A special public event will be held in the Galway next Wednesday (March 8 ) to celebrate International Women’s Day.
Organised by the Galway Mechanics Institute, the event entitled ‘Making lace, hats and china: Women in past Galway industries’, features short presentations from three speakers, starting at 8.15pm.
With a focus on Headford lace, Norma Owens’s talk is entitled, ‘Reading between the threads: lace as a source for women’s labour history’. Mary Cunningham will talk about the hat factory in Bohermore, Les Modes Modernes, which operated between 1937 and 1972, while Yara Könst’s subject is Royal Tara China, which was in production in Mervue between 1953 and 2003. Yara and Norma are both postgraduate students of history at the University of Galway, and Mary is an oral history researcher.
Interspersed with the talks, there will be appropriate musical contributions from members of the Galway Ukelele Group.
This International Women’s Day event is organised jointly by the Galway Council of Trade Unions and the Irish Centre for the Histories of Labour and Class at the University of Galway.
Admission is free and all are welcome.
