WOMEN may have got the vote 100 years ago but the Southill Women’s Group knows that community life is still worth fighting for.
To mark the centenary of women getting the vote, the group is planning to step back in time.
On international Womens Day, this Thursday, March 8, members of the group will dress up in period costume and tell stories of how the Suffragettes struggled to get the vote for the sisterhood everywhere.
“We’ll be telling stories of what those women went through to get the vote, They marched, they protested, many of them were jailed and we want to bring it back to life, what it was like then,” Anne Farrell Kinsella from the Womens Group told the Limerick Post.
There will be one man who will be welcomed with open are into the company of the celebrating sisters on the day, a volunteer from the local Mens Sheds, who will be an honorary ‘barman’ in a re-created ‘snug”.
“Women were only allowed in pubs if they went into the snug at that time and we want to recreate those scenes,” said Anne. “But we’ll be serving tea and coffee on the day – nothing real from behind the bar, I’m afraid,” she added.
The celebration will urge people not to forget that there’s work still to be done.
“There are women around here who do amazing work in the community for others. We still have real suffragettes,” Anne said.
The day of stories and celebration of suffrage will start at 11 am on March 8 in Our Lady of Lourdes Hall and will go on until 1pm “or whenever people are finished having a chat,” said Anne.
There will be a raffle to raise funds for another worthwhile community activity, the Wednesday night bingo.
“It’s a social night out for a lot of people and some are even collected by minibus and brought to it but they are struggling and they don’t have money to put up prizes anymore so we’ll be donating the raffle proceeds to them,” she explained.
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