We are all volunteers and bring different experience and skills to the project. On this page, you can find out more about us.
Dr ruth beecher, project lead
is from the People’s Republic of Cork but is London-based. Ruth is a social and cultural historian with interests in race, gender and sexuality, children and families, medicine and psychiatry, and popular culture in the U.S. and U.K. in the twentieth century. Loves oral histories, loves archives, loves teaching. Has also been a leader within local government in children’s services, delivering on policy, commissioning, service design, and evaluation.
Dorothy duffy
was born in County Mayo, the youngest of ten children and has lived two thirds of her life in London
Dorothy’s professional career started in Nursing, eventually specialising in working with children and families. It has since spanned Programme and Project Management, delivering major innovative and strategic government initiatives in children and family and disabled children’s services at a local and national level. She is also an Executive Coach specialising in leadership and career development. She is very proud to be part this very special project, which harnesses the age old Irish tradition of storytelling and oral history with women at its heart.
Evelyn Kerrigan Lebloch
was born in County Mayo and moved to London in the mid-eighties. She is a registered social worker specialising in international child protection and safeguarding. Evelyn is committed to children's rights and social justice. She believes there is much to learn from women's stories.
Daisy roberts
is a Global History Master’s graduate based in London. Her research interests include identity, nation building, and gender. She believes social and feminist histories are crucial to ensuring the historical record reflects the world in which we live.
Stephanie Blythman
was born in Ireland and grew up in County Wicklow. She works in costume for film and TV in London. She also does her own research into the history of stage costume following the completion of her MA in History of Design at the V&A/Royal College of Art. Her research focuses on early seventeenth century French costuming practices and explores what the costumes, costumed bodies, and their iconographic representation say about early modern French understandings of nation, race, gender, and class.
professor Ailsa Russell
was born in Cork and moved to London at the end of the 1980s. She works in the health service and higher education as a clinical psychologist. People’s stories and how they make sense of them have always been a source of inspiration. She is also really interested in how people relate to Ireland and its culture as emigrants, migrants, or part of its diaspora.
Ann Joye
is from Cork. She moved to Dublin after university where she worked for five years before relocating to Edinburgh in the late 1990s. Ann has spent her career working within the financial services arena. During a career break, Ann undertook a Masters in Social Anthropology and has always been interested in the stories we tell ourselves and how we utilise these stories to create a sense of self.
Annie Mcaleer
is originally from Dundalk, but is now based in Belfast. She is completing a Master’s degree in Public History at Queen’s University Belfast. Her research is focused on working class women’s history, and she is passionate about women collectively claiming space on the historical record.
Georgia Ryan
is an MA graduate in History from NUI Galway. Currently based in Belfast, her areas of interest and research include Irish women’s history of the early twentieth century, medical history, particularly maternal and infant health, and women’s experience of the Irish Revolutionary Period on the Island of Ireland.
Annie McAnulty
was born in London to Irish parents, from County Down & County Tyrone, with much of her family still over in Ireland. Having studied modules on microhistories at university, Annie believes there is huge value in capturing women's stories and preserving Irish heritage. She currently works for a social mobility charity, supporting students into high attaining careers and universities.
Lizzie Barrie
is from the Philadelphia area of the United States and moved to County Galway in 2023. She has a Masters Degree in Library and Information Science and an Archival Studies Certificate from Drexel University. She worked as a public librarian for nearly twenty years and believes in the power of preserving information and facilitating access to it as a crucial component of social justice.
