Mapping the Feminist Walking Tour of Dublin with audio

International Women’s Day was marked, as is becoming traditional in Dublin, with a Feminist walking tour around the city center. I recorded the seven stops and along with three stops from the previous year have now added them to my Google Map of ‘Radical Ireland’ as well as adding the text of the tour booklet to the Choice Ireland site. About 150 people (mostly women) took part in the tour which was divided into three seperate groups, it was mostly around the north inner city with one stop in Temple bar on the south side. The tour was organised by Choice Ireland, RAG, Lash Back and friends.

I include the audio I recorded on the day and on three stops from the 2009 tour. I recorded last years tour but a combination of a lot of wind on the day, poorer recording equipment and a late late night (the Dublin anarchist bookfair was the previous day) meant much of the audio was unusable. I’m taking the opportunity of the successful recordings of this years tour to post the three segments from last year that were salvagable although they are quite noisy – for those interested in the tech side of recordings see my recent blog post on the equipment I use.

From the tour handout
The idea behind the FWT is to highlight a history which is so often neglected or forgotten. A history that has made Ireland what it is, and contributed to the social, political and cultural topography of Dublin for as long as the city has existed. That is, of course, the history of women: our past, our present, and our ever-evolving future.

Let’s rejoice in the women seeking equality, let’s lament the women who have been oppressed or erased from history’s pages, and let’s inspire the women who will blaze a trail for generations to come. Knowledge is power, so we need to make sure the stories of our mothers, daughters and sisters are not lost simply because they were not documented in statues, or recorded in libraries. From members of the Women’s Land League and Cumann na mBan – so important in creating our republic – who were literally wiped from photos in political airbrushing, to the horror of the Magdalene Laundries (the last of which only closed in 1996), to the vital accession of immigrant women and their daughters, who will shape the Ireland of the future. Let’s remember, let’s talk, let’s think, let’s share…and let’s walk!

The audio from each of the stops are below (as usual I first posted them to indymedia.ie), you can also view these via my Google Map of Radical Ireland (the stops are the purple pins)

View Radical Ireland in a larger map

1. Sinead from Choice Ireland introducing the tour at the Central Bank meet up point. 2.5 minutes

2. Sinead speaking outside the site of the Irish Women’s Workers Union in Temple Bar on women in the unions followed by Aliya Hussain of Akidwa speaking on Female Genital Mutilation. 9 minutes

3. This segment has Ariel speaking on LGBT activism and particularly queer women in Irish history on the boardwalk by the Liffey just down from Outhouse. 6 minutes

4. Sinead on the Dunnes Stores anti-Apartheid strike of 1984 outside Dunnes Stores off Henry Street and on women in the 1916 insurrection followed by ? on the history of 16 Moore street. 11 minutes

O’Connell street stop