President hosts exhibition marking role of women in peace process

Jonathan McCambridge, PA

The role of women in the peace process has been highlighted in a new exhibition hosted by President Michael D Higgins.

Marking the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, the Peace Heroines exhibition curated by storytelling platform HerStory has gone on display at Áras an Uachtaráin.

The exhibition consists of a series of information panels and portraits featuring 30 women’s stories including Bridget Bond, Monica Patterson, Ruth Agnew, Bernadette Devlin McAliskey, Inez McCormack and Dr Mo Mowlam.

Central to the exhibition are nine large portraits by visual artist FRIZ, featuring Pat Hume, Bronagh Hinds, Eileen Weir, Susan McCrory, Saidie Patterson, Monica McWilliams, Pearl Sagar, Anne Carr and Baroness May Blood.

A number of those featured in the portraits were in attendance at the event on Wednesday hosted by President Higgins.

Attendees also included Tim Atwood, on behalf of the John and Pat Hume Foundation, the artist FRIZ and Melanie Lynch and Katelyn Hanna of HerStory.

The president said: “In our hosting of the Peace Heroines exhibition, curated by HerStory, here at Áras an Uachtaráin, we acknowledge and pay tribute to what was an important and emancipatory contribution.

“I am delighted to see the role of co-operation and the power of partnerships explored in this exhibition, partnerships such as Peace People, Women Together, Peace Players, Derry Peace Women, the special dynamic that has been forged between Shankill and Falls Women’s Centres through the leadership of Eileen Weir and Susan McCrory, and, of course, the Northern Ireland Women’s Coalition.

“The Women’s Coalition, in its rejection of traditional partisan sources of division within what was male-dominated politics, played a vital role in the delivery of an alternative context that could carry the Good Friday Agreement.

“Its founders, drawn from both of the main opposing traditions, sought to work together, transcending the old tribal divides, and focusing instead on creating a common, agreed, shared future, united by the cause of bringing women’s concerns to the negotiating table, and ensuring an inclusive peace accord.”

President Higgins added: “I know that the women of Ireland, north and south, will continue to rise to this challenge as they have done on so many occasions before, as we carve out a future of sustained, inclusive peace and reconciliation on our shared island.”