North Belfast Women share stories of living in an interface area

A group of women from the Crumlin Road area have taken part in an engagement programme which explored women’s experiences of growing up and living in this interface area of Belfast.

Delivered by PRONI and the Nerve Centre in partnership with the Vine Centre, the programme offered participants the opportunity to engage in a number of activities over the course of eight weeks. The group spent a day in PRONI learning about the work of the official archive for Northern Ireland and engaging with some documents and photos from their local area.

Participants also took part in a guided tour of the Crumlin Road Gaol, watched the short film 'The Curzon Project' and spoke to Sebastian Graham about his Mills of Northern Ireland project.

At the end of the project, the group and scrapbooked about their experience of the programme and created the website and series of podcasts called “Belfast Then By Women Now” in which they talk about mixed marriages, going to the ‘pictures’, working life and hopes for the future.

Participants also reminisce on how their communities have changed over the years and discuss living with disabilities, their fond memories of childhood and how cross-community relationships deteriorated over the Troubles.

The website also has a selection of images from PRONI's collections and participants' personal archives as well as a story map of the places mentioned by the participants in the podcasts - see here to view.