AHRC Women’s Grassroots Activism Network - Public Lecture by Dr Sorcha O'Brien

A public lecture by Dr Sorcha O'Brien, as part of our AHRC Women's Grassroots Activism network.

Sorcha spoke about the Irish Countrywomen’s Association (ICA) activism and craftivism around rural electrification in the 1950s and 1960s. She showcased the Kitchen Power exhibition in the National Museum of Ireland as an example of how archives, material objects and oral histories can be used to tell a story about how life changed in rural Ireland, in this case with the energy transition to widespread use of electricity. She looked particularly at the textile art project run with the NMI’s knitting and crochet circle and Castlebar ICA, creating new artwork as a creative way to tell their stories of living through rural electrification.