Sorry, no birds in this post for the birders – so click away now..
This next post is from the walk 150 of us did on Sunday, for people who wanted photos – just right click and ‘save as’ and the photo should save to your computer.
(for the birders, if you’re still reading, I looked for the Peregrine Falcon that’s been spotted here at Central Bank, but couldn’t see it.)
So, back to the walk which was organised by Lash Back, RAG and Choice Ireland to mark International Women’s Day 2010 in Dublin.
If you don’t know much about International Women’s day Click here.
About 150 people met at Central Bank, were split into groups and went off on their tours.
Karla, starting off the third group of the tour. Sunday 7th March 2010, Dublin.
The sun might have been shining but it was Freezing.
First stop was at the old Irish Women's Workers Union set up in 1913, Fleet St (where the Amnesty buildings are).
We heard a little about the terrible working conditions women faced in Ireland and then listened to a horrific talk about how up to 3 million young women (from infancy to 15 years old) are forced to go through the barbaric ritual of Female Genital Mutilation each year, all in the name of tradition or religion. Weirdly there was a kid crying the whole way through this talk and it just made me aware of the crying that must go on for all the little girls who are forced through FGM. It’s disgustingly sad.
On the boardwalk near Capel St.
Ariel talked about Eva Gore Booth – I had no idea she was Countess Markiewicz’s younger sister. Shame on me. I had no idea she was gay either. I was reminded that being gay was only decriminalised in Ireland in 1993. In 1992 I could have been locked up for just being me. Thankyou David Norris, Mary McAleese and Mary Robinson and others.
These 'Happy International Womens Day' flags were all along the quays, Dublin.
Mary Manning plaque outside of Dunnes on Henry St, Dublin.
Here we heard about the ‘South African Oranges Strike’ and how in 1984 when jobs were precious, 10 women and one man (most of them were late teens, early 20′s) went on strike over having to handle produce from South Africa, a country which at the time had a strict racist apartheid regime. The Dunnes workers went on strike for 3 years after Mary Manning, a 21 year old cashier, was suspended by Dunnes for refusing to handle some South African oranges a customer wanted to buy. They believed that racism was wrong and that even though they lived in Ireland, they weren’t going to have anything to do with supporting a country which was so openly racist. The strike ended when the Irish government agreed to ban all produce from South Africa. One of the young strikers lost her house and Mary was never re-employed by Dunnes. Still, she did get a street named after her in Johannesburg and they got this plaque in the ground on Henry St so thumbs up.
The next stop was at 16 Moore St, the HQ for the leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising. It was from here that Elizabeth O'Farrell and Patrick Pearse walked to the GPO to give complete surrender over to British Army.
An article describing the moment of the 1916 surrender is here.
The plaque on the wall of No.16.
Here is a photo of the moment Patrick Pearse, with Elizabeth O Farrell by his side surrendered to General Lowe, April 29, 1916
Patrick Pearse is on the right and Elizabeth O'Farrell is on his right, slightly obscured but you can clearly see her shoes and skirt behind Pearse.
However, as too often happens in history, the woman’s place in history is deleted and neglected.
Like the image below.
Elizabeth O' Farrell, completely airbrushed out of this historic image.
In all, it is thought that over 220 women were involved in the 1916 Rising, but unfortunately most of these women are forgotten about. In Neil Jordan’s film ‘Michael Collins’, the initial note of surrender delivered by Elizabeth O’Farrell is delivered by a man. Nice one Neil. Maybe he didn’t even know!
From here we moved onto the Spire and listened to the horrendous 1992 ‘X’ abortion case and the ongoing challenge in Ireland to make abortion a legal and safe option for the 6000 (it’s thought about 19 women per day) who have to arrange flights out of Ireland if they decide to have an abortion. Ireland is one of only a few countries in Europe where abortion is still illegal.
Continuing on, we moved to the next stop outside the Irish Family Planning Association on Cathal Brugha Street, an organisations which was set up in 1969 to help make contraception legal in Ireland. It wasn’t until 1979 that you could legally get contraception in Ireland, even then it could only be bought from a chemists with a prescription from a doctor. It wasn’t until 1985 that you could buy condoms in Ireland legally and without prescription.
Outside the FPA, Cathal Brugha St, Dublin.
Statue on side of DIT on Cathal Brugha St. I'm not sure what the statue's called or what the message is.
The second last stop was a Magdalene Laundry on Sean Mcdermott Street.
The Magdalene Laundries were completely horrific places – here’s the Wikipedia entry about them - Click here
These Laundries were basically a prison for women who had ‘deviated’ from what was expected of them by society. Some women entered these laundries as young girls and spent all their lives there as slaves. They washed clothes and served the nuns who ran the laundry without any pay and in severely harsh conditions. There is by now, widespread acceptance that there was also a high level of child abuse suffered in the Laundries.
Magdalene Laundry, Sean McDermott St. This was known as the Gloucester Laundry, as the street was originally called Lower Gloucester St, Dublin 1.
The Sisters from Our Lady of Charity ran two Magdelane Laundries, this one here on Sean McDermott St and the other High Park Laundry on Gracepark Road, Drumcondra, Dublin 9.
This laundry in Sean McDermott St was the last Laundry to close, as recently as October 1996. However it is thought that there are still some women living in there even today. There definitely seemed to be signs of life in there from what I saw. It was kind of creepy. Even in the sunshine. Here is an article about the day this laundry closed – Click here.
The door you would not want to be walking through.
It is though that 30,000 women worked in these Laundries.
The Sisters from Our Lady of Charity sold their other Laundry, High Park in Drumcondra in 1993 to developers for £1,000,000. The developers found that the land also came with 133 graves of women who had worked and died in the Laundry. Another 42 bodies joined these and now there is a double grave on the edge of Glasnevin cemetry which lists 175 women’s names, the deaths dated from from 1858 until 1994.
There is a great piece on the Laundries and the state of Ireland not so long ago by Meadbh Gallagher - Click here
Mary McCauliffe telling us about the Laundries.
It gets very depressing doesn’t it.
Sinéad, usually very smiley..
Final stop was on Parnell Street and a talk about the huge increase of immigrant women over the last few years into Ireland.
Many of these women moved here on request from the Irish Government so that the demand for Doctors and Nurses in Irish hospitals could be met. Other women just moved here with their families for a better way of life, similar to how the Irish people moved to USA, UK or Australia in the 60′s, 70′s and 80′s and now again in 2010. However, what these women are finding when they get here is that despite some of them having high levels of education, they are lucky to be employed in even low-skilled work so they are experiencing a huge lack of independence as their lives are bound by the constant threat of deportation.
The plus side is that Ireland is now enjoying a huge increase in multiculturalism.
Parnell St has turned into one of the most vibrant, colourful and diverse areas in Dublin.
Karla Healion giving her talk
Paula Geraghty filming
After the last talk we all headed off to the Teacher’s Club where the organisers had put on music, soup and sandwiches.
Handy there was a bar there too.
Rag distro at the Teacher's Club, Parnell Square, Dublin
Hugs. End of the day.
Big up to the organisers, three of the finest and hardest working feminist groups – LashBack, Rag and Choice Ireland.
More photos next year.
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