Picture are forthcoming! Waiting for more reliable wifi!

The International Wall, which we saw during our Black Taxi Tour of Belfast, had a quote painted on it that reminded me of something I have seen throughout our time in Belfast studying the 1916 Rising: “About 90 women took part in the Rising.” The passage continued to saying to what capacity they served in the battles.  Because of my personal area of interest and study, which is focusing on domestic spaces during tumultuous periods (specifically WWI), quotes like this give me pause since they assume that a woman must be on the battle front to have taken part in the rising. Perhaps I am caught up in wording, since the writers of the passage very well could have meant solely military participation, but the reasoning behind my awareness still stands: where is the mention of what it was like to be part of the domestic life during the Rising?

Surely, women have been mentioned. We have seen dozens of instances where women fought alongside men in the battlefields, and many sections of exhibits are dedicated to women in the Rising. However, I am interested in what it was like for the women who were kept indoors—women like the mothers of the boys portrayed in the movie Bloody Sunday. It is easy for these voices to get lost in the chaos of a rebellion, and finding these voices and analyzing their words is something I hope to explore further in my essay for this class.

This being the last blog post, I want to take these last few words to reflect on our trip. Today, we had our final dinner together as a group, and while I am exhausted (!!!), I feel so fulfilled. This was completely different than my previous study abroad experience, especially with the opportunity to become submerged in the period and place. I especially enjoyed the diverse experiences we had: from museums, to walking tours, to pub crawls, to theatre. We were all really lucky for and made better by this experience.