Welcome to A Feminist Walk of Cork 2. The walk builds upon Feminist Walk of Cork 1, which was devised in 2021, using participatory action research methods with students and staff at UCC and Cork based community organisations. This second walk was inspired, in part, by a walk Maggie O'Neill undertook in 2016 with Professor Linda Connolly as part of Maggie's Leverhulme Trust Walking Borders Project and the themes emerging from Feminist Walk of Cork 1.
What is the walk about?
Feminist Walk of Cork 1 celebrated the rich contribution of women to art, culture, society and the city by writing women into the topography of the city. In Feminist Walk of Cork 2, the research team broadened this celebration by including more great women of Cork on the walk and deepened our examination of the contribution of women and ‘women led’ organisations, in challenging sexual and social inequalities and building safer and fairer societies for all.
Feminist Walk of Cork 2 explores: the rich contributions of Traveller women and their leadership in the ongoing development of Traveller rights (TVG and Traveller Women’s Network), women’s experiences of the criminal justice system (Cork Alliance), sexual and intimate partner violence (Sexual Violence Centre Cork), the importance of sexual health for all and addressing sexual inequalities (Sexual Health Centre and Gender Rebels) including justice for Symphysiotomy Survivors (Survivors of Symphysiotomy), and addressing social inequalities, poverty and homelessness by providing food, support, a sense of wellbeing, and a warm
welcome for all (Cork Penny Dinners). We also highlight the important strengths-based work undertaken with and for new arrival communities, in challenging racism (Cork Migrant Centre).
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Feminist Walk of Cork 2 focuses attention on the important contributions made by Caitríona Twomey and the team at Cork Penny Dinners; Sheila Connolly and her team at Cork Alliance; Mary Crilly, Dola Twomey and the team at the Sexual Violence Centre Cork; Breda O'Donoghue, Anne Burke, Eileen O’Shea and the team at Traveller Visibility Group; Martin Davoran and the team at the Sexual Health Centre Cork; Naomi Masheti and the team at Cork Migrant Centre; Kevin Hosford and the team at Gender Rebels Cork and also Marie O’Connor, Chair of SoS Survivors-of-Symphysiotomy.
We document the important contributions made by trailblazing feminists past and present in the context of history in the present and the confinement, containment, and social control of women’s ‘risky’ bodies. We also examine the labelling, marginalisation and criminalisation of women who were deemed to transgress societal norms and expectations, the pioneering work of women both now and in the past; and the important work that ‘women led’ organisations are doing in Cork City to create change and build safer, sustainable and fairer communities.
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Walking Methods: Walking as Critical Pedagogy
Feminist Walk of Cork 2 uses ethnographic, archival and walking based research methods to deepen our understanding of the key themes and challenges that emerged from Feminist Walk of Cork 1.
Methodologically the research project is underpinned by the ethos of participatory action research, an ethic of care, and the principles of inclusion, participation, challenging stigma, valuing all voices and working together to deliver action-oriented interventions - in this case the map, the guided walk and the website.
Walking as a teaching, learning and pedagogic practice builds upon a long history of walking as a research method alongside participatory and biographical methods to teach Sociology, Criminology, Women and Gender Studies in sensory and corporeal ways. Learning can be convivial, multi-modal and does not just take place in the head but in the heart and body.
Learning is a thinking, feeling and embodied practice. (Read more on ‘Walking as Critical Pedagogy’ in Feminist Walk of Cork 1 and in the forthcoming book with Routledge ‘Walking as Critical Pedagogy’ 2025).
Feminist Walk of Cork 2 delivers knowledge and understanding that emerges through our collaborations with community organisations as a ‘connected university’. It champions the feminist theory, feminist practice and advocacy embedded in the work of civil society organisations; offers a feminist intervention, a walk, supported by research, that can be guided or self-guided, and that ultimately promotes social justice towards more equitable, just, fairer and safer societies for all.
We leave the final words to the poet Máighréad Medbh
The walk is an activity that places you on the outside for a while. You pass and observe. It’s also a kind of communication. You relate to your environment in a way you don’t in a vehicle. It’s a way of engaging the body when your work is sedentary, of letting the body think for itself within the onward rhythm.
Acknowledgements
Thanks to the UCC College of Arts, Celtic Studies and Social Sciences for the Interdisciplinary Research Grant Funding to support the important role Conach undertook as researcher (archival, documentary and interview based research as well as writing up the landmarks and various sections of the walk) and to Angela Flynn and Linda Connolly for great support with the project.
The project is conducted, documented and delivered in the form of a feminist pedagogic walk based on documentary, archival and biographical research interviews undertaken by Conach Gibson-Feinblum and Maggie O’Neill in collaboration with Traveller Visibility Group, Cork Alliance, Sexual Violence Centre Cork, Sexual Health Centre Cork, Cork Migrant Centre, Cork Penny Dinners, Tom Spalding (UCC), JP Quinn (UCC), Ciara Doyle (Cork College of Commerce). We thank Marie O’Connor (Justice for Symphysiotomy Survivors), Kevin Hosford and Gender Rebels for their great input.
Special thanks to artist Maia Thomas for continued collaboration and the fabulous map, web designer Ellie Mahony for your continued collaboration and the wonderful website, Marcin Lewandowski, photographer who documented the launch and created the beautiful reel, Ashling O’Sullivan and Jonathan Leahy Maharaj (ISS21 and UCC Academy) for fantastic creative design of the printed map, leaflet and administrative support and guidance; and to Cork Migrant Centre and Naomi Masheti for ongoing collaboration, Cork Folklore Project, Cork City Gaol and Elizabeth Fort.
Maggie O’Neill and Conach Gibson-Feinblum, July 2024.
Institute for Social Sciences in the 21st century (ISS21) and UCC Futures: Collective Social Futures.
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