Clonakilty Women Have Their Say in New Book

New Zealand-born author Alison Wickham, a resident of Clonakilty in Cork, Ireland, launches a self-published book this week called Women Speak, which tells the stories of 14 very different women, now aged from their 60s to their 90s, who come both from the town of Clonakilty and the countryside around it. Wickham says she was inspired to begin her research after reading another book about Irish people, which, however, featured mostly men: “I felt there were a lot of stories of ordinary peoples’ lives, that are untold,” she said, adding that she felt the experiences of these women would be lost if they were not recorded. The stories in the book cover various everyday aspects of female life from the 1920s and earlier: “It’s about the food they ate, how they brought up their children, what sort of things their children did – what life was like. Several were teachers and nurses, several more had sisters who had emigrated to America, while others spoke about their mothers’ lives.” “I have written about the impact of things like legislation, the ICA, tea and soda bread and general rites of passage.” The women of her native New Zealand, says Wickham, won certain rights earlier than Irish women – such as, she says, the right to vote, to use contraception or to own property in their own names. “I was motivated to carry out the project because I thought very little had been written about the everyday lives of women in Ireland, compared to other places I know. I also wanted to contribute something to Clonakilty,” says Wickham, who said she arrived here 15 years ago as a result of her husband’s job.