Celebrating 40 Years: The London Irish Women’s Centre 3D Project

The London Irish Women’s Centre (LIWC) was officially opened in 1986 by Nell McCafferty as a base to support 'political and cultural activity for Irish women all over London by Irish women'. Its extraordinary history (1986-2012) of community outreach and political activism is documented in The Archive of the Irish in Britain, which is available for academic and public research at London Metropolitan University.  

To celebrate 40 years, the Special Collections team secured funding in 2025 from the Irish Emigrant Support Programme, to deliver a student-designed virtual space, hosted via this project page. This virtual space will reconstruct selected rooms from the original LIWC building in Stoke Newington, allowing visitors to explore and discover 40 archive records on display. To accompany the virtual space, an e-learning resource will also be created about the LIWC.

IMAGE: Opening night at the London Irish Women's Centre, 1st February 1986. Photograph courtesy of Joanne O'Brien 

  

Historical Background – What was The London Irish Women’s Centre?

The London Irish Women’s Centre (LIWC) was opened by Nell McCafferty on 1st February 1986, and took its inspiration from Irish Women’s groups that had existed before it – groups such as The Irish Women’s Abortion Support Group, The London Armagh Group and The Women and Ireland Groups.

Early discussions about opening a centre had begun in 1981, but it wasn’t until 1983 that funding was secured via the Greater London Council (GLC) Women’s Committee. This grant provided a fund to support one worker and general expenses for a year. A job share was created between Rae Dowds and Brid Bowland to start the development work, and through fundraising activities they secured a property and employed a further three workers by December 1985.

When opened, the centre created three groups including The Irish Community Radio Group (known as Glor Gael), an Irish Women’s Mental Health Group, and an all-women Ceili Band, called Sheela-na-gig.

Over time the centre became an established community space for Irish women, offering facilities like a nursery and skills-based workshops to help Irish women into work. It provided guidance on health, housing and education and was very politically active in matters relating to Northern Ireland, in particular the strip-searching of women prisoners in Armagh and Maghaberry prisons.

The centre closed in 2012, after 30 years of advocacy and activism, and records about its operation are now held within The Archive of the Irish in Britain (AIB) at London Metropolitan University (LMU) for academic and wider public research.

IMAGE: Clipping from Annual Report 1986 on the provision of Childcare at the London Irish Women's Centre. 

   

Project Details

Overview

This immersive resource will curate and display 40 records from the LIWC archive in The Archive of the Irish in Britain:

• to celebrate the Irish women who set up LIWC
• to showcase the conferences and fundraising events LIWC hosted to raise awareness of political and social injustice experienced by Irish women during the late 20th century in Britain and Ireland
• to demonstrate LIWC’s function and operation as a community hub that supported Irish emigrants new to London
• to raise the profile of Irish women musicians and artists, who either performed or attended events at LIWC (including Sinead O’Connor in 1998)
• to create an engaging platform for its enduring legacy

  

Delivery and Outcomes

Inspired by and using original documents, video footage, photographic prints and oral history accounts, this collaborative project employed ONE student from our School of Computing and Digital Media to build the virtual space.

IMAGE: Draft mock up of virtual space designed by BSc (Hons) Games Animation, Modelling and Effects student at London Metropolitan University.

  

To help develop an authentic context for the space, a we created a stakeholder group that included former workers Angie Birtill, Rae Dowds and Brid Boland, alongside conversations with existing partners - like Irish in Britain - to gather research from wider Irish community networks.

Special Collections helped support the digitisation, cataloguing and online publication of archive material used in the virtual space. 

The virtual space will be made available via our catalogue, following the end of project delivery (August 2025), to ensure:

• the project is archived and made accessible on a secure platform 
• the exhibition reaches an existing and developed audience
• that researchers can discover further records from the LIWC archives and The Archive of the Irish in Britain within our online catalogue

Aims

This project aims:

•  to engage new and existing audiences about the history of Irish women in London
• to reach these audiences online, to widen access and support inclusion
• to use AI and emerging technologies to engage and educate
• to encourage creative outputs for archive material that fosters intergenerational collaboration, and supports different ‘ways in’ to Irish History
• to highlight the value of archive material for community engagement and academic research 
• to curate a virtual space that will inspire further use of the LIWC archives by student, academic and wider public researchers

    

Virtual Space

COMING SOON

  

Celebration Event(s)

Ceiliúradh: Mná na hÉireann, Caint agus Comhrá | A Celebration of the London Irish Women’s Centre was held on Tuesday, 12 May 2026 at the Embassy of Ireland, 17 Grosvenor Place. 

The event was kindly hosted by the Ambassador Martin Fraser and Deidre Fraser, and welcomed members of the stakeholder steering group (Angie, Rae and Brid) to speak on a panel chaired by the Head of Special Collections.

IMAGE: Rae Dowds speaking on the panel, May 2026

  

During the evening, the panel explored the following themes: 

Context and Need - Why the London Irish Women’s Centre was needed and what life was like for Irish women in London at the time.

Responding to Need - How the LIWC was established to address these challenges through practical support and community-building.

Advocacy and Campaigning - The Centre’s role in advocacy, and how this connected to wider political and social campaigns.

Challenges and Resistance - The discrimination and barriers faced by Irish women in London during this period.

Inclusion - How the LIWC created an inclusive space that supported and affirmed lesbian identities.

Feminist Alliances - The Centre’s collaboration with the wider feminist movement and networks of solidarity.

Archival Importance - Why preserving the LIWC’s records is vital for research, memory, and community heritage.

Legacy and Impact - The lasting significance of the LIWC for future generations and its contribution to activism and Irish women’s history.