Notes about the Irish Women

Hello Ladies,

I had hoped to get this to you a bit sooner than today, but perhaps you will still have time to read the material before tomorrow. I will also bring a paper copy to our meeting on Sunday.

There are 3 sections: 1) current reflections 2) journal notes from Ireland and 3) potential captions/descriptions of each woman. Each woman’s name is written in bold. In section 3, any quotations are direct quotes from the women.

At this point, I’m thinking of having several concise panels of contextual text and then brief descriptive captions for each photograph.  I’ve used journal notes as a good way for me to get started with ideas and to give you an idea of the project.

Thank you for reading the text and for your input on the photographs. Your feedback has been invaluable.

See you tomorrow!

Tamara

Thoughts 2008

The first time I went to Northern Ireland in 1989, tanks and men with machine guns greeted my bus at the border between the North and South. In 2002, the tanks were gone but the stark images were left behind. No longer were there bag checks in downtown Belfast department stores. But in a small pub on the east side of Catholic Belfast, my camera and I are greeted warily and with suspicion.

Still I wander and push forward. Riding my bike down desolate streets until I arrive at the Shankill Estates, public housing for low-income Protestants. I am drawn towards the colorful murals: on the sides of houses, walls painted bright red and blue – the British flag, militia men in stances, the Ulster Defense Force in bold letters. I don’t get off my bike, but shoot hastily from the middle of the Estates. A lone passerby nods. Three figures approach. I ride away into the cool sunny day and back onto the streets.

One thing about Ireland, the weather was unpredictable. There would be three seasons in one afternoon! From warm sunshine, to blistering winds and cloudy rains.

Journal notes from Belfast 2002
Arnie’s Backpackers Belfast, Ashleigh House in Monaghan, Carn Hackneys 24 hour car service, BBC London

Bronough Hinds – her strength amazes me. Intimidates me!

Strength power
Mountains history
Beauty admiration feeling

2-14

Day 2 comes to a close
Feel good. Need to bracket.
Breath. Step by step. Saturday Derry? Monaghan
Louthe?
Archives tomorrow
And Arts Council Interview.

Went to Kremlin Bar tonight. Fun. Met cute NY photographer.

Be simple. Love of self. Where do I want to be at 40?
Money, Love, Heatlhy. Where do I want to be now?
Love of self, confident, strong, healthy. I feel so lucky
And blessed to have found T. My angel. My soul mate, my
Beauty queen, my butch

Another night in Belfast. May not go to Dublin after all.
Night night!

Monica McWilliam

Her main inspiration: Suffragettes

“It’s all about balance and getting that balance right!”

2-15

strange day. Emotionally exhausted. Shoot today.
No idea how it went
Flash indoor. Good last shot I think, others a bit forced.
Forgot about rear curtain sync.
Get intimidated at times by other photographers.
Have to forget about them and do my own thing. Have fun go with my gut, my instinct. Try to show women somehow.

Keep going.

2-16

good idea from jenny, shoot one roll for serious
one roll for fun. Good idea to loosen up. No regular portrait lens. Maybe have tiff send both? Been mainly wide angles. Ask intimate questions. Karl interview. No way to tell how it went. Calm. Tired. Nice to have a visitor guest! Me on my bunk, she on hers. Nice to be in Belfast, city lights. trip to Armagh.

2-17

Another night in Belfast. Tashi’s Birthday! 7 she turns today. I rang from Tiff and me. I rather like being alone, once I adjust. Always tuff at first. Professor Murphy tomorrow. Lots of shots in east Belfast today with Jenny. Fun. On bikes.

My hair is long. I’ll call chris in London. Noreen this week.

2-18

Morning comes. Weather has been good. Shower. calls. Shoot with Professor. Slept in today. Body sore. Tiff sending lenses. Good to have second options. Heavy equipment. Fiddle with 120 a must.

Today lunch with Professor then to a community center. I flubbed with her, forget it. She’s originally from South.

And so off we go.

Have to figure out where around Belfast to shoot. Ormeau Bridge at night. And will I make it to Derry? Friday maybe? Not sure how far. Or sat. gotta find a place to stay for Sat. night still.

Also in London. I must stay focused. Positive strong. These amazing women intrigue me! Shower time.

Saw vanilla sky. Weird movie. Ultimately we are alone, our spirit and soul, I am luck to have found tiff. Passion there. She is my beautiful woman.

Shadows fall. Go with gut. Shoot one roll for fun and free, one serious. Be intimate. Somehow get close. Look for lighting.

Call Noreen this week. And chris from London. Send Ross a postcard. Tomorrow I will zip over to Sam’s place or bike I hope tomorrow 2 shoots. Today calls. Hey, at least I’m not a telesessions today! AACk. President’s day anyway. Hope to work with Joanne in April. Sort out $ today. Pay for hostel. About 120 pounds. Be tight if I develop film too. I’ll be okay. Show? Love to print my own stuff but don’t know. Email mike about John B. hope I wasn’t rude or stand offish! No worries I suppose. See Lord of Rings tomorrow look at photo archive

Professor. She is reserved. Formal. Innovative B&W, color too.

The power of self-confidence will get you thru. Love self. Love and fear. Choose love.

Okay, Belfast morning upon me now. Must get up shower, calls. Review notes. Shoot.

Belief in myself. Be creative! Have fun!

2-19 Tuesday

Very strange nite. Weird day. Acutely aware of my “Americanism” drinks with bloke brian. Then to his flat with wired flat mate named Ali. His racist notions of the U.S. frightened me, smoke billows and frozen pizza in the oven.

Inez McCormack. Hope I got some shots. Low lighting so flash needed. At early Years Project, forced and stiff. Strange. I am an outsider looking into onto their realities.

2-20

Yesterday may be a bust. Must stay in control use my talent! Take great pixs work with available light. Be confident. Slow down. Don’t be awkward. Breath. Live. Feel the moment. Slow down. Do not hold back

Shoot: shankhill estates

Ormeua bridge

Blackstaff mills

Conway mills

Sinn fein

2-21

I realize now I am merely a messenger. I am in awe of these women. Whose lives I admire. Wish I’d gotten closer to Geraldine’s lines on her eyes. Her thick brows. I cherish our moments in the car. I suppose I must seem quite naïve to Eileen Howell.

But I have learned over again go with the moment. Why is it I learn same lessons? Why takes me so many times? Must always go with the moment. Listen to my gut. No point to comment about which photos I got or didn’t get. Over now. Every minute is a new opportunity to open myself up to new experience. Belief in self. Conflict will be here. Terrorism will be there. And life goes on because that’s what life is. Prospect of peace dims but doesn’t vanish. Just keep going. Keep telling the story. Keep going. May Blood at Blackstaff Mill. Must go with whatever I’ve got. Find mill anyway.

Thank you for allowing me to be here to travel. To meet these women folk. To be in their presence. Use your talent find the courage to be best person I can be.

Time for sleep now. Tomorrow, go with gusto, shoots today over. Push myself. Feel. BE LISTEN. Experience each moment. Grateful for life.

Take pixs of whatever I see. I am very shy. today Stormont. Jane Morrice carefree on steps of Stormont. She jumped! Missed shots green lights. Dawn missed. Just shoot don’t hold back.

2-22 Friday Night

Community kids art project. Fun! Then for a pint with the artists. Showed my slides. Have to learn to show myself. Looking forward to seeing terri on Sunday. May need to do laundry here. And I will return to Belfast again. this I now know. Like Sam at Belfast Exposed. Talk of websites. Teaching kids in Belfast Exposed. Maybe I’ll shave tomorrow. Call Brian Kremlin Shoots or laundry in a.m.? one load dark. One load white? Cut toenails. Polish. Scissors mouthwash. Sleep is coming to me now. Trying hard not to dwell on the negative of my shoots.

Slide film.

Sat nite 11 pm Last nite in Belfast.

Dirty hostel. See b-gers on the wall! YUCK! Single room is best . Paul is cool. He runs the joint,. Great day in Derry. Hope I got enough diversity in the portraits overall. We shall see. No need to over worry. I think there are about 10 women total. One shot of each. Plus about 5-10 misc. prints. So about 20 11×14. Slides? Doubtful. never did ormeau bridge at nite. Goodbye to Belfast. I will return. Women’s Center in Derry Margaret Logue very cool And off I go. Good night Belfast.

The Women

1. Bronough Hinds, Deputy Chief Commissioner for Northern Ireland, Equality Commission, at her home in Belfast. Her sister was imprisoned and tortured by the government in the 1970’s. Catholic

2. Margaret (Memo) McDonald, active member and spokeswoman for Older Women’s Network, women from North and South of the Irish/Northern Irish border, meeting together to share commonality and companionship. Catholic

3. Inez McCormack, Vice President of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and Regional Secretary of UNISON (Northern Ireland) Women’s Support Network Women into Politics Project National Council of Women in Ireland

4. Irene Carson, elder and one of the founding members of Older Women’s Network

5. Betty Kennedy, Cooper-Kearney Communications.

6. Mairead McGuire, founder and Director of Peace People, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize for her work in the Peace Movement. Her niece and nephew were killed in a car crash by an IRA man on the run from the police in 1976. Her sister committed suicide shortly after the accident and Mairead took in the children.

“Love is only real when you give it equally to each person who is a different religion, class, culture from yourself. Love is only real when you give it equally to your bittersweet enemies and yes, to the worst scoundrels you know. Love is only real when you are prepared to give your own life rather than take another human life, which you know to be the most important thing in this world. God loves you and with your consent will make you all love. Within you there is the power to change the world. From an interview she gave in 1976

Today we are a small organization within a few people deeply committed, I hope with the same kind of vision and doing what we can as best we can but a small par of a wider movement of people working for nonviolent social justice. 1989. What is peace? How do you get peace? You start by trying to save the world but you quickly realize that it’s really down to peace within yourself…and the few people you may come into contact with. Really the best you can do is be your own good person and leave the rest to g-d.
From Along the Road to Peace, article in 1989.

7. Professor Pauline Murphy. President, Irish Association and Chairperson, Northern Committee; Emeritus Professor, Social Inclusion, University of Ulster. A Southerner by birth, she went to the North after college graduation. On an international level, Pauline is a Council member of The Association for World Education and has chaired conferences in Caracas, Trinidad, Washington, Toronto, Cape Town, Harare, Thailand and most European countries. She has published extensively and received many awards for her inspiring academic and humanitarian achievements.

8. Sally Smyth, artist in residence, Kilmanheim Jail in Dublin. Her mother was a prisoner in the women’s wing of the jail during the Easter Rising in the 1920s.

9.Dawn Pervis, PUP party leader. “Personal is Political”. The PUP is about empowering communities. the Progressive Unionist Party Emerged from decaded of under and mis-representation of the Unionist (Protestant) working class by Traditional Unionists.

There are sections on women’s rights, social security, labor and reproduction. Dawn is a loyalist from a working class Protestant area and got involved in politics after the 1994 ceasefire. Since she was 10 years old, she thought “politicians couldn’t sort it out! That politicians were bad men.” She lived in thick of the area of violence. She was always conscious of the violence and often asked herself “how to stop the violence?” In those times, only the men were involved. In particular, when attacks began on Chinese homes in Belfast, along with the cease-fire in December of 1994, Dawn found herself getting involved in race relations. She spoke at a PUP party conference in 1995, spoke from the heart. In May of 96, she was asked to stand as a candidate for election to help with peace talks at Castle Buildings. Mentor Gusty Spence showed her how to turn on a computer and she was on her way. PUP is a young party, Dawn has been able to help form and mold the party, whereas the more established parties face more difficulties due to the fact the NI is very traditional. It is “ballygobackwards” and trapped in time warp. The “unionist families always a great feeling of male member went off to fight for green and country against the Catholics. Traditionally linked with militarism and linked with the man. The paramilitary was not thought to be conducive to women b/c women still had to be protected. There was the sense that women couldn’t be involved because they would be considered targets.” This fear around women in the community changed with the Ceasefire. Women were strong in community politics, the barrier between stepping from community activists to politics. Women were “no longer going to be sweeping the streets and burying the dead.”

10. Monica McWilliam, MLA (Membership of the Legislative Assembly – similar to a U.S. Senator). Northern Ireland Women’s Coalition. Catholic founder of the Coalition. “Bush walked over the corpses to get to the White House.” She has done major report on Domestic Violence in Unionist life and is director of Women’s AID Group, a group which is considered radical in NI.

11. Jane Morrice – MLA Northern Ireland Women’s Coalition. Protestant Leader. Jane was involved in the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement

12. May Blood, Director of the Early Year’s Project, day care and services for children in the Protestant working class Shankhill area of Belfast; Member of the House of Lords, London. Grew up working in the Blackstaff Mills in Belfast.

13. Patricia Lewesly. Social Democratic Leadership Party former MLA. As MLA, she dealt with issues of disability, sexual orientation and special education. Currently Northern Ireland Children’s Commissioner.

14. Margaret Logue – Derry Women’s Center Director in the town of Derry/Londonderry, home of the 1972 Bloody Sunday massacre when 13 young Irish men were killed during a peace demonstration.

15. Pearl McRoberts, Director of DemocraShe, Conference initiatives on empowering young women through education.

16. Geraldine McAllister, “Tus Nea” New Start. Director of Belfast Business Development. Brother and sister imprisoned in the 70’s. Got active politically with the Hunger Strikes of 1980 and 1981.

17. Noreen, British painter, doing an artist residency at the Tyrone Guthrie Center for Irish Art, Monaghan, Ireland.