Longford International Women's day sees talks from professors and researchers from Ireland and Scotland

On International Women's Day, Saturday, March 8, professors and researchers from UCD, Aberdeen University and DCU hosted the third in a series of Women's Deliberative Cafes in co:worx, Edgeworthstown.

Longford native, Dr Shelley Deane, Department of Law and Government DCU, explained that the research seeks to better understand the shared challenges faced across the island of Ireland, to unpuzzle together how things work "down here" and "up there", and how we might work together better in the here and now, and learn policy lessons for the future of the debate about constitutional issues on the island.

Longford County Council members Peggy Nolan and Uruemu Adejinmi listened and offered insights and local representative perspectives to the participants who travelled from mid-Ulster and stayed at the Longford Arms and enjoyed the hospitality of the Edgeworth centre, and a tour from Matt Farrell on International Women's Day. The work of the day was conducted in co:worx.

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The event in Edgeworthstown was the third event in a series of deliberative cafés with women’s groups across the island. Two events took place in mid Ulster (Bellaghy and Cookstown) and on March 22 there will be a fourth and final event of this series of locally-based deliberation in Ballina, Co Mayo.

The research is being conducted by Professor Jennifer Todd UCD Geary institute, Professor Joanne McEvoy University of Aberdeen and Dr Shelley Deane Law and Government at DCU.

Dr Deane explained, “The aim of these deliberative cafés supported by ARINS (Analysing and Researching Ireland North and South) a collaboration between the Royal Irish Academy and the Keough Naughton Institute at the University of Notre Dame, and the Department of Foreign Affairs, is to facilitate deliberation among women on a cross-community and cross-border basis.

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“Over the course of a day, our participants come together to discuss their shared policy and political problems, exploring the extent to which these challenges are shared across different locations, what they feel should be done to ameliorate these problems, and how political representatives can play a part.”

Dr Deane said the involvement of participants from different locations is a central element of the deliberation, allowing the women to make connections, share experiences, and learn from one another. “At Edgeworthstown, we had 30 participants from Longford, Monaghan and Mid Ulster. Mid-Ulster council very kindly provided a mini-bus for the Mid-Ulster women to attend.”

Dr Deane concluded, “The final deliberative cafe is on Saturday, March 22 in Ballina Library and we hope to have Longford women sharing their insights in Mayo.

If Longford women would like to attend the Ballina event, they are welcome to contact shelley.deane@dcu.ie