Susan McCrory
Centre Manager at the Falls Women’s Centre
Susan (left) and Eileen Weir from the Shankill Women’s Centre. Photo: Steve O’Connor
Established by a group of local women in 1982, the purpose of the Falls Women’s Centre in West Belfast was to aid and support local women and their families who were ‘living in areas of extreme deprivation and most affected by the conflict.’ Its remit has since expanded to empowering women to challenge inequality and social injustice locally, nationally, and internationally.
Susan McCrory has been involved with the Falls Centre since 1991 and she is now the Centre Manager. Mother to five, she returned to education as an adult and completed an advanced Diploma in Community Development. She progressed further to Jordanstown University where she gained a BA Hons Degree in Community Development. Over the past three decades she has put her degrees to good use by being instrumental in ‘designing, delivering, and creating’ opportunities for women from both the Catholic/Nationalist and Protestant/Unionist communities to come together to explore the past and build a shared future.
‘We want to give women a voice at the table, to speak up in their own communities and have the confidence to stand up for what they believe in.’
Portrait by FRIZ
It’s not an easy task, ‘it takes a lot of years to build up the confidence, the trust and the relationships with the women from both sides of the community so that they can become good friends,’ Susan says. But together with the Shankill Women’s Centre, women like Susan are bridging that gap and bringing women together. For over thirty years, the Falls’ and Shankill Women's Centres in Belfast, have worked together to build strong relationships between themselves and the women who attend the centres, and this continues today. ‘These women wouldn't meet if it wasn't for the women's sectors who work together and share resources,’ Susan told the BBC in 2021. This vital work gives women from all backgrounds the space and time to meet and understand one another, which ensures that peace continues into the future.
Sources:
‘Susan McCrory,’ online at: https://www.socialchangeinitiative.com/susan-mccrory-77077b9f-5c27-481f-ac7d-6a58c9ad1973 [accessed 30 May 2022].
‘Women in Northern Ireland 'left out' after the Troubles,’ on BBC News, online at: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-54138983 [accessed 30 May 2022].
‘About Us,’ online at: https://www.fallswomenscentre.org/about-us [accessed 30 May 2022].