignty. Herstory is every woman’s story and the Sovereignty project was created for all of you. It was an honour to commission and curate Sovereignty by photographer Myriam Riand and conceptual artist Áine O’ Brien. I was deeply moved by the quality of their research, artistic process and creative concepts. In this photo essay the artists share their profoundly personal experience of creating this project and the healing power of art to soothe, transform and empower. Together we embarked on a spiritual journey through centuries of women’s suppression to reawaken and reclaim powerful feminine archetypes from history and mythology. Women are rising. We are finding our authentic, compassionate power and our true voice. We invite the masculine to join us and together we can turn the war of the sexes into a dance to equality.”

- Melanie Lynch, Founder & CEO of Herstory

Where it all started

The aim of this project is to illuminate the spark in Irish women's hearts. Showing Ireland the diversity and strength of its women. A walk through the portal to a world where the feminine is adored, nurtured and protected.

A transformation. To let go of the past, rebirth the now and live in their new found sovereign power.

In 2018 , we worked on a project together whereby we set out to recreate the Síle na Gig. This picture was the first meeting of the artists, Myriam and Áine. It was taken in Kilfenora’s Cathedral where Áine’s ancestors are buried. It was a strange sensation to enter into this sacred space and create a different energy. It was both new and empowering. It was bold and renewing. We knew that conceptual photography was our shared passion and that it would be an honour to create photos for this campaign.

In October 2019 we created a new image of Mother Mary in response to the Mother and Baby Homes scandal. It was so moving to be able to touch on a subject of such pain and awaken the power of healing through art. This was the moment when we realised we no longer have to sit in anger at the injustices of our lives - our individual and collective trauma - but we could instead reflect light upon it. We have the ability as beautiful co-creators to reclaim our sovereignty and our future.

Yours,

Áine and Myriam

Sovereignty was featured in the 2021 Herstory Light Show where the photographs illuminated Belvedere House & Gardens, Athlone Castle, Galway City Museum and Sean Ross Abbey.

1. BREASTFEEDING MADONNA

In recent weeks, our dark history of institutionalising mothers and babies resurfaced. Feeling helpless, enraged and rebellious we felt that it was now time to reclaim our mother and child image. Our deity.

RECLAIMING OUR POWER

Today is our day. We own our bodies and we bear its fruit. We rise with the depths of our desire to inspire truth. We are the mother. Giving birth to children and ideas alike. Delicious and immaculate. Every woman can channel the mother.

It is in our power to remove the shades of shame, shine our light and don our halos. We can rekindle our love and reimagine ourselves as free fertile spirits.

ANCIENT WISDOM

When the women of Ireland reignite their ancient innate power and wisdom and step into their new domain as the Queens that they are. They will be reminded of their worth. They will be empowered to leave abusive situations and take action that will create a better world for themselves and their children. By remembering their ancient voice, they will have the power to move, shift and transform.

Own their own.

Speak their truth.

PROCESS

The campaign to unseal the documents of the Mother and Baby Homes really struck a chord in me. I felt passionate for truth, justice and compassion. I wanted to do something. I don't know why, but I had a strong feeling that an image could tell a thousand words and I set out to imagine what it would say. I knew there was grief, I knew there was anger, but I wanted the next phase...the healing. How could we find the light in a dark place? Where was the affirmation?

I began to look at the mother and child image. I have always loved it. I then thought, who is she and can she be me, an everyday woman. She is a mother, and a deity and yet, though worshiped by the church was also persecuted in real life. I then found out that there once existed, paintings of nursing mothers of Christ in the history of Catholicism! As you can imagine, once the 16th century arrived and the witch hunts began; the nursing Madonna iconography disappeared. Once the church began to persecute women, declaring them witches, the natural Mother became a thing of the past. Upon reading this, I knew what needed to be done. I rang Myriam Riand. A talented photographic artist and asked her if she felt as passionately as I did about what has been done for the Women of Ireland. Thankfully she said yes. We went on to create a breastfeeding Madonna in a ruined church on the west coast of Co.Clare. It was especially important for us that we chose an ancient church as it was a symbol of time. Nothing lasts forever yet everything is sacred.

2. LETTING GO

As part of the research for this project we travelled to Tuam to visit the Mother & Baby Home.

We both felt privileged to have an opportunity to explore our feeling and the feelings of the nation through the medium of art. We wanted to know how the space felt. We wanted to honour the victims and the survivors of this institutionalised abuse. The irony of the worship of the mother and baby and the simultaneous abuse of actual mother and babies was difficult to understand. We arrived, and then we sat in silence. Separately, with notebooks in hand; we were still. Twenty minutes past then we reconnected and discussed what came up for us. One emotions hit us both.

The first words Áine wrote down were from the voice of the children : Play with me, hug me, love me, hear me, see me.

With this deep connection to the Tuam Mother and Baby Home story, we especially wanted to help heal this wound in the minds and hearts of Irish women. We thought the wishing tree would be a striking and familiar way to represent the forgotten babies in our final image.

We decided that for us, the souls who lay there were free, and we were left behind who hold the pain and shame of what happened. We then realised that it was time to transmute the hurt and move into the future with ease and love.

Freedom from the trauma is what we aspire to inspire.

Model - Trish Reilly

Áine came across Trish Reilly’s name three times during this project. She was trying to find a representative for this concept and asked many people for someone who they may think would work. They all suggested Trish. She finally got her on the phone one day and they spoke for an hour about the project and her life. Her story was so connected to our minds and hearts and what we wanted to transform through our work. The idea of this piece was of deep pain and trauma being transformed, being felt and embodied but for us not to be consumed by it. We wanted to honour the pain and try to find a new acceptance. The tree that is inflamed but not engulfed.

It then transpired that we had four mutual friends, one of which lived in Kilfenora. Her name is Katie Theasby. Katie and Trish are both powerful songwriters. On the day of the shoot, Trish asked if Katie could come with us. It felt so right to have her there with us and their connection was strong. This helped us to feel another element we had not thought about before. Connection. Especially when it comes to dealing with something much larger than ourselves. We need each other for support. Not unlike when someone is channeling a song and their hand would be held in support.

Trish was taken from her mother, along with four of her siblings and sent to an industrial school. This unfortunately was not a unique story among the Travelling community. The family is the centre of everything and to split up a Traveller family it is deeply traumatic for the culture. Because her mother was illiterate, she was unable to swim through the mounds of paperwork to get her children back.

Trish is an activist and strives to heal herself and her community through her voice and song.

From Trish Reilly: Youtube video

A little about the challenges I faced in that system as a Traveller... I went back to work with Travellers in Institutional care which helped me again to gain strength from the experience and to give hope and strength to other young children.

I am currently a Traveller rights activists hoping to see better human rights for Travellers as one of Ireland’s oldest people that have been here for centuries and we hope to have our ethnicity further celebrated by campaigning for indigenous ethnic status. Much of the work is done by women who have always been at the helm. In our community, women are viewed as the backbone of family life.

Process

The task at hand is to own this moment. The powerful woman Traveller. She represents the strength, knowledge and wisdom of holding memory and tradition. She will not be consumed by grief. She is the ancient warrior personified. Present. She holds the mother space for all who have not given birth, or lost their children and carry that energy with them. The women who are mothers to us all. We want to reimagine the future to include every version of ourselves. We know the pain of the past but we will not be beaten by it. We will rise from it.

We used two locations for this shoot. One was the wishing tree and two others on the beach.

Áine created the wishing tree to look like it was on fire. Cutting yellow, red and orange strips of material and then attaching them to a tree beside my house. She put intention in every strip. Thinking of the sorrow and pain and loss that has ever been felt and asking for it to be released. It was a very emotional moment. The wind blew through the tree and the wishes were in flight. On the day that Trish arrived by the tree and we began to shoot, it really was profound. She sang the Traveller lullaby and I felt the calming come over the space.

The second location by the sea was with her friend Katie. Both women sang a song that was written by Trish’s relative and it was such a powerful moment. The two women were dressed in black with clothes inspired by keeners. Grief was dying. Pain was dead. We were all saying goodbye to carrying anything that does not serve us anymore.

3. ADORATION OF THE MOTHER

To be seen, is to be heard, is to be healed.

To be a Queen, you must be seen and crowned. It is so important that the women of this world are adored and protected whilst being forgiven and accepted.

Our lives and worlds are imperfect and likewise the path of Irish women through history is imperfect. Difficult decisions were made by families regarding mixed race children. Many of whom were unable to live with their families and sent to institutions. The mothers made to feel shame. We see this image as the forgiveness piece. The boy, Noah represents both the past and the future. He forgives the intolerance and crowns the future acceptance. The mother herself is asking for help to be able to accept this love. To be able to receive the unconditional love. The setting is broken and vandalised. The home is broken, but all is not lost and we can still rise above our situations to find the love within the destruction. The mother, searching for the light and strength.

Many of the Mother and Baby Homes rejected mixed race babies and treated them worse than the other children. We would like to try to heal this wound.

It’s important for us to show the possibility of strength to overcome in the mother’s/queen’s face.

Models

Áine and Johanne had worked together in performance art and she was honoured to be asked to participate in this project. Johanne’s personal story resonated so much with our concept and she felt deeply moved by what we were trying to heal.

Johanne’s mother died when she was young. When Johanne was fifteen she discovered a birth certificate for a brother, she or any other family member, didn’t even know existed. A deep family secret that Patricia, her mother, brought to her grave. It later transpired through a lot of research, that in 1965 her mother had given birth to a mixed race boy in England. The boy’s name was Daniel, and he was two year old when Patricia decided something in the best interest of her son. She knew the Irish world that she came from, and she knew the English world where she lived. It was clear that she would never be able to return to Ireland with her mixed race son. She made the decision that her boy would return to Ethiopia with his father. Patricia returned to Ireland and began a whole new life with Johanne’s dad. She never spoke of her boy again. The day she said goodbye to him, was the last time she saw him.

Looking back at her childhood, in search of clues, Johanne remembers how her mother always insisted that they ate all their food, and that they never complained about being hungry. This is of course because of the Ethiopian famine and how difficult it must have been for her to see the images on the television. Knowing her son was there, somewhere, alive or dead or starving.

Process

Finding a location for this shoot, we wanted to give a nod to the Afican culture as well as the Irish landscape.

When Johanne and Noah arrived at the first location they both agreed, that besides the temperature, they could’ve been in Kenya. It was a beautiful day to begin with on the shoot, but then the weather turned. It started to rain and we were left with very little options. We were shooting near a derelict building and decided to use it to our advantage and go inside. We found some neon graffiti on the walls that we loved. We also felt that since the subject was umbrellaed by domestic abuse, that perhaps a vandalised building could represent that somehow.

It was a difficult shoot for the models and it was raining and cold, but they smiled every step of the way. We also were honoured by being able to use Emerald and Wax clothing from a designer in Galway called Virtue Shine. Her clothing really inspired us further.

4. MOTHER CREATION

I exude confidence and I believe holy in myself. I am full. Full of myself and full of my own worth. I am full of my divine creative spirit. I am undefinable. I AM STATUESQUE.

How does it feel to say these words. So many times "she is full of herself" was said to us or we said it of others. Negatively. Let's reclaim this now. We deserve to be full ourselves, if we are not, we are full of other’s opinions of us! We have this life. It is our opportunity to be kind and gentle, not only to others but to ourselves. Love your neighbour, yes, but love yourself. How can you give love if you don't feel love. Compassion for ourselves. Mná na hEireann, if we barrage ourselves and each other at any given presumed fault or failure how will we heal? We cannot give if we are empty and we need to give to each other now. We can fill ourselves with collective compassion, rise above our pain and together we can heal in harmony.

Model - Nadine Reid

From the first moment I heard Nadine's voice, I fell in love. She was our concept and more. She immediately offered us her love, appreciation and support for our project. She understood what we asked of her. We asked her to become the Madonna and to empower Irish women to embody their icon. Be proud and beautiful, whatever size, colour or tribe. There is but one tribe. Our tribe.

Speaking to Nadine on the shoot she told me that working as a makeup artist she had never met women who hated themselves as much as Irish women. Even after spending an hour highlighting their natural beauty, they couldn't accept it. This is so sad and familiar to me.

I want more than ever to be able to 'bathe in my success", as Nadine said to me, alas it is difficult. As Irish women, we find it hard to own our beauty. On the drive to the shoot, a friend told me a story.

An American man, in his time in Ireland made an observation. Irish women have a huge capacity to carry and hold grief, and do so. This was important to hear. Nadine shone her light that day and held an example of what I wish for us all. Oozing confidence and owning her space.

PROCESS

The idea behind Mother Creation was to represent a real woman. I wanted to look at the earliest known example of figurative art worldwide. A woman. The goddess effigies. I found the Venus of Willendorf to be beautiful and fascinating. A possible deity shrouded in mystery. In existence since 40,000BC.

We also wanted to create a Black Madonna. I was brought to many beautiful images of Her. Especially statues. I finally arrived with an image of a fuller figured Black Madonna. Gorgeous and full of her beauty, love and compassion for all.

5. AIRMID / HEALERS

This is the passing of the knowledge to remind women of their deep connection to the earth, the universe and natural order of the world.

Ever present is the collective vibration of fear.

Our bodies remember the persecution for being our powerful selves. That memory is passed from generation to generation.

It’s time to reclaim the power that was robbed from our ancestors. Women who are unapologetic, who are healers, intuitive and truly in touch with their divine feminine.

Channeling our ancient witch. This is a generational piece. Three generations of women.

Process

We wanted to find out where the insecurity of women stemmed from. Why do we apologise for having an opinion, or why do we assume that someone else knows what is in our best interests, better than us. Why are we hesitant to stand out, or look good, to take a compliment or to stand up for ourselves? We couldn’t help but explore the persecution of women. We explore that there is trauma deeply carved in our collective conscience from the time of the witch trials. Women were persecuted for being healers, midwives, seers, clairvoyant, beautiful, full of life and anything other than submissive and obedient. This is a difficult pattern of inheritance to heal or to absolve. Our mannerisms are passed down from generation to generation through the female line. Be quiet, don’t stand out, go with the flow…..all helpful if you risk being burned at the stake for having an opinion, but detrimental if you wish for female autonomy and freedom.

We took the line of knowledge literally and went with the generational ancestry. Where you, as an egg existed in your grandmother’s womb. She carried your mother, and whilst your mother was in her mother’s womb, you were there as an egg in her ovaries. A possible life within a life, within a life. This is where we are all one. All hearts beating to the same rhythm, within the same host. The three generational piece.

We also wanted to show how even with the grandmother coming from another culture or land, that her daughter and granddaughter are Irish women. All three being part of this land. Our land. We chose the McKays.

Models

Aloma, Jeannie and Ruby. Mother, daughter and granddaughter. They were keen to represent all of their heritage. They made sure to give a nod to their Indian, Scottish and Irish connections. Jeanie wearing the family tartan and her mother wearing a sari.

We chose locations around their home town of Ennistymon. The town that embraced Aloma and her family of five boys and one girl, when her husband died suddenly. Jeannie was three years old when he passed. Jeannie and her family are well know in the community. Although Jeannie is an extremely busy mother of three and worker of three jobs, she made sure to make time for this project.

She was amazed that her mother managed to climb a ladder and stand on a slippery stone wall, in order for us to capture a moment. The weather was stunning and the experience was great for everyone.

OUR PERSONAL REFLECTION

The whole process of hearing the model’s stories and finding the right energy to shoot was a fascinating journey for us. All of these deeply harrowing histories, as humans, or women, that we go through and we are still able to rise from. I feel like there was a power in the recognition and the telling of the stories. When a story is validated and heard, it can be healed, but when left in the shadows it will never be moved. To be seen, is to be heard, is to be healed. We have arisen from a culture of secrets and shame. We now have the platforms to shine the light on our darkest secrets and move forward. The stories that we would prefer were not part of our history or our present, simply do not go away by being ignored.

Working in partnership helped us understand further that we all need support. Different eyes and reflections. A hand to hold and help us see the truth. We stayed true to ourselves and our vision. Remaining authentic at every step and being able to admit our ignorance and asking to be educated. When one of us would fall, the other would catch, but even better, would see where they were going to fall and warn them of the obstacle!

With Myriam’s mastery of design and vision and Áine’s emotional connection to the models and ability to direct their intention, they were able, together to achieve what you see before you. A collaboration to empower women.

Our aim of this project is to illuminate the spark in Irish women's hearts. Showing Ireland the diversity and strength of its women. A walk through the portal to a world where the feminine is adored, nurtured and protected.

A transformation. To let go of the past, rebirth the now and live in their new found sovereign power.

Thank you,

Myriam Riand & Áine O’Brien

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Myriam Riand

Myriam Riand is a visual artist based in Ennistymon, Co. Clare. Her recent work has been inspired by the vibrant local creative scene where she has collaborated with a variety of musicians, writers and artists. Choosing film photography as her medium of choice, she adapts her designs to incorporate the texture and deliberate imperfections of analog image making.

Website & instagram: @myriamdelirium

Áine O'Brien

Áine O'Brien is a conceptual artist, songwriter and performer who is based in Kilfenora Co.Clare. Her childhood was steeped in the tradition of storytelling and she continues this art through her different mediums. She is deeply impassioned to assist the healing and freeing of women from trauma.

instagram: @aineo_brien

Melanie Lynch

25 January 2021

Stay with Me Art Show

Melanie Lynch

25 January 2021

*Sensitive Content: Mother & Baby Homes*

The Stay With Me group art show is an artists’ response to the story of the Tuam Babies, which was first exposed by Journalist Alison O’Reilly in the national media on 25th May 2014.

The headline “800 Babies in a Mass Grave” sent shockwaves around the world, when it was first revealed “illegitimate” children were buried in a septic tank in the west of Ireland.

Their unmarried mothers were incarcerated in a religious run institution operated by the Bons Scours nuns, at the request of Galway County Council between 1925 to 1961.

When the nuns moved out of Tuam, they went to great lengths and costs to exhume their dead colleagues and re-inter them in Knock.

However, they left 796 innocent children behind in a defunct sewage system, where they remain today.

We never would have known about this story, only for the meticulous work of Historian Catherine Corless and Anna Corrigan, whose two brothers died in the Tuam home.

Horrified, distressed and in disbelief, people around the world reacted to the story in many ways, a sea of protests, marches and vigils got underway, while others turned to art.

In June 2018, Alison Lowry, a Glass Sculpturer from Saintfield in Northern Ireland, reacted to the story with an exhibition called “Home Babies”.

Her work was astonishing, she had created babies’ dresses from crushed glass, in response to the mother and baby home scandals.

Her full art show “(A)Dressing Our Hidden Truths” is now displayed in Collins Barracks in Dublin. (A photo essay by Alison Lowry on this exhibition can be viewed here).

Shortly after speaking with Alison, we began to look for other artists who may have created art pieces with the same theme.

Sure enough, one by one we found a mass of unsung talent who had created everything from installations, to poetry, paintings, graphics, ceramics, and paper art to honour the children who died.

Greystones artist Barbara O’Meara curated the design of four large white baby blankets, with 800 squares, and they were pieced together by the Stitched With Love Community. Each square represents each child who died in Tuam.

While Veronica Buchannan from Donegal created the delicate “With The Angels” – a large white dress made from 796 tiny angel cherubs mixed with lace.

Catherine McGagh from Leitrim has donated two paintings to our show, “Still Waiting” and “Exhumation of Hearts”.

And Marine Sterck from Belgium along with several friends made the “Defenceless Chalice”, for the 796 babies buried in Tuam – this chalice is a stark reminder of the reality of the children’s final resting place.

Sasha Quinn is a student in NCAD and is one of our youngest artists, and she created "Mothering Nest" from porcelain as well as "Mourners Lament".

"Working Through" is a series of endless white paper dresses, by Jill Dinsdale, which she displayed in Bessborough at one of the children's commemoration events, before kindly loaning it to us for our show in UCC, as well as our virtual show in 2020.

We knew these precious and delicate artworks had to be exhibited somewhere under one roof.

We sought out a number of art galleries in Dublin in the hope that someone would host the show and found the very talented Irish Italian Curator Dino Notaro who was immediately touched by the story.

For months, he helped create an art show that paid a tribute to the children who died in such appalling conditions.

The Stay With Me art show was born from a place of grief and sadness, but all of us on the team, have learned how important art is, and how it can help heal.

We have connected with some of the most talented artists, poets and musicians throughout our journey.
Artist Rachael Keogh donated “Mother of Pearl” to the first exhibition in the Inspire Galerie, which continues to tour with the show.

In her painting, she has given "every baby a cloud and a pearl nappy" and said "I wanted them to feel loved and safe, it's a hopeful piece".

However, having become so moved by the show itself, Rachael has taken on the role of Producer, and manages all of the new artists and musicians.

She is producing videos and interviews as well as researching new ways to showcase the work on several multi-media platforms.

Rachael said: “The work is so moving, its a show everyone needs to see. It is so gentle and speaks volumes. The survivors and families of the children who died take great comfort in it. I have been going through each piece and familiarising myself not just with this powerful art, but also with the artists themselves and the musicians. You cannot help but be moved by these artworks”.

Lisa Gernon is our Social Media Manager, who oversees several of our pages and coordinates the adverts to keep our viewers and followers updated on our weekly YouTube stories which are streamed on our Stay With Me Art Show YouTube Channel.

Frankie King is our Music Producer, but also provides us with technical support and has designed several of the powerful graphics with the names of the children who died in Sean Ross Abbey, Castlepollard and Bessborough.

Our mission is to honour all of the children who died in these institutions.

The story began with 796 infants left in a mass grave in Tuam.

Sadly, we have learned from the recent publication of the final report into mother and baby homes, that 9,000 angels are believed to have died all over the country during this shameful era in Irish history.

And they too, are missing.

Art brings people together and our show is a deeply thought-provoking group exhibition.
It has touched so many people and we are extremely grateful to our wonderful artists, because without them, we wouldn’t have a show.

With the artists in the Inspire Gallery January 2019

We work on a completely voluntary basis, this production is a labour of love project, which began as a hugely successful physical show in the Inspire Gallery in Dublin.

It was then invited to the Kolo Women’s International Festival in Sarajevo where it was embraced by dozens of survivors of the Bosnian War.

In August 2019 we had a hugely successful physical show in UCC as well as a live Q & A with Catherine Corless, whose tireless work, exposed the horror of the Tuam Babies story.

Stay With Me team at the Virtual Show July 2020

In July 2020, we held a stunning virtual show in the Conference Powered Studios on the Long Mile Road.

This year, we have the honour of collaborating with Herstory, and Brigid’s Healing Light, which will be incorporated into our new virtual show to be streamed online on 5th February 2021.

For me, as Director of the show, I feel very lucky to be surrounded by such a talented team of people, and our show continues to grow, we have now more than 40 artists.

I didn’t know, when I first exposed the story of the Tuam Babies Burial scandal in May 2014 in my role as journalist, that I would find myself curating and directing an art show.

But my love for the story of the children who died in the most shameful period of Irish history, has brought me on many journeys and it is a story that I will never let go of it.

I am very proud that along with Catherine Corless and Anna Corrigan, whose two brothers died in the Tuam home, we exposed the Tuam Babies story in 2014 which lifted the lid on this movement for justice.

Having written for years about child protection, illegal adoptions and mother and baby homes, it was no shock to be told that deep wrongs were inflicted on vulnerable women and children by the Irish church and state.

Luke Norton "Angels of Tuam" (this dress is made out of the 796 children's death certs from Tuam)

But when Anna Corrigan contacted me in 2014 to say 800 babies were lying in a septic tank in the west of the country, it was very hard to take in.

However, when the simple, basic facts were laid out for me by an ordinary decent woman after I answered her email - it became clear that this claim could not be dismissed as an exaggeration or mere rumour.

Anna Corrigan had no qualifications in historical discoveries, she didn’t have a team of people around her, and relied solely on her own material.

Instead, she was sitting at her kitchen table in Clondalkin, south Dublin solely piecing together the mystery of her mother Bridget Dolan’s secret life in the Tuam Home in Galway where she gave birth to two boys, John and William Dolan.

At the same time and unknown to me, another ordinary decent woman, was sitting at her kitchen table in Galway working on her research.

But between Anna Corrigan and Catherine Corless - neither of whom were backed by a government agency or academic funding - have managed to bring dignity to hundreds of forgotten children, rattled the nation to the core.

“800 Babies In a Mass Grave” was placed on the front of a national newspaper.

A shocking but powerful headline that, I thought, would lead to a huge outcry.

But very few mentioned it and it went unremarked upon in the Dail.

A week later, though, the Mailonline published my story and nothing prepared me for what was about to happen.

A frenzy exploded on social media, and every global media organisation ran the story - Sky News, CNN, NPR, Al Jazeera, CBS, plus dozens of other TV stations.
Over the next six weeks, I barely got any sleep as myself, Catherine and Anna did interview after interview with media organisations all over the world about the story of the Tuam Babies.

Only then did the Government respond.

The reality is that if the international media had not reacted to the Tuam Babies story, it would have been brushed under the carpet by the State.

The Commission of Investigation into Mother-and-Baby Homes was established by then-minister James Reilly in early 2015 as a result.

For years adoption rights campaigners highlighted theirs and their mother's mistreatment in the homes as well as their battles to obtain their records.

But it was Catherine Corless’ meticulous work, and the quality of her research that sparked this movement around the world.

This was the story that lifted the lid on the entire scandal and opened the floodgates.

For me, this story began in 2014 with the revelation that 796 children had died in the worst circumstances imaginable, however, in 2021, we are no further to finding those children.

The report floored me, when I learned that the Commission has discovered up to 9,000 children have died all over the country in institutions - and they too are missing. Therefore, the story is not over, and the search continues.

No stone should be left unturned until every effort is made to find Ireland’s lost children, who were treated so cruelly in their short lives where they did not wrong to anyone.

And the perpetrators who tortured these women and children in the “name of god”, need to be brought to justice.

When the apology was issued by the Taoiseach following the publication of the final report into mother and baby homes – my thoughts were with Catherine Corless and Anna Corrigan for the roles they played in bringing this story to the world’s attention and the survivors and families of the children who died.

But my heart is with the 9,000 forgotten children who died from abuse and neglect, they are the heroes of this story and they have to be found.

And the purpose of our beautiful "Stay With Me" art show is to honour those children.

Join us for our new virtual show “Stay With Me – Believe” which will be streamed at 8pm on Friday 5th February 2021 on:

YouTube: Stay With Me Art Show

Facebook: Remembering the Tuam Babies

Instagram: stay_with_me_art

You can view a showreel of recent shows here, and the recent virtual show here.

Alison O'Reilly Journalist & Author My Name is Bridget

Alison O’Reilly Journalist and Author “My Name is Bridget, the untold story of Bridget Dolan and the Tuam mother and baby home”.

Melanie Lynch

21 June 2020

Photo Essays

- The Godfathers of Herstory: Celebrating Father's Day

Melanie Lynch

21 June 2020

Photo Essays

Herstory has been blessed over the years with some incredible ‘Herstory Godfathers’ – men who have encouraged, supported and promoted the project. Equality is human nature and when we spot it, we have to celebrate it – so this Father’s Day, we want to celebrate all those fathers who have encouraged and supported their daughter’s in their endeavours.

Mary Ward, illustrated by Adrienne Geoghegan

Mary Ward (neé King) was born in 1827 to Henry King and Harriett Lloyd, in Ferbane, Co. Offaly. Growing up, as she did, in a well-to-do scientific family, Ward developed a great interest in nature. From a very young age, she started collecting insects and using her father’s magnifying glass to study and draw them in great detail. The co-founder of the Astronomical Society of London, James South, took notice of her sketches one day and immediately tried to persuade her father to buy her a microscope. Her father did buy her a microscope, reportedly one of the finest microscopes in Ireland at the time, and microscopy became Ward’s life interest. Similarly, Agnes Mary Clerke, born in 1842 in Cork, developed an interest in astronomy at a young age. Her father, John William Clerke, taught her the basics of astronomy, and she grew up using his telescope for her observations. Clerke became the fifth woman to become a member of the Royal Astronomical Society and her work was internationally recognised.

Oonah Keogh was born in 1903 in Dublin and she went on to become the first woman stockbroker. After some years of study and travel, Keogh was offered a job in stockbroking from her father, who had his own company. As Dr. Angela Byrne wrote, ‘No stock exchange had ever had a woman working in one before […] But Ireland had a new constitution which guaranteed equality and there was no reason to reject Keogh except for her gender. With her education and wealth, she was fully qualified for the role.’ Similarly, Maria Edgeworth, born in about 1768, grew up to work alongside her father, Richard Lovell Edgeworth, as both his assistant in estate management and as a collaborator on a series of educational books for children. From a young age she had been educated on topics such as law, economics, science and politics by her father.

Oonah Keogh. illustrated by Lauren O’Neill

Outside of Ireland, Mary Shelley (neé Wollstonecroft Godwin) was born in 1797 to feminist philosopher Mary Wollstonecroft and writer William Godwin. Her mother died very shortly after her birth and she was raised by her stepmother and father who tutored her and encouraged her education. He had an eclectic library at her disposal and many intellectuals of the time used to frequent their house. At age eighteen, Mary wrote Frankenstein, and it was published when she was just twenty. More recently, Malala Yousafzai was born in Pakistan in 1997. As she said herself, ‘welcoming a baby girl is not always cause for celebration in Pakistan’ but her father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, was ‘determined to give [her] every opportunity a boy would have.’ Ziauddin was a teacher and ran a girls’ school in their village, but when the Taliban took control of their town, girls were no longer allowed to go to school. Malala began to speak out on behalf of girls ‘and our right to learn’ but this made her a target and in 2012 a masked gunman boarded her school bus and shot her in the head. In 2014, Malala and her dad founded the Malala fund ‘a charity dedicated to giving every girl an opportunity to achieve a future she chooses’ and for this, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in December of that year.

Some of the women we’ve been championing more recently have told us about the impact their father’s and father-figures have had on their lives. Ellie Kisyombé, co-founder of OurTable, said that while there ‘was no feminism or being feminist’ in Malawi when she was growing up her father ‘raised [her] like [her] brothers’ and raised her to be a go-getter.

Syrian Irish journalist, Razan Ibraheem had two teachers as parents, and according to her, her dad ‘is so pro-women […] he never tried to restrict me…’ She went on to say, ‘…despite my dad's difficult life and poor background in Syria, he worked day and night to educate me and my siblings and dedicated his life to empower us and raise us with values. I would not have been where I am now without his support and his belief in me. I remember his words and carry them everywhere I go:

"Razan! It's your life, your choice."

"Don't ever think you are less than any man on earth."

"Education is your weapon to success."

"Never take anything for granted. Think, question and search."

"Razan! I will miss you, but Go, Go.. explore the world, get new experiences and enjoy the new adventure."

To her dad, Razan said, ‘…daddy, although 4,110.89 km is between us and I have not seen you in five years, you are present in every step in my life.’

Founder of AkiDwA, Salomé Mbugua, grew up in a family of five girls and four boys and she told us that her strong belief in equality came from her father; ‘My father always believed in equality and the way people are treated. He boasted about his daughters and his love towards us was immense. In fact, one day when we were all having dinner, he declared to my mum that he has a very strong love and bond with us, his daughters. Culturally, boys should inherit all from their fathers, but my father declared his wealth to all his children.’ What stayed with her all these years was her father’s ‘kindness and generosity.’ When she was young, he transferred his coffee estate to her mother which made him ‘an extraordinary man’ for in her culture ‘men behave very differently’ and ‘will never transfer any wealth to their wife.’ Salomé was brought up in a rural part of Kenya, about 40 minutes from Nairobi, and talking to us earlier this year she said, ‘…my father believed that people should have equal access to everything. He taught me that you can never hide from the truth. If something is happening and it’s wrong, then speak up! […]My courage and sense of equality, justice and human rights are inspired by my learnings from my father. His words of wisdom and character continue to echo in my head up to today. He was a great man, may his soul rest in perfect peace.’

Here at Herstory HQ we’d also like to send our love to our dads who have supported and encouraged us in all of our endeavours. Founder of Herstory, Melanie Lynch, has said: ‘Looking back at my childhood, it’s an anomaly that I founded Herstory. Growing up in our family there was no question that women were equal to men. To be honest, feminism wasn’t even on my radar. I never felt that my gender was a disadvantage. My father had a formative influence on me: gifting my love of music, nature, philosophy and meditation. As a nipper, he would bring me on epic hikes and island escapades to bird-watch and hunt for fossils. Education was paramount and he shaped my worldview with the National Geographic, David Attenborough documentaries and Disney animations. I am the eldest of five and I have three strong, spirited sisters. I confess that my only brother, who is six years my junior, was an outspoken feminist long before me.’

Project Manager and Researcher, Katelyn Hanna, attributes her love of history to her dad and maternal grandfather; ‘My dad used to always call me his scholar. When I would come home from school he’d ask me ‘How’s my scholar today?’ He was always very encouraging of my education, and still is - to this day if he sees a magazine or article about women’s history he’ll get it for me or show it to me. He introduced me to all the big movies growing up (although I still maintain that I was exposed to Jaws too early!) Last year, when I started to learn Irish again, he got me a handmade framed image that says ‘anam cara’ which means soulmate - it was so thoughtful. We’ve had tough conversations over the years, from the marriage equality and repeal referendums to the more recent Black Lives Matter protests - he will always engage in the conversation with me and I know he reads what articles he can and tries to stay informed, which is very important to me. We’ve influenced each other a lot, and we’re still constantly learning. Just as I see a lot of my dad in my granda, I see a lot of myself in my dad, and I’m now realising how special it is to be able to grow up and become actual friends with your parents and grandparents, and I’m really enjoying that right now. Sláinte, dad.

Project Manager in Northern Ireland, Fiona Lowe, said ‘There’s rarely a day goes past when my father doesn’t quote or reference his grandmother. She lived with his family growing up and influenced the admiration he has for strong women. The greatest gift he has imparted to me is a sense of calmness and contentment. I don’t think there is any situation where this can be overestimated. My grandfather (Thomas McGuigan) was a firm advocate of female education. By the time I was born, he was in his eighties and I only had over a year in his arms before he passed. A deep thinker by his very nature, each day he would recite poetry and sing to me on a daily basis. The common denominator that unites the two men is a sense of knowing- knowing unconditional love. It is not derived from words but a knowing smile and a nod. That speaks a lot more to me.

We asked some of Herstory’s Godfathers to tell us about how they’ve influenced and been influenced by their own daughters. Artist Jim Fitzpatrick told us: ‘Of course I would love to think I empowered my daughter but the truth is quite simple enough. My daughter Suzanne was always brought up to believe in equality and the right of women like herself to make their own decisions about their own lives. My own single mother was her inspiration. We have been on the same page on all the important issues relating to women’s rights, LGBTQ rights, abortion rights etc. The only time she threatened to disown me was when Roy Keane (her hero) walked out in Saipan: ‘You’re lucky we agree on this one, Dad, because I would have disowned you if you didn’t support Keano’. Yep, Roy was my hero too...luckily :) Right now we’re separated by the coronavirus (she lives in Italy) but she is and always has been my own guardian angel, always watching out for me and when I had cancer guess who took weeks off to stay with me and look after me? Yep my amazing daughter.’

Jim Fitzpatrick and his daughter Suzanne

Thérese Casey, daughter of poet John Ennis (another Herstory Godfather) told us about her dad, ‘Always a kind, hardworking resilient father with strong beliefs in the value and importance of education, guiding us to believe in what we could achieve. All the family have accomplished a lot academically and in our fields of work. Guiding us in trying to do what is right with a strong sense of morals. Happy memories of home of my Mum and Dad, a happy peaceful home where we enjoyed the early years of our lives. Lovely memories of trips to Ballybunion (Kerry), the Comeragh Mountains, Woodstown beach, happily playing on the family farm in the fields of Coralstown (Mullingar) in my father's birthplace.’

John Ennis’ daughters, Thérese, Fiona and Ann Marie

Szabolcs Kariko, yet another Herstory Godfather who created some gorgeous artwork and illustrations for Herstory over the past few years, shared with us his thoughts on equality, and growing up in the Eastern Block in the 1980s: ‘Perhaps the only advantage of communist rule in Eastern-Europe was the gender equality. After the Russian occupation of Hungary, equal treatment was expected between comrades regardless of sex. To encourage women to take up “manly” jobs, posters inviting “girls” to drive a tractor and to work in a factory appeared in the 1950s. Growing up in the Eastern Block in the 80s, I haven’t asked any questions about feminism. The women of my family were independent, cultivated. My grandmothers both studied before the world war, and my mother was one of the first female computer engineer in the country.

Thanks to them it never occurred to me that women may be less equal than men. […However] Working as a freelance art director, I was once contacted by a client to do a series of posters of inspirational quotes to motivate the employees. I was surprised to learn that between the 50 famous people quoted, there was only one female. When I pointed it out to the client, I got the answer that they couldn’t find enough inspiring women. So I did the research for them and found 50 women worth being quoted : there were activists, artists, Nobel-prize laureates and CEOs. Women who excel in their work and they are still unnoticed and ignored.

Talking to my girlfriends, they often complain about not getting heared. Even though I’m a quiet and introverted person, I never had to face this problem. Society is still trained to listen more to men than to women. That’s why I found it important that as men we lend our voices to talk about existing problems, to make things evolve and to be able to stand together in the sun. And not in the shadows.’

On Father’s Day, Herstory wants to acknowledge and thank Herstory’s Godfathers who have played an instrumental role in the formation and success of Herstory to date. In the true spirit of equality, they have created portraits, penned biographies, opened doors, forged partnerships and funded projects. Herstory simply wouldn’t exist without their support.

Heartfelt thanks to James Harrold, Stephen Plunkett, John Ennis, Justin Lynch, Szabolcs Karikó, Seán Branigan, Courtney Davis, Jim Fitzpatrick, Bill Felton, Mervyn Greene, Neville Isdell, Patrick Greene, Darragh Doyle, Nathan Mannion, Cormac Bourke, Andrew Simpson, Damien Duffy, Donal Maguire, Sandy Dunlop, Geoff Fitzpatrick, Jeff O’ Riordan, Callum Mathieson, David Clarke, Justin Moffitt, Marty Mulligan, Rónán Nelson, Ruairí McKiernan, Patrick Carton, Conor Plunkett, Conor English, Derek O’ Connor, Adrian Lynch, Neil Leyden, Aron Hegarty, Oisín Ryan, Padraic Vallely, Duncan Walker, Derek Dignam, John Mc Cullagh, Christopher Campbell, Simon Coveney, Cian Connaughton, John Kennedy, Rónán Whelan, Tim Lucey, Paddy Matthews, Lee Breslin, the Lord Mayors of Dublin and President Michael D. Higgins.

On Father’s Day, Sunday 21st June at 7pm, Herstory invites you to a special online event in honour of the fathers who have empowered their daughters throughout the centuries and Herstory’s Godfathers who have played a pivotal role in co-creating the Irish Herstory movement. Equality is human nature and when we spot it, we have to celebrate it!

Join us for a fascinating evening of storytelling and conversation with poet John Ennis, artist Jim Fitzpatrick, celtic wisdom keeper Mari Kennedy, activists Ellie Kisyombé and Salome Mbugua, co-founder of Bard Mythologies Sandy Dunlop, and more.

Sources and further reading:

Hanna, Katelyn, ‘Mary Ward,’ online at: https://www.herstory.ie/news/2020/2/11/mary-ward?rq=mary%20ward [accessed 10 June 2020].

Byrne, Angela, ‘Herstory: Agnes Mary Clerke - 1842 - 1907: Science writer and astronomer,’ online at: https://www.rte.ie/culture/herstory/2019/0903/1073606-herstory-agnes-mary-clerke/ [accessed 11 June 2020].

Byrne, Angela, ‘Herstory: Oonah Keogh - 1903 - 1989 - the first woman stockbroker in the world,’ online at: https://www.rte.ie/culture/herstory/2020/0127/1111240-herstory-oonah-keogh/ [accessed 10 June 2020].

Keon, Edwina, ‘Maria Edgeworth,’ online at: https://www.ria.ie/news/dictionary-irish-biography/dib-entry-day-maria-edgeworth [accessed 11 June 2020].

Yousafzai, Malala, ‘Malala’s Story,’ online at: https://www.malala.org/malalas-story [accessed 11 June 2020].

Yousafzai, Ziauddin, ‘What Being Malala's Father Taught Me About Feminism,’ online at: https://time.com/5605625/malala-yousafzai-father/ [accessed 11 June 2020].

Pollak, Sorcha, ‘New to the Parish: Observing the Syrian war ‘is like watching your child dying,’ online at https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/people/new-to-the-parish-observing-the-syrian-war-is-like-watching-your-child-dying-1.2675641?fbclid=IwAR2kJ655hM8xR7hHS11XuGUePHV_TbGmP96WMHt67cFIKXXU6pHG7_yD-ek [accessed on 11 June 2020].

Hanna, Katelyn, ‘Interview with Salomé Mbugua,’ online at: https://www.herstory.ie/modern/2020/2/4/salome-mbugua?rq=salome [accessed 11 June 2020].

Thank you to Ellie, Razan, Salomé, John, Therese, Jim, and Szabolcs for sharing with us a few lines on their relationships with their dads/daughters for this photo essay.

Melanie Lynch

28 April 2020

Photo Essays

- Finding Herstories in your Family Tree

Melanie Lynch

28 April 2020

Photo Essays

Finding Herstories in your Family Tree

In September 2019, the children of Ireland were asked to nominate their heroines, and this inspired many of them to look to the women in their families and in their family trees. Family tree research can be very rewarding and with every day that passes, more and more records are being made available online – many for free! It is the perfect activity to get into right now as we social distance and remain in our homes.

For those of you interested in conducting family tree research, but not sure where to start, we’ve compiled a list of websites, and advice, that can help you forward.

Who might you find in your family tree?

1. Talk to your family

This has to be your first port of call. If you’re lucky enough to still have your grandparents in your life, ring them and ask them questions. Here are some useful questions to ask them that could lead you further back in your tree and give you a better understanding of what life was like for your ancestors:

Where and when were you born?
Who were your parents?
When did your parents get married?
Where were your parents from?
What occupation had your parents?
What was life like for you as a child?
What were your grandparents called?
Do you remember where your grandparents lived?
What occupation had your grandparents?
What do you remember about your grandparents?

Ring your grandparents and ask them about their childhood, parents and grandparents.

Answering these questions should help you when you begin to look for records. You should also ask your grandparents or older relatives to see old family photos as it’s great to be able to put a face to the people you’re finding out about!

2. The National Census of Ireland, 1901 and 1911

This is a free resource compiled by the National Archives of Ireland and it is really invaluable to family historians. This is where the questions you asked your grandparents (or older relatives) come in handy. To start, you need to know some details of an ancestor who would have been alive in 1901 and/or 1911. I would recommend starting with 1911 - search using the name of your ancestor and the county they lived in. If your ancestor had an unusual surname, then you might be in luck when it comes to narrowing down the results. However, in most cases, you could get multiple pages of results all for the one name – so how do you narrow it down? Knowing the townland or street where your ancestor lived will really help here. If you know the names of other family members who you’d expect to be living with your ancestor, then this will also help you to narrow down the household.

Knowing the names of your ancestors’ siblings can help you to narrow down the households when looking for your family in the Census, particularly if you have a common surname.

What information will you get from a Census? Hopefully, you will find out more about your ancestors’ family – who they were living with the night the Census was taken in 1911. You may even get another step back in your tree if your ancestor is living with their parents, or even their grandparents! You will find out the ages of each member of the household – although beware, our ancestors’ ages often fluctuated from record to record and may not have been accurate for a multitude of reasons, so don’t place too much trust in this! You will also find out their religion, birthplace, occupation, whether they could read or write, whether they could speak Irish, their marital status, whether they had any illnesses, how many years they were married, how many children they had and their relation to the head of the household.

When you find your ancestor and click on their name you will be brought into a page that has been transcribed and is very easy to read. But, if you’d like to view the original document, then scroll down to the section ‘View census images’ and click on ‘Household Return (Form A).’ To find out about the type of house your ancestor lived in, click into ‘House and Building Return (Form B1)’ and to find out if your ancestor had out-houses such as a cow house or stable, click into ‘Out-Offices and Farm-Steadings Return (Form B2).’ This last form might seem a bit daunting when you go into it first because there are no names and a lot of numbers – it lists the out-houses of not only your ancestors, but also your ancestor’s neighbours. In order to find out which line relates to your family you must go back and check Household Return (Form A) and on the top right-hand corner you’ll see a number. You then find that number down the left-hand column in Form B2 and follow the line over to see what out-houses your family had.

And now that you’ve found your ancestor in 1911, you should be able to find them ten years before that in 1901. Bear in mind that they may have been living at home with their parents in 1901 or in the case of those living in cities, they may have had a different address. This is where knowing other members of the family can come in handy.

3. Birth, Marriage and Death Records

Don’t know when a photo was taken? Pay attention to the clothes and hairstyle of your ancestor and that might give you an idea of when it was taken.

Finding the birth, marriage and death records of your ancestors can be really exciting and there has never been a better time to search for these than now because you can access them totally for free on IrishGenealogy.ie. This is where finding your ancestors in the Census prior to this can be helpful. As I said, your ancestors ages aren’t always correct on the Census but if you don’t know when exactly they were born, then the Census can give you a basic idea. On this website I’d recommend clicking on ‘Civil Records’ as the ‘Church Records’ aren’t fully there yet. Once you do that, you’ll be asked to input the name of your ancestor, and the year range of when they were born/married/died. So, if in the 1911 Census your ancestor said they were 30 years old that would make them born in 1881, so I would input a year range of maybe one or two years either side of 1881, effectively searching between 1879-1883. You also have the option of inputting a Civil Registration District, but I tend not to use this.

On marriage certificates, the couple’s father’s names were recorded, so checking this record can be a good way to verify a birth record (which records the child’s mother and father’s names) or vice versa.

There are limits to these sources, in that you can’t access recent records online - this is to protect people’s privacy, and most only go as far back as 1864, but if you get back that far, you’ll be doing well.

The records available are as follows:

Birth records : 1864-1920

Marriage records : 1845-1944

Death records : 1878-1969

4. Extra Help

Rootschat.com is a very good website if you have questions about your ancestors or the process of family tree research. It is free but you have to create an account. Once you do this, you will have access to over 6 million posts by other family historians and you’ll be able to ask any questions you have, from advice on where to go next to what life would have been like for your ancestor at a particular time.

If you stick at researching your family tree, you’re bound to come across a record/records that are very difficult to read – but you can use this website to ask for help in interpreting handwriting! You can also ask for help in restoring old or damaged photographs (see below). I cannot state enough how useful this website has been to me in my own family tree research. There are over 270,000 people signed up to this website, making it one of the busiest and largest free family history forums out there, so do make use of it!

The photos below are an example of the kind of photo restoration that I was helped with on RootsChat.

5. Military Archives

The Irish Military Archives website is a brilliant resource for anyone with ancestors who were in the military or who may have been involved in the 1916 Rising, War of Independence or Civil War. The Military Service Pensions Collection is particularly brilliant as it contains a lot of handwritten personal accounts of what each applicant did during this time, as well as reports and recommendations from people they worked with. The website is very easy to use, and it’s free!

Even if you don’t have any ancestors included in this resource, it’s still worth perusing because the stories, as told by the people who lived them, are incredible. Some of the herstories on our website are based on the testaments given by women in their pension applications. For example, why not read Helena Hegarty’s application; she was involved in keeping a British spy barricaded in her local workhouse for a number of weeks in 1921. Or read about Donegal girl Mary Kane, possibly the youngest Cumann na mBan member, who joined with her mother when she was just ten-years old. These are the kinds of stories you can find in the Military Service Pensions Collection.

6. Griffith’s Valuation

Another free resource is the Griffith’s Valuation which was a valuation of every taxable piece of agricultural or built property in Ireland and was published county-by-county between the years 1847 and 1864. All you need to know is your family name and the area your family lived - and you could find out about the type of land/amount of land your ancestor had. Unfortunately with this source, only the head of the household is named, so where you have a common surname in an area, it can be difficult to pinpoint your ancestor.

7. Further Research…

Go through old photo albums and when it’s safe to spend time with your grandparents again, ask to see their old photos

If you’ve got this far and you’re eager to find out more about your ancestors, I would suggest signing up to Ancestry.co.uk and FindMyPast.ie - both of which are quite expensive, but really worth it if you’re very interested in continuing your family tree research and wanting to understand more about your ancestor’s lives. You can also physically create your family tree on both of these sites, making it easier to follow different lines.

Laura Geraldine Lennox was nominated by her great-great grand niece Kate as part of the Who’s Your Heroine? project on RTÉjr.Photo cred: Karen Fitzgerald — Laura Geraldine Lennox was nominated by her great-great grand niece Kate as part of the Who’s Your Heroine? project on RTÉjr.
Photo cred: Karen Fitzgerald

Ancestry has millions of records, from military and church records to the Census records of the UK and USA. You can also connect with other people who may share common ancestors with you. Ancestry also do DNA tests. I had my own grandfather do a DNA test because his father was an orphan and we did'n’t know where that side of our family came from. Through DNA, we have managed to track our family tree back many more generations and confirm where my grandfather’s father came from. Doing a DNA test can be a very personal decision, but in my particular case it was vital to confirm where we came from. If you’re interested in doing a DNA test, or want to further understand how a DNA test can help in family tree research, then you can read my own story here.

FindMyPast is brilliant for newspapers. And newspapers are brilliant for understanding your ancestor’s life beyond what’s recorded in official records (if they made it into the newspapers). For example, one of my own ancestors was very active in the tenant right movement of the 1850s and through newspapers I was able to find speeches he made at demonstrations, letters he wrote to the public discussing the problems etc. It was incredible to be able to read the words he spoke and wrote all those years ago, and that was thanks to the newspapers. Newspapers can also hold information on deaths, marriages and funeral information - all of which could add a personal touch to the information you might already have.

Figuring out old occupations…

Have you found your ancestor in a Census but are unsure what their occupation means? This list can help you figure out what old or unusual jobs your ancestor held.

8. Your local library

When it’s safe to do so again, you should take a trip to your local library for further advice on how to proceed with your family tree. They can often point you in the right direction and sometimes they will have historical records that they can show you as well! The library was a great help to Kate and her mammy Karen when they were researching their ancestor Laura Lennox for the RTÉjr Who’s Your Heroine? project!

9. 1921 Census release for England & the 1939 Register

As of January 2022, the 1921 Census records for families living in England and Whales have been made available through FindMyPast! These records, at the minute, are pay-per-view so you don’t need a subscription to the website, but you will need to pay €4.10 for every Census record you view. This is a great resource and well worth the money if you did have family in England or Wales at this time. These records will give you your family’s names, ages, occupations and address of occupation, birthplace, and information on how many children a couple has.

Similarly, if you had family living in England in 1939 - the 1939 Register will be of interest to you. It was similar to a Census, taken on the eve of the second World War to get an idea of the demographics of the country. The information you’ll find on these records include: Name, Full date of birth, Address, Marital status and Occupation. You can find these records on FindMyPast.

10. Scottish Ancestors

Scottish ancestors? Then ScotlandsPeople is the place for you. On this site you can search Statutory Registers (Birth, Marriage, Civil Partnerships, Divorce and Death records) for Scotland as well as Scottish Census’ (1841-1911), Valuation Rolls, Church Registers, Poor Relief and Migration Records and Legal Records (Wills, Military Tribunals etc.) This is a fantastic site however, it can be costly. Each record is pay-per-view. You buy ‘credits’ (the fewest you can purchase is 30 credits for £7.50, the most is 160 credits for £40) and the ‘cost’ of records varies, however to view things like birth, marriage or death records will cost you 6 credits per record (so be sure the record you want to view is one relevant to you before you buy it!)

The 1921 Scottish Census will be released on this site in the second half of 2022.

Trying to find LGBTQ+ ancestors?

Because being LGBTQ+ was criminalized in many countries until very recently (and is still illegal in many countries) LGBTQ+ people had to be careful and secretive. But gay people have always existed and there are some tips and tricks available to maybe help you discover the LGBTQ+ members of your family tree.

Tips from Ancestry can be accessed here.

Tips from FindMyPast can be accessed here.

Other tips can be found here.

Common obstacles to be aware of:

Spelling. The spelling of a surname can differ from record to record and this can be very difficult when you’re trying to find an ancestor. This happened mainly because a lot of people used to be illiterate and so the person recording the information would spell the name however they thought it should be spelled, while another person may have spelled it another way again. For example, my ancestors had the surname ‘Donoghue’ but I’ve found records of it spelled as ‘Donohue', ’Donohoe', ‘Donahue’ and ‘Donaghue.’ It’s also worth keeping in mind that given names too could be spelled differently than what you might expect to find. For example, a person may have went by ‘Kitty’ or ‘Kate’ but used her official name ‘Catherine’ in official documents, or vice versa. Nicknames are not always obvious either. A common name in Ireland used to be ‘Nora(h)’ which actually derived from the name ‘Honora.’ So if you’re unsure, a quick google, for example ‘Nicknames of Sarah’, should give you ideas of what to search in records if you’re struggling to find your ancestor.
Ages. As already outlined, it’s quite common to see irregularities when it comes to our ancestors ages. There are many reasons for this, but it is important you keep it in mind when you’re looking through records. It is not completely uncommon, for example, to see your ancestor age twenty years in the space of ten years between the 1901 and 1911 Census! It’s also common to see some white lies when it comes to recording ages on marriage certificates.

Doing your own family history research is so rewarding. You’d be amazed by the stories you could uncover. It is also a fun activity to do with your children/parents and as outlined above, you can do a lot of it these days completely for free! So why not get started now, and maybe you’ll uncover a herstory like suffragette Laura Lennox!

List and photos by Katelyn Hanna.

Melanie Lynch

27 April 2020

Photo Essays

- THE POWER OF STORYTELLING: CESSAIR VS. EVE

Melanie Lynch

27 April 2020

Photo Essays

The Power of Storytelling: Cessair vs. Eve

Not many people know that the first person ever to come to Ireland was a woman. But that’s what we’re told in the Lebor Gabála Érenn (The Book of the Taking of Ireland, also known as The Book of Invasions), which was written in medieval times to provide Ireland with a history stretching back to the beginning of the world, as well as to reconcile stories and beliefs from native pre-Christian mythology with the new church’s view of history.

The people who were led to Ireland by a woman named Cessair, so the story goes, were the first of six different peoples to settle here (the others are the people of Partholón, the people of Nemed, the Fir Bolg, the Tuatha Dé Danann, and the Milesians, or Gaels). Cessair was the daughter of Bith, a son of the Biblical Noah. In one of several different versions of the story, Noah tells her to take her people and sail to the western edge of the world to escape the oncoming Flood, because there is no more room on the Ark. And so Cessair leads 150 women and just three men out of Egypt along the River Nile, across the Mediterranean Sea, up the west of coast of Europe and, after losing two ships and a hundred women in a storm, lands with the survivors in the south-west of Ireland just forty days before the Flood. Cessair takes Fintán as a husband, Barrfhind takes Bith, and Alba takes Ladra; the rest of the women divide themselves up evenly among the three men. But after Bith and Ladra die, Fintan finds himself left alone with all the women, and flees. Cessair then dies of a broken heart, and when the Flood comes, Fintán is the only one to survive.

It’s likely that the story of Cessair has pre-Christian origins, because a similar story is contained within the much older Book of Druimm Snechta. In this case, the first woman in Ireland is Banba, who declares herself to be older than Noah, and to have escaped the Flood because she took herself up to the peak of an Irish mountain.

But does all of this really matter? After all, when we talk about ‘myth’ today, more often than not we use the word to mean a falsehood. And at best, isn’t mythology just a bunch of stories?

That may be true, but stories are powerful things. The stories we tell ourselves about our origins reflect how our culture views the world, our place in it, and our relationship with the other living things which inhabit it. The stories contained in the oldest Irish literature tell us that women were important. Women – or goddesses – settled the land, personified the land, shaped the land, and represented the moral and spiritual authority of the Otherworld. These old stories contrast dramatically with the way women are represented in later, more patriarchal traditions. In the Biblical story of Eve, for example, the First Woman was the cause of humanity’s sufferings, bringing death to the world, not life. This view of women paved the way for centuries of repression, and there are many examples of that repression continuing today.

Maybe it’s time to look back at those old stories, and remember who women once were in our native traditions, and can be again.

Sharon Blackie is a writer, psychologist and mythologist. Her most recent book is If Women Rose Rooted, a nonfiction book about the inspiration which women can derive from Celtic mythology. For more information, visit her website at www.sharonblackie.net

Discover more fascinating mythic stories from Bard Mythologies, master storytellers and keepers of ancient Irish wisdom. The Bard hosts a fascinating event series throughout the year, with a website full of epic mythic stories.

Click here to read the myth of Cessair, retold by Karina Tynan from the perspective of the feminine.

Melanie Lynch

13 February 2020

Photo Essays

- Progressive Leadership around the world

Melanie Lynch

13 February 2020

Photo Essays

There are a number of progressive leaders and countries across the globe today who demonstrate an ambition for social reform, an urgency to combat the climate crisis and compassion toward their citizens. For example, in Sweden, politicians live like every other citizen of the country, and not a life of luxury and privilege like is so common elsewhere. Aside from the Prime-Minister, Swedish politicians use public transport, and do not have private drivers. Some other progressive leaders and countries include:

Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand

Jacinda Ardern with her daughter Neve at the UN general assembly. Credit: Extra.ie

New Zealand’s Prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, has been praised as one of the most powerful women in the world for her global outreach, leadership skills and tolerance. She was just the second person ever to give birth while in office, in 2018, and has since become the first world leader to bring an infant to the UN general assembly. She did this because she was still breastfeeding her three-month old daughter, so baby Neve had to travel with her mother to New York for the six-day trip. A frugal leader, Ardern froze MPs salaries in 2018 for a year and insists on them carpooling to events. She received global praise for her response to the 2019 Christchurch terrorist attack in that following the incident her government introduced strict firearms regulations. She also gained worldwide admiration for her compassion for the victims and victims’ families. A photo of her hugging someone from the Christchurch Muslim community with the word ‘peace’ in both English and Arabic was projected onto the world’s tallest building and seen around the world.

New Zealand is considered one of the most progressive countries in the world as it has been known to be a trailblazer in terms of women’s rights, employment rights and in taking action against the climate crisis. New Zealand was the first country in the world to give all women the right to vote – in 1893! It wasn’t until 1918 that SOME women in Ireland got the right to vote, and it was 1945 before women in Italy were allowed to vote! In terms of the environment, New Zealand is working towards attaining 90% of its power from renewable sources by 2025. The country was the 13th in the world to legalise gay marriage in 2013, and in 2016 it made 0-hour contracts illegal which means that companies must guarantee a certain number of hours to its employees per week. There is a great respect for indigenous culture in New Zealand and it was also ranked the second safest country in the world in 2017.

Sanna Marin, Finland

Li Andersson, Katri Kulmuni, Sanna Marin, Anna-Maja Henriksson, Maria Ohisalo. Credit: Foreigner.fi

In December 2019, 34-year old Sanna Marin became the world’s youngest sitting Prime-Minister, in Finland. As well as this, four of the five parties in the coalition government are led by women. Political Science professor, Anne Holi, says that this isn’t surprising because there has been a strong representation of women in politics in the country for decades. In February 2020 Finland’s women-led government introduced equal paid family leave for parents – 7 months for each parent, with the pregnant parent also able to receive one month of pregnancy allowance on top of that. This new policy will allow for more equality among parents.

On the centenary of the country’s independence in 2017, Finland was ranked the second most socially progressive country in the world as well as the safest and most stable. It was the third most gender equal country in the world in 2017 and has the cleanest air in the world. Finland is the second-best country in which to be a girl, and in 2015 Finland’s mother’s and children’s’ wellbeing was the second best in the world.

Katrin Jakobsdottir, Iceland

At just 43, Katrin Jakobsdottir is one of the youngest women to lead a European country. Jakobsdottir is regarded as honest by the citizens of Iceland, and she was voted the most trusted politician in the country in 2016. In 2019 Iceland was ranked the best country in which to be a woman and this has been helped by Jakobsdottir’s government introducing the world’s strongest equal-pay legislation. As one of the only government heads of an environmentalist party, her government are also following an ambitious plan, launched in September 2019, which sees a fully funded 34-step plan to cut emissions by 40% by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2040 – 10 years before the target set for continental Europe.

Good leadership is built on personal power, commitment, collaboration and connection, and a progressive leadership today is all about inclusivity, combating climate change and social reform. The governance portrayed by the leaders above is just a sample of how progressive leadership can achieve gender and employment equality and much more, to bring a country’s people forward into the future.

Sources:

New Zealand

Ainge Roy, Julia, ‘Jacinda Ardern makes history with baby Neve at UN general assembly,’The Guardian, online at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/sep/25/jacinda-ardern-makes-history-with-baby-neve-at-un-general-assembly [accessed 12 Feb 2020].

McCrickard, Josie, ‘13 reasons why NZ is the most progressive country in the world,’ Stuff, online at: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/95787199/13-reasons-why-nz-is-the-most-progressive-country-in-the-world [accessed 13 Feb 2020].

Finland

Wamsley, Laurel, ‘Finland's Women-Led Government Has Equalized Family Leave: 7 Months For Each Parent,’ npr, online at: https://www.npr.org/2020/02/05/803051237/finlands-women-led-government-has-equalized-family-leave-7-months-for-each-paren?fbclid=IwAR2ZZsA3jXhtiG8m5j3qcyZlxZY-mbuGAMqUlXhTCniQQTb8Ji1SWtkk2yc&t=1581033241382

Henley, Jon, ‘Safe, happy and free: does Finland have all the answers?,’ The Guardian, online at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/12/safe-happy-and-free-does-finland-have-all-the-answers

Statistics Finland, online at: http://www.stat.fi/tup/satavuotias-suomi/suomi-maailman-karjessa_en.html [accessed 12 Feb. 2020].

Iceland

Nugent, Ciara, ‘Iceland's Prime Minister Talks Climate Change and Gender Equality Over Ice Cream,’ TIME, online at: https://time.com/5634790/iceland-prime-minister-climate-change-interview/

Sweden

Omatayo, Joseph, ‘Swedish politicians have no official cars, offices, titles, use public trains,’ Legit, online at: https://www.legit.ng/1241309-swedish-politicians-official-cars-offices-titles-public-trains.html?fbclid=IwAR2ygY-lt-XY_E5JcUmFxTWRtaVDKhqdvu3hX5isVV7nsAFVfu-kj5452v8

Melanie Lynch

11 February 2020

Photo Essays

- Blazing a Trail: Lives and Legacies of Irish Diaspora Women by Angela Byrne at EPIC: The Irish Emigration Museum

Melanie Lynch

11 February 2020

Photo Essays

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‘Blazing a Trail: Lives and Legacies of Irish Diaspora Women’ highlights the lives and legacies of twenty-one Irish diaspora women in the fields of politics, humanitarianism, women’s suffrage, the arts, the sciences and sport. They represent just a fraction of the many women who made lasting contributions in their areas of work, but who have rarely received recognition.

The exhibition was launched at EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Herstory in November 2018, to coincide with the centenary of partial women’s suffrage. From its inception, the movement for gender equality was a global one. It was fought not only by suffrage campaigners, but also by individual pioneering women who defied convention and resisted social expectations. Collaborations and partnerships were crucial, with many of these women benefiting from the support of a partner, family member or colleague. Emigration offered many women access to education and careers that may not have been available in Ireland. They blazed trails across the globe, innovating in every field and paving the way for others to follow, strategically navigating a male-dominated society on their own terms.

Eva Gore-Booth, 1870–1926

A trade unionist, suffragist and celebrated poet, Gore-Booth collected 30,000 signatures for a suffrage petition in 1901, campaigned for the rights of barmaids and acrobats, was a conscientious objector during World War I, and was an animal rights advocate. She was also responsible for radicalizing her now more famous sister, Constance Markievicz. Gore-Booth’s activism was inspired by her partner, Manchester suffragist Esther Roper. They met in an Italian olive grove in 1896, remained devoted to each other for 30 years, and were buried in the same grave. They founded Urania magazine in 1916 with transgender lawyer Irene Clyde, advocating for a genderless society.

Cynthia Longfield, ‘Madam Dragonfly’, 1896–1991

Respected entomologist and world traveller Cynthia Longfield’s aristocratic grandparents encouraged her as a child to spend time outdoors. In 1924, she bought a place on the St George expedition, a recreation of Charles Darwin’s Beagle voyage, where her passion for entomology was born. She worked, unpaid, as an entomologist at the British Museum for the next 30 years. She continued to make expeditions and travelled alone through east Africa in 1934. She recorded many new species of dragonfly and had two species named in her honour. Her book, Dragonflies of the British Isles (1937) became the standard textbook in the field.

Eileen Gray, 1878–1976

An icon of modernist design, Eileen Gray was born into comfortable circumstances in Co. Wexford. In 1905, she enrolled in London’s Slade School and became the finest Western exponent of Japanese lacquer technique. When, in 1972, her lacquer screen le destin attracted a record price, she self-effacingly responded, “c’est absurde.” She lived most of her life in Paris, where in 1923 a room full of her work was exhibited to critical acclaim. She was encouraged to take up architecture and, assisted by Romanian architect Jean Badovici, designed and built her pioneering home, E.1027, and all of its contents, on the Côte d’Azur in 1926–9.

Sarah ‘Fanny’ Durack, 1889–1956

In July 1912, Irish Australian Fanny Durack won the first gold medal in women’s Olympic swimming and caused a stir by rejecting a thick, woollen swimsuit in favour of a close-fitting costume. Durack’s early success in Australian state competitions from 1906 motivated a public campaign to allow women to compete in the presence of male spectators. In 1912–19, she broke twelve world records. Her 1918–19 tour of Europe and the USA was dogged by controversy over her amateur status, and she withdrew from the 1920 Antwerp Olympics due to illness. She dedicated herself to coaching children after retiring from competitive swimming in 1921.

Annie Besant, 1847–1933

The secularist, Indian nationalist and theosophist Annie Wood Besant was born to an Irish couple in London in 1847. At 19, she married Reverend Frank Besant, more out of duty than attraction. The marriage was unhappy, and they separated. Besant forged a new life as an activist, beginning as a women’s rights campaigner in 1874, and quickly moving into socialism, trade unionism, and secularism. She was the first woman in Britain to publicly support the use of birth control. Suddenly rejecting her atheism, she became a leader of the Theosophist movement and, exposed to the realities of life in colonial India, a leading Indian nationalist and the first woman president of the Indian National Congress.

Dr Isabel ‘Ida’ Deane Mitchell, 1879–1917

Belfast-born Ida Mitchell was inspired to study medicine in Glasgow with the aim of becoming a medical missionary, after learning that the Presbyterian missions in China needed women doctors. Ida travelled to China alone, but her sister and brother-in-law later joined her. She jokingly referred to her colleague and friend, Sara MacWilliams, as her ‘husband’. When she arrived at Fakumen 1905, the mission was a small operation, covering 5,000 square miles and a population of 500,000. By the time of her death from diphtheria in March 1917, the region was served by the hospital and dispensary she had founded, and six Chinese women she had trained as dispensary assistants, securing her vital legacy.

This exhibition is a joint collaboration of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum and Herstory. Research by Dr Angela Byrne, DFAT Historian-in-Residence at EPIC. Original artwork by Szabolcs Kariko, www.skariko.com. You can find out more about these women and many more emigrant stories at EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum in The chq Building in Dublin.

“It was an honour to work on this exhibition and I’ve learned so much from these twenty- one women’s stories. To paraphrase Eva Gore-Booth’s love poem to Esther Roper: their stories, and their example, “make glad the gloom” of the former shape of Irish history, no longer to be dominated by the deeds of ‘great men’ but to be more receptive to other voices.” - Dr. Angela Byrne, curator

Melanie Lynch

11 February 2020

Photo Essays

- [In]Visible: Irish Women Artists from the Archives by Catherine Sheridan at the National Gallery of Ireland

Melanie Lynch

11 February 2020

Photo Essays

The National Gallery of Ireland holds important archives associated with the development of Irish Art. The ESB Centre for the Study of Irish Art and the Yeats Archive contain rich collections relating to Irish women artists of the early twentieth century.

Focusing on various aspects of the life, education and work of artists including Mary Swanzy, Sarah Purser, Mainie Jellett and Elizabeth Corbet Yeats we explore important role women played in the development of modern art in Ireland.

Dun Emer Industries embroidery room, Dundrum, Dublin, 1905.

Family

In the early twentieth century, the majority of women studying or practising art in Ireland, shared similar social backgrounds. They came from a relatively privileged sector of Irish society, predominately upper middle class professional or mercantile families, where artistic pursuits formed part of their education.

Often rejecting contemporary social conventions, these women pursued their own goals as artists, educators and entrepreneurs. For such women their privileged social and financial backgrounds played a central part in facilitating their careers.

Susan Mary Yeats (neé Pollexfen) and Elizabeth Anne Pollexfen. Carte de visite, c. 1863.

Elizabeth Corbet “Lolly” Yeats (1868 – 1940) educator, designer, and landscape painter. She trained as an art teacher as well as a printer, and was a member of designer William Morris’s circle in London before her family returned to Dublin in 1900. She was a founder member of the Dun Emer Guild and the first commercial printer in Ireland to work exclusively with hand presses.

Elizabeth Corbet Yeats, Brush Work, London, 1896Watercolour manual for children to teach the technique of painting flowers and plants. — **Elizabeth Corbet Yeats, *Brush Work*, London, 1896**
Watercolour manual for children to teach the technique of painting flowers and plants.

Elizabeth Corbet Yeats, hand painted fan, 1905Watercolour on silk and engraved tortoiseshell.Features a decorative landscape superimposed by a design of pansies and crocuses, which frames woodland on the left and an inscription taken from the poem ‘… — **Elizabeth Corbet Yeats, hand painted fan, 1905**
Watercolour on silk and engraved tortoiseshell.
Features a decorative landscape superimposed by a design of pansies and crocuses, which frames woodland on the left and an inscription taken from the poem ‘*Anashuya and Vijaya*’ by William Butler Yeats.

Education

Women benefited from the gradual opening up of art institutions and increased access to formal art training in the latter half of the nineteenth century. The Royal Dublin Society, a precursor to the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art, admitted women from 1849. In 1893 women were permitted to attend the Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA) schools. Enrolment figures for the period from 1895 to 1905 highlight the number of students who attended the RHA schools with an average of six men and seventeen women during each academic year. Access to formal art education, in particular classes in life drawing and human anatomy, were essential for women’s artistic training.

Female artists from the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art, c. 1910.

Helen Lillias Mitchell MRDS MRHA (1915-2000) founder of The Irish Guild of Weavers, Spinners, and Dyers, and of the Weaving Department of the National College of Art and Design. She was awarded an Honorary Life Member of the Royal Dublin Society in 1993 and elected an Honorary Member of the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1995.

Lillias Mitchell, Snowdrops, 1929.Watercolour on paper, painted at Elizabeth Yeats’s art class, when Mitchell was aged fourteen. — Lillias Mitchell, Snowdrops, 1929.
Watercolour on paper, painted at Elizabeth Yeats’s art class, when Mitchell was aged fourteen.

Travel

Women artists with the financial means often travelled abroad in order to continue their artistic training and to study new Modernist trends. Sarah Purser, Mainie Jellett, Evie Hone and Mary Swanzy all studied in Paris. Jellett and Hone studied non-representational art under André Lhote and Albert Gleizes. In 1923, Jellett brought back her first Cubist works to Dublin and she is recognised as one of the first artists to introduce abstract painting to Ireland. At the same time, Swanzy was creating and exhibiting figurative compositions that incorporated abstract elements associated with Cubism and Futurism.

Mainie Jellett, The Virgin of Éire, c.1940s.NGI4319. Oil on canvas. — **Mainie Jellett, The Virgin of Éire,** **c.1940s.**
NGI4319. Oil on canvas.

Mary Harriet "Mainie" Jellett (1897-1944) painter and early proponent of abstract art in Ireland. She studied at the Metropolitan School of Art in Dublin, the Westminster Technical Institute in London, and worked in Paris where she encountered Cubism. She was a leading figure of the modern art movement and a co-founder of the Irish Exhibition of Living Art in 1943.

Postcard to from Mainie Jellett to ‘Miss H. Clarke’ [Margaret Clarke], 25 August 1937.

Mary Swanzy HRHA (1882-1978) was a landscape artist and one of Ireland’s first abstract painters. She painted in many styles reflecting her interests in cubism, fauvism, and orphism. She studied at May Manning’s studio, the Metropolitan School of Art, as well as in Paris. Independent wealth allowed her to travel extensively to develop her practice and in 1949 she was made an Honorary Member of the RHA.

Mary Swanzy, painting palette.Painting palette last used in Mary Swanzy’s studio in Blackheath, London. — **Mary Swanzy, painting palette.**
Painting palette last used in Mary Swanzy’s studio in Blackheath, London.

Arts & Crafts

In 1902 Evelyn Gleeson, Elizabeth Corbet Yeats and Susan Yeats founded the Dun Emer Guild. This Irish female craft cooperative was based on the ideals and aesthetics of the English Arts and Crafts movement and the Irish Cultural Revival. The Guild, which was run by women and only employed women, specialised in printing, book binding, weaving and embroidery. It would later split and become the Dun Emer Guild, under Gleeson and Dun Emer Industries, overseen by the Yeats sisters. While her sister ran Dun Emer Press, Susan Yeats was responsible for the embroidery workshop which designed and produced ecclesiastical textiles such as church banners, vestments and altar cloths. In 1904 the cooperative gained international exposure at the Arts and Crafts Society Exhibition in St Louis, Missouri, where they exhibited needle work, cushions, and portieres made from Irish linen, wool and silk thread.

Susan Mary "Lily" Yeats (1866-1949) embroiderer associated with the Celtic Revival. She studied and taught embroidery in the style propounded by William Morris, working under his daughter May in London. She was a founder member of the Dun Emer Guild and in 1908 established the embroidery department of Cuala Industries, with which she was involved until its dissolution in 1931.

Lily Yeats, embroidered cushion cover, silk thread and wool embroidery on blue poplin, c.1902. (detail) — **Lily Yeats, embroidered cushion cover, silk thread and wool embroidery on blue poplin, c.1902**. (detail)

Exhibitions

A number of women artists were active in the establishment of art societies and exhibitions that enabled them and their peers to showcase their work. One of the most influential of these was the Society of Dublin Painters, founded in 1920. The Society aimed to provide an alternative public exhibition space to the RHA due to the Academy’s continual resistance towards the display of modern Irish art. In 1923, Mainie Jellett exhibited Decoration (NGI.1326), one of her earliest Cubist works, at a Society exhibition. The painting was greeted with general antagonism by the art establishment, the influential critic George Russell describing it as ‘a late victim to Cubism in some sub-section of this artistic malaria’. Jellett continued to champion Modernism in Irish art and in 1943 she was a co-founding member of the Irish Exhibition of Living Art, one of the most significant exhibitions of contemporary Irish art until the 1970s.

Mainie Jellett, Decoration, 1923.NGI.1326. Tempera on wood panel. — **Mainie Jellett, Decoration, 1923.**
NGI.1326. Tempera on wood panel.

Sarah Purser HRHA (1848-1943) portraitist and stained glass artist. She studied at the Metropolitan School of Art and in Paris and exhibited in the RHA throughout her life. She financed An Túr Gloine (The Tower of Glass), a stained glass cooperative and was extremely active in the Dublin art world. She was on the Board of the National Gallery of Ireland from 1914 to 1943.

Members of the Board of Governors and Guardians of the National Gallery of Ireland, Sarah Purser seated, Brinsley McNamara, Registrar, standing and Dermod O’Brien, seated, on right, photograph, c.1925-1935.

An Túr Gloine

As both artists and entrepreneurs, women made significant contributions to the development of art cooperatives in Ireland. These focused on the professionalization of design and craft disciplines such as stained glass, embroidery, tapestry, and letter press printing. In 1903, Sarah Purser established the cooperative An Túr Gloine (The Tower of Glass) to train Irish artists in stained glass which they produced for Irish churches, schools, and convents. Among those to benefit from this initiative were Evie Hone, Wilhelmina Geddes, and Catherine O’Brien. An Túr Gloine sought to improve stained glass production in Ireland and provide an alternative to importing commercially produced stained glass from abroad. The cooperative gained international success receiving commissions in Europe, Canada, and America.

Dun Emer Press

Elizabeth Corbet Yeats managed the Dun Emer Press with her brother William Butler Yeats as editor. Printing began in 1903 and the press concentrated on publishing new Irish literature, often by writers associated with the Irish Literary Revival. It also produced an illustrated monthly series of Broadsides between 1908 and 1915. Edited by Corbet Yeats’s younger brother, Jack B. Yeats, the eighty-four issues include two hundred and fifty-two hand coloured illustrations.

The cobweb cloak of Time has dropped between the world and me, The Rainbow ships of memory have drifted out to sea. P.C.S.Pamela Colman Smith (Broadsheet 7, July 1902) — The cobweb cloak of Time has dropped between the world and me,
The Rainbow ships of memory have drifted out to sea.
P.C.S.
Pamela Colman Smith (Broadsheet 7, July 1902)

Recognition

Art critics, commentators and administrators did not always recognise women artists in the same way as their male counterparts. In a 1922 article in the Irish Independent Thomas MacGreevy, later appointed Director of the National Gallery of Ireland, observed that within the Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA), some of the members ‘apparently only titter at the idea of a woman artist’. In 1924, over one hundred years after its establishment, the RHA elected Sarah Purser as its first female member. She was followed three years later by Margaret Clarke. Despite such challenges and low visibility, women played a key role in the development of modern art and the decorative arts in Ireland.

[In]Visible: Irish Women Artists from the Archives

National Gallery of Ireland

19 July – 3 March 2019
Curators
Leah Benson, Emma O’Toole and Tanya Keyes, Library & Archives, National Gallery of Ireland

For further information on our Library and Archive collections go to: https://www.nationalgallery.ie/what-we-do/library-and-archives

Reading room open Monday to Friday 10am – 5pm.

Story edited by Catherine Sheridan