Shoppers heading into Tesco stores today, International Women’s Day, will encounter special installations set up in store to showcase historic Irish female figures and their contributions to society.
Tesco has partnered with the Women’s Museum of Ireland to create the installations, with six inspiring women chosen by the company’s staff for their their historic impact, both at home and abroad, and how they have influenced them today.
The Women’s Museum of Ireland is a virtual museum, founded in 2012 to promote the formal recognition of the role of women in Irish history as well as the role of Irish women abroad.
Administrator Jeanne Sutton said: “We’re very proud to have a spotlight on our women of history for International Women’s Day. With no physical location, our museum lives online and we’re very happy to have it brought to life across Ireland with the help of Tesco Ireland. We’ll reach a whole new audience and the stories of our women will live on in new media.”
Tesco marketing director Ruairi Twomey added: “We’re inspired every day by the women across the country who work and shop in our stores, and we hope to inspire the next generation by telling the somewhat unknown stories of inspirational women of Irish history.”
In Association with
The six female figures chosen are:
• Oonagh Keogh: The first female member of any stock exchange in the world at age 22
• Katy McNulty: Pioneering mathematician who played a vital part in computer-programming missile trajectories during World War II and worked on the UNIVAC I, the first commercial computer developed in the US.
• Carmel Snow: Fashion editor for Vogue magazine before switching allegiances to become editor-in-chief of Harper’s Bazaar with a goal to create a magazine for “well-dressed women with well-dressed minds.”
• Lizzie Le Blond: Elizabeth Hawkins-Whitshed, also known as Lizzie Le Blond, grew up in Greystones in the mid-1800s. She came from a privileged family but always yearned for more. During her life, she became a mountaineering pioneer at a time when it was almost unheard of for women to climb mountains.
• Grace O’Malley: Or Granuaile, the so-called pirate queen. She inherited her father’s estates in Connacht in the 16th century and became a fearless leader on land and sea, commanding three galleys, 20 ships and more than 200 men, and was a thorn in the side of Queen Elizabeth I of England.
• Constance Markievicz: Born in London in 1868, the later Countess Markiewicz’s family, the Gore-Booths, owned a large estate in north Sligo. She worked tirelessly for the rights of women, but her leading cause was Irish independence. The first woman to be elected to the Dáil, she was also the first woman in the world to hold a cabinet post, as minister for labour.
And there’s a website with podcasts at tescoirl.com/wmi, plus more stories on the retailer's social media channels.
Photo (l-r): Tesco staff Jyoti Bhati, Christine Knox Walsh, Patti Feerick and Sharon Keogh. (Pic: Jennifer Barker)
