Forgotten Irish, forgotten stories

I recently attended the launch of Maria McCarthy's latest book, a collection of stories called As Long as it Takes. The stories are told from the perspective of the lost generation of Irish women who sailed to England in the middle of the 20th century to find work. I haven't had a chance to read it yet, but Maria's work is usually of an excellent standard and while Maria can write beautifully she doesn't pull her punches.

My family don't speak much of their time in England when they first came over. There is a lot that they won't say, don't want to rake up the past. I feel so ignorant, and that ignorance shames me. There is a whole generation of stories and experiences that have been missed, and will be lost forever if they are not recorded.

Image credit: Chelle

Take my mother, for example, she emigrated to England in the 1950s and then trained as a nurse. In the 1960s she worked in Northern Rhodesia as it was called then, just after independence. She was part of a wave of nurses called "The Sunshine Girls" who went out. But I have not been able to find much in the way of information or stories, or any recording of the experiences of other Sunshine girls. Do you know of anyone who was a sunshine girl? (I think I feel a project coming on)

The one mention I've found online about Sunshine girls is on the Great North Road messageboard
The Forgotten Irish Campaign details are online here

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Image source: http://www.morguefile.com

Seasonally effected - 24 April

Dublin or Baile Atha Cliath?

I'm really quite excited, the podcast from this month's seasonally effected is already available to hear. Do you want to listen? There's an eclectic mix of poetry, history, sound experiments, animation and surreal fantasy. You can download it here

My piece explored the history around the 24th April, 1916. It's an important date in history for me, and for many Irish people as that is the date that Pádraig Pearse read out the declaration of the Irish republic on the steps of the General Post office in Dublin.The Easter rising ended 6 days later on 29th April 1916 - Pádraig Pearse had given the order to surrender.The aftermath was as bloody as the fighting.

I read out a couple of poems I had written about the Irish women who were present, the women who seem to have dropped off the face of the earth as far as a lot of historians are concerned (if you hear about anyone it's usually Constance Markievicz, the first women ever to be elected as a British M.P.) So just to spite them I wrote a poem. That'll show them!

So, the next Seasonally effected will be on 29th May 630pm-9pm. Will you be there?