Leitrim Women Through Time is a collaborative heritage project creative by the North Leitrim Women’s Centre and Scéal Heritage Consultancy. The project was established in 2022 and sets out to explore and share the stories and the memories of the everyday lives of women in Cunty Leitrim over the last 200 years. A unique women's history/heritage initiative which records and celebrates the stories of everyday rural women neglected by history
The project focuses on the lives of the ordinary Leitrim woman; celebrating the majority, rather than the minority, and those previously neglected in history. It concentrates on the experience of the everyday woman – highlighting the value of remembering and recording what domestic, working, and personal life was like for local women.
Leitrim Women Through Time 1850 – 1950:
This Exhibition, created in 2022, tells stories of the lives of Leitrim women in the period 1850-1950. The exhibition is the result of consultation and engagement with communities and individuals across the county to identify themes and stories which would best capture and tell the story of the lives of ordinary Leitrim women in that period of history.
The Pop-up Leitrim Women’s Museum
The Leitrim Women Through Time project created Leitrim's first Pop-up Women’s Museum in 2023. The Pop-Up Museum mobilises and promotes the histories and experiences of rural women from the county for an inclusive public audience. This temporary museum of women’s history explores the lives of Leitrim women over the past two hundred years. The museum includes a large collection of objects from rural women’s history - with examples from women’s work inside and outside the home, women’s craft, and women’s personal lives. The Museum encourages people to share stories and memories of ordinary rural women for preservation in the “Leitrim Women Through Time” project archive, and demonstrates the value in recording these often-overlooked voices and experiences.
Leitrim Women Through Time: Voices from the Factory Floor
This exhibition, developed in 2025 looks at women's experiences of factory work in the county between 1930 and 2000. Accompanying the exhibition is an associated project film, where people can hear the voices and experiences of the female workers first-hand.
Leitrim Women Through Time – Project Partners
Project Curator - Scéal Heritage Consultancy
Donna Gilligan is Principal of Scéal Heritage, a consultancy working with museums and heritage organisations to provide innovative, inclusive, and creative forms of cultural heritage celebration and interpretation. She is a museum curator and archaeologist, cultural project manager, material culture historian, and heritage educator, and has worked for over twenty years in varied roles in the Irish museum and heritage sector. Her work has centred around museum collections, exhibition curation, community and public engagement and education, and heritage project management. She is a passionate advocate for heritage, and works with local, regional, and national museums, heritage groups, tourism sites, and community organisations across the country to positively assist them in their long-term growth and development. Her research interests include a focus on the preservation of the stories and experiences of everyday rural women. She has worked with the North Leitrim Women’s Centre as the Project Curator on the “Leitrim Women Through Time” community heritage project since 2022
Project Manager – WCI - North Leitrim Women’s Centre:
The North Leitrim Women’s Centre (part of Women’s Collective Ireland), based in Manorhamilton, was established in 1995. The Mission of the organisation is “to provide a safe, welcoming and supportive environment for all women in our community to empower them to reach their full potential” Since its foundation in 1995 the Women’s Centre has been providing supports for women and engaging with the local community of women in North Leitrim (and beyond).
They provide a range of services, supports & programmes for women including, a comprehensive training programme, women’s health & wellbeing, networking, cross border work and initiatives aimed at supporting and empowering the voice of women to influence change and decisions that affect their lives as well as working to raise awareness of issues affecting women locally
The North Leitrim Women’s Centre has a passion for initiating and promoting projects the acknowledge, celebrate and highlight the voices and stories of local women. Including stories from our past, especially those voices and stories of rural women often neglected and forgotten in history.
Assumpta Kelly, the co-ordinator of WCI - North Leitrim Women’s Centre has been managing the Leitrim Women Through Time Project since its creation in 2022
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