Tommy Gavin | Magazine Editor
It might not seem intuitive that there can even be such a thing as women’s history. Surely there is only one history, of everyone rather than a separate history for women. That line of thinking misses the point though. In the same way the satirical newspaper The Onion wrote at the conclusion of US Black History Month in 2003 “White History Year Resumes;” the implication is that there is an exclusion from the presentation of history.
It is in this context that The Women’s Museum of Ireland is being planned, to be officially launched in early February. The project of 3 women, two of whom are recent Trinity graduates; Jean Sutton, Kate Cuningham and Zoe Coleman. The idea started off as a joke suggested by Jean on the Dublin University Gender Equality Society (DUGES) Facebook page, which for the most part is what it sounds like: an open group for discussing issues relating to gender equality. Anyone familiar with it knows it is also a well-worn battle ground between trolls, griefers and the sincere. It is the frontline of the gender equality debate, because it is where the rhetorical tools of those for and against are sharpened through constant interaction.
Jean says the thought came from seeing the competition regarding what to do with the central bank building on Dame Street, and the thought that “wouldn’t it be gas if you started a campaign to use the Central bank building as a space for a women’s museum, as a form of cultural trolling, to troll the trolls. So I went on twitter and got no response.” She then posted it on the DUGES page “and the only people who responded were my friends, and we were like, let’s actually do this.”
If it was a joke, the humour derives from frustrating the people who would see women’s history as an anathema to real history, and believe that men’s rights are under assault. The real genesis is from 2010 when she was in Vietnam with her then-boyfriend. “We went to the Vietnamese Women’s Museum in Hanoi, which was founded in 1987, according to their website; “to reflect Vietnam’s cultural diversity and women’s significant contributions to the nation’s development, culture and society.” Says Jean; “There is a lot about the American war as they call it, but it was mainly about saying that this is who the Vietnamese woman is, she is a mother, a teacher, a revolutionary fighter, and they have different exhibits about food and crafts history. I just thought it would be good to see that in Ireland.”
“One such idea was having ‘The Article 41.2 crèche’ with mini-kitchenettes (since article 41.2 refers to women’s “duties in the home”)”
One of Jean’s friends who commented on the idea on the DUGES thread and now is one the women involved in making the Women’s Museum happen is Kate. “I went to a job interview recently, and I mentioned that we were trying to set this up, and the guy interviewing me said that maybe the reason you don’t see women in museums is because women haven’t done anything until now. And I was just kind of sitting there like, ‘well, no.’ “
“So it wasn’t trolling the DUGES page, it would be trolling the people who troll the DUGES page, against this mentality of ‘Why do women need a museum’ and just to see what the reaction would be. And then we said, let’s just do it.
Most of the ideas suggested on the Facebook page have an element of divilment to them, and though they were suggested as jokes, some of them are being kept for the museum. One such idea was having ‘The Article 41.2 crèche’ with mini-kitchenettes (since article 41.2 refers to women’s “duties in the home”). Also discussed was the ‘Late Late Revolution’ which would consist of a dark room in which clips of Gay Byrne being condescending to women would screen on the half hour, and the Kitty O’Shea bold corner about Irish women who have been at the centre of scandals. Of the less feasible ideas, was the concept of an arcade game based on the Cattle Raid of Cooley, where the player would control queen Medbh.
Jean says she “graduated the day after I made the joke, so in the line to receive the degrees, someone asked what I was up to and I said “oh yeah, I’m setting up a women’s museum.” Nobody cares what you’re doing they’re just being polite, but I just kind of blurted it out. But I also think that if you say you’re doing things you have to make them happen.”So from there, the plans went from a wistful joke into an actual plan. Other people were already on board, and According to Kate, the first stage involved a lot of Googling to see what was out there, and how what similar examples around the world look like. “The best example is the Women’s Museum in Washington which Meryl Streep is very publicly involved in, and they also have a very good online presence. Then we found there’s one in California, there’s one in Australia, but that there isn’t one in Ireland. The one in California has an actual building, and the one in Washington is petitioning congress for a permanent site.”
“the only criteria you really need to have is that you should probably know at least one woman”
The first thing they did then was look at branding and made a logo, courtesy of friend who recently graduated from NCAD. Then, they started their first PR stunt, which was a Christmas card mail out to various media outlets saying “Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Women’s Museum of Ireland.” According to Jean, that didn’t quite work. “We were expecting responses on twitter of people saying something like ‘what is this mysterious women’s museum’, but then again, we didn’t have our website set up. But that was on purpose, we decided not to put any web addresses on the cards and go old school on it,” in part to make it more mysterious.
At the moment they are trying to source funding, primarily overseas, as the national heritage council has exhausted its grant allocations for the moment. It makes sense to look beyond Ireland though, since the issue of women’s issues in Ireland seems to have caught international attention, and there are revenue streams to tap into, ironically demonstrated by Youth Defence, (not to be confused with ‘Youth Defence League,’ the nazi-punk band that released the song ‘Skinhead 88’). The main way the Women’s Museum of Ireland will be trying to source funding is through Indiegogo, a crowdfunding platform similar to kickstarter.
Designed by Conor Whelan
Once a venue is found and an inventory is assembled, they plan for it to be a sort of pop-up museum, similar to pop-up restaurants. Assuming, that is, that they aren’t awarded the Central Bank to work with, which they will be campaigning for. Once everything is in order, the plan is for the museum to be arranged according to geography, so that visitors can walk around and see pieces relating to different parts of the country, and there will also be a dimension exploring the diaspora aspect. They also plan to have an active blog which will have running topics like “women trade union leaders and agitators,” “the Cumann na mBánn,” and “women who defended castles.” They have also already been offered heirlooms for display by people who have gotten in contact via email.
“We’d love to have historical documents and heirlooms, and we do also want some of it to be a bit kitsch” says Jean, “and we’d love to have some crafts. But I don’t think it should be too political, because we want to take a very broad look at what we’re doing. The other thing is that we’re not historians. I studied law, Kate studied PPES, our history knowledge stops at Wikipedia.” There is organisational experience there though, as Jean is one of the founding editors of Siren magazine which was founded last year, and Kate was involved in 10 Days in Dublin, and Zoe has extensive museum and gallery experience including the Venice Biennale. Beside fundraising and organizing material, the Museum will also be looking for both patrons and volunteers. Of the former, Jean says “we’re contacting groups trying to recruit patrons to advise us on the best way to do things, and to join us in what we’re trying to do.” Of the latter, Kate says “the only criteria you really need to have is that you should probably know at least one woman.” That attitude is really at the heart of the project, “as a woman you can be outraged at everything if you want, and you don’t want to be angry all the time.”
It’s a finicky point, as Jean explained: “The museum, I don’t think is strictly feminist. It’s not going to be used to lobby the government, and it’s not political. The point of it is to highlight women’s contributions, for better or worse. It’s not the feminist museum of Ireland. Women have included Mary Robinson and Ivana Bacik, but also included the nuns who ran the Magdalene laundries, and the nuns who do amazing work in Africa. It includes good people and bad people.” The attempt is to transcend the immediate politics which permeate the label of feminism. That is not to deny their importance, but rather than stressing them, the museum is seeking to take a depoliticised historical approach, and reincorporate Irish women back into Irish history. If it isn’t the feminist museum, its because noting the contributions of women to Irish history shouldn’t have to be a feminist exercise. In that respect though, it fits in with the goals of feminism in that it is an instrument would be useful to the feminist movement by virtue of the fact that it isn’t explicitly feminist. That’s not to deny the political aspect entirely, as Jean noted; “the fact that there will be art does give it a political dimension, because I think if art isn’t saying something then its interior decorating.” Both dimensions are needed, as the issues of feminism are no less relevant today than they were a hundred years ago, and while Lucinda Creighton is a malignant wagon, she deserves her place in history also.
If interested in getting involved or contributing to the Women’s Museum of Ireland, contact [email protected]
