Mary O'Hara Centre launched by Longford Women's Link

This year marks the 30th Anniversary of Longford Women’s Link. The first in a series of events to mark the milestone saw the Mary O’Hara Centre for Leadership launched and alongside the ICA there was an International Women’s Day celebration.

Friday's event kicked off with a coffee morning in the centre at 11 am and saw women from across the county and town in attendance. There was a friendly mood among the attendees as they drank tea and chatted amongst each other before heading into the other room.

Tara Farrell, CEO of Longford Women’s Link, opened the event which was officially re-launching the training room at Women’s Link as the Mary O’Hara Centre for Leadership.

Mary O’Hara was a beloved woman in the Longford community, she was among the three women in the ICA, herself, Tess Murphy and Elsie Moxham, who founded Longford Women’s Link in 1995 and was a driving force in making it what it is today and getting it off the ground. She also served as chairperson of the ICA.

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Her two co-founders were present on the day alongside her son Hugh O’Hara and his wife, also named Mary.

“Some of you may not know that Longford Women’s Link has its origins in the ICA. 30 years ago, three very visionary and courageous women, so we have Elsie Moxham and Tess Murphy and the late Mary O’Hara and we are delighted to welcome her son Hugh and his wife Mary.”

“30 years ago these women wanted to make a change.

“They saw the lack of childcare, the lack of education opportunities, they saw the issue of domestic violence and they wanted to do something about it.

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May Campbell, chairperson of the Longford ICA was also present.

“You should all be so proud of the work that you carry out here, from childcare, educational courses, training, counselling and many more.

“LWL was founded by Longford ICA and was the brainchild of three very innovative ladies, one of whom, Mary O’Hara, is no longer with us today unfortunately.”

May discussed the vital services the LWL provided such as the NOW (New Opportunities for Women) project which was delivered in collaboration with the ICA and allowed for women to participate and train in various courses that weren’t otherwise available.

Tess and Elsie both spoke compassionately of their late friend Mary, remembering her as a force of nature and a brilliantly accomplished woman.

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Her son also spoke about how proud he was of his mother.

Tess Murphy highlighted how vital the first 25 women who participated in the NOW project brought the issue of domestic violence to the fore.

Elsie recalled the experiments they did with the students, such as going off in pairs and guiding their blindfolded buddy through Longford town.

“I was just saying to Tess, I remember when I first came to Ireland in 2003, “ recalled Cllr Ureumu Adejinmi who was in attendance on Friday, “This was a hub for a lot of migrant women so it has been a part of my journey in Ireland.”

“It’s just such an honour to be here, to join in marking 30 years of the existence of Longford Women’s Link.”

Tess Murphy, one of the founders, said, “It started with the women’s studies in 1995 and then we had the European project, which was called New Opportunities for Women, then we got the site from the County Council and we got the funding to build the original building.

“Its lovely to see it’s still there but in a way it’s kind of sad as Elsie [Moxham] said, that it’s still so relevant because women’s equality seems to have stalled it’s very disappointing.

“The current government has only three women in cabinet, there are only 44 women out of 174.

“I was watching the BBC news the other day and I was so impressed with the number of Ministers in the Labour Party in England that are women.”

Tara Farell had a similar opinion.

“We do see a slight change but we still have a long way to go, we look at the domestic violence statistics, we look at the fact that we had six and a half thousand interactions with women in the last year with our team and a team that we could double and we still wouldn’t be able to meet every single call. But what I will say is that for anybody that is looking for support, we are here and we will be here to support you.”