
What does it mean to be a woman of Ireland? Through her passion project, Dr. Belinda Vigors explores that question via the context of history, politics, mythology, and more.
“I feel very culturally and spiritually of Ireland,’” says Vigors via email with Celtic Life International, noting that her time elsewhere has cemented this identity. A social scientist by trade, Vigors hails from rural Co. Wicklow and currently lives in England. “I became aware of the intersectionality of my gender, culture and national identity, and realized that how I was as a woman could not be separated from the fact that I was also of Ireland. Once I caught sight of that, I decided to create a whole research project around the question I kept asking myself: how have we, the women of Ireland, come to be the way we are?”
Vigors launched the Women of Ireland Project in 2020, working on it in her spare time outside of her day job. It was a simple Instagram page in the beginning, where Vigors shared posts about Irish women in history. The venture grew and, by 2022, she had left her day job in favour of freelance so she could dedicate more of her attention to the project.
“Between 2021 and 2023, I interviewed 37 women of Ireland to gather their life stories, and their perspectives are really the heart of the whole project. Once gathered, I spent another couple of years meticulously analyzing this precious collection of female experience and pulled together the common threads and themes in their stories.
“The whole project is based around connecting the past to the present as I explore the socio-cultural forces and historical conditions which have shaped womanhood in Ireland and made us the way we are.”
These interviews – as well as her own research – allowed Vigors to get writing. She then started a page on the online media platform Substack to share her work. “All of my writing and essays are open-access and are available for anyone to read. I want to ensure as many people as possible have access to the nuggets and insights I’ve discovered over the years of running this project.” She also gives public talks about the project, both online and in-person.
Since the project’s inception, Vigors has written about a wide range of topics, including diaspora grief, Ireland’s witch trials (of which there were merely four!), gender roles, and more. In December of 2024, she released her first book, Threatening Women: A Cultural History of Why Ireland Shamed and Contained Women. Inspired by a BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour episode on the Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home scandal, Vigors decided to write about “why women were so strictly monitored and punished in Ireland.” The brutal story of the Tuam institution, which housed unmarried women and their children between 1925 and 1961, is just one example of how Irish society abused women.
“I have been left somewhat struggling to really grasp the impact this book seems to have on those who read it. I am pretty much a one-woman show, and classically terrible at marketing and promoting myself – every sale of Threatening Women has come about through word-of-mouth, with people sharing it with others and telling them about it, and I kind of love that.”
A one-woman show, indeed. Vigors manages the Women of Ireland Project alone, without any organizational funding. It is a responsibility she does not take lightly, and, at times, it can be overwhelming.
“On more than a few occasions I have crumbled under the worry that I might never be able to fully do justice to all that these women have gifted to me, but I’ll keep trying.”
Vigors recently returned to Substack after a few months off. She has also been busy working on another book. “This second book I affectionately refer to as the book, as it is the one that will weave together the voices of the women I have interviewed with my own, along with detailed cultural and social analysis and insights, as I reflect our experiences against Ireland’s past.”
Those 37 interviewees “are really the heart of the whole project,” she adds. “I learned so much for them and not a day goes by that I do not think of some piece of advice or words of wisdom they shared with me.”
www.belindavigors.substack.com
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