This year, us Irish women in the UK find ourselves stuck. The Irish Sea has become a barrier we can only cross in emergencies, a state of cut-off-ness that was unimaginable little more than a year ago. I struggle to catch up with this new reality, one of many new realities we have encountered this year. Since 1989, I have ricocheted by car, ferry, and plane backwards and forwards from London to Cork to see friends and family. I now see just how privileged as I was to have those choices.
I’m conscious that many of you will have suffered terribly in 2020 and may be still battling with loss, grief, loneliness, illness, caring and work overload. The Úna collective has been pretty quiet in terms of gathering and transcribing your oral histories as we too have been caught up in our own lives and more urgent tasks.
When we feel cut off, sharing our stories is even more important so we are back and ready to get busy. We have thirteen oral histories recorded, eleven of which are transcribed so far and we’re about to start recording again (online of course for now).
We also developing a fundraising plan…
Want to get involved as an interviewee? Or do you have skills to share as a volunteer? Or want to get some specific skills or knowledge or just give something back towards preserving our culture and heritage?
Email us at faisneis@unaganaguna.org or DM us on Twitter @UnaganagunaP.
