Role of women in 1916 Rising highlighted in new campaign

The role that Irish women played during the Easter Rising will be highlighted as part of the third annual Explore Your Archive campaign, which starts on Saturday, November 14th, and will run until Sunday, November 22nd.

One resource highlighted in the campaign, The Present Duty of Irishwomen, is an online portal from the Irish Archives Resource (IAR), which contains descriptions of collections held by archives services all over Ireland.

The portal is designed to draw attention to collections that document Irish women and their contributions to Irish life from 1883 to 1977.

The title of the resource pack is taken from a pamphlet of the same title issued by the executive of Cumann na mBan in 1918.

Role of archives

The Explore Your Archive campaign aims to raise awareness of the essential role of archives in society.

Archives services across the country will display hundreds of unique collection items over the next two weeks.

Archivists, record managers and conservators will also host talks, workshops, exhibitions and tours of their collections.

The campaign encourages people who haven’t previously explored their local archives to do so.

"History paints a fascinating picture of how we got to where we are today," said campaign ambassador Senator David Norris.

“Engaging with these pieces of the past makes history tangible and you never know what you might discover.

“History is a great source of knowledge and lessons learnt in the past should be leveraged to inform decisions that have to be made today,” Mr Norris said.

Trinity College Dublin, Dublin City Library and Archives and the Louth County Archives are among the institutions opening archives to the public from Saturday.

The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) will launch a "story box" on the institution and the 1916 Rising and host an exhibition called Surgeons and Insurgents - RCSI and the Easter Rising.

More information is available online. at www.learnaboutarchives.ie