A top class line up of female speakers will take pare in a a panel discussion in Castlebar in April inspired by the work of 1916 revolutionary, doctor and Mayo native, Dr Kathleen Lynn. Dr Lynn's legacy was the inspiration around a current arts project that is taking place in a number of locations around the county that was launched last Friday. The panel discussion exploring the position of women in today’s world titled 'How Is It for Women Now? takes place at the Linenhall Arts Centre in Castlebar on Thursday April 14 at 8pm. The event is scheduled as part of the extremely successful Kathleen Lynn: Insider on the Outside exhibition, currently running in five visual arts spaces in Mayo. Discussing the subject will be Sarah Durcan, Catherine Marshall, Sinead McCoole, Michelle Browne, and some other guests.
Kathleen Lynn was one of the earliest women medical doctors to qualify in Ireland. It is likely that the barriers she met when trying to develop her medical career opened her eyes to the many difficulties that existed for women in her society. She joined the suffragette movement and through that became a labour activist, eventually taking on the role of chief medical officer with the Irish Citizens Army. There is no doubt that women today live in a very different Ireland, enjoying many of the freedoms Lynn believed in and fought for. However, it is possible all is not quite perfect just yet.
Sarah Durcan is one of the founding members of #WakingTheFeminists. This movement of women working in theatre arose spontaneously last year when the glaring lack of women in the Abbey Theatre’s Commemorative Year programme became known. Durcan grew up in Castlebar and is now a highly regarded theatre producer in Dublin.
Catherine Marshall curated the Kathleen Lynn exhibition. She has worked as the head of collections at the Irish Museum of Modern Art from 1995 to 2007 and subsequently at the Royal Irish Academy where she co-edited Volume V of The Art and Architecture of Ireland. She approaches art history from a strong feminist point of view: “It would be very much about making sure that women who did achieve extraordinary things are properly identified and documented. It’s only very latterly that that has happened.”
Sinead McCoole is the curator of the Jackie Clarke Collection in Ballina, and is regarded as one of the foremost scholars on the women of the Rising. She is a member of the expert advisory group on the Decade of Centenaries and was the consultant historian on the Kathleen Lynn: Insider on the Outside exhibition.
Michelle Browne, whose work is currently on show in Ballinglen Arts Foundation, is currently teaching in NCAD. Her ongoing work explores how society organises itself - socially, politically, and spatially and how these relationships play out in the public arena.
Admission to this discussion is free, but booking is essential. Call the Linenhall on (094 ) 9023733, or online at www.thelinenhall.com to book your place.
