Women's History in the Digital World

Using Social Media to Centre Women's Stories in the Collections of the Digital Repository of Ireland

The Digital Repository of Ireland is Ireland’s national trusted for humanities and social science material. Launched in 20152, the Repository contains many historical collections including digitised material from national cultural institutions, universities and research projects. Many of our collections are utilised in online exhibitions, some of the most significant being ‘Inspiring Ireland 1916’ a series of 1916-related exhibitions launched throughout 2016. As Education and Outreach Manager for DRI, I am responsible for updating its social media channels, primarily Twitter and Facebook. This paper looks at dedicated strategies aimed at drawing attention to women’s stories in the historical collections, with particular focus on the Inspiring Ireland 1916 exhibition ‘Women and the Revolution’, launched in January 2016. Strategies employed include promoting the launch of the exhibition in January 2016, and the accompanying essay by Professor Senia Paseta of Oxford University5, highlighting the stories of particular women from the exhibition on dates coinciding with their births, deaths or date of significant accomplishment and highlighting the entire exhibition on significant days in the archival and historical calendar including Explore your Archives Week and International Women’s Day. The exhibitions include the stories of well-known women such as Constance Markievicz and Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington, but there was also a focus on the stories of lesser-known but also significant women such as Elizabeth O’Farrell, who was literally airbrushed from history in the famous photograph of the 1916 surrender, and of Lizzie Walsh, a maid who did not take part in the Rising but whose claim for reimbursement of a uniform lost in a fire that destroyed a Dublin hotel was featured to draw attention to the stories of everyday women in 1916. An effort was also made to focus on these women’s individual achievements, rather than describing them in relation to famous men of 1916. For example, Grace Gifford was described in DRI social media posts firstly as an activist and artist, and only afterwards (or sometimes not at all) as the widow of Joseph Plunkett. Similarly, while Kathleen Clark’s social role as Thomas Clark’s wife (and later widow) was noted, her later role as a politician and first female Lord Mayor of Dublin was emphasised. The strategy employed for highlighting the stories of these women was usually to attach image(s) to a tweet or a Facebook post, with descriptive information and an acknowledgement of the rights holders of the image, as well as a link to the full record in the Digital Repository of Ireland. Where appropriate, relevant hashtags were used on Twitter, or institutions were tagged on Facebook, to maximise the reach of the posts. These kinds of posts were often scheduled in advance and timed to release at times of day that tend to have more people accessing and using social media. The results were tangible – Twitter and Facebook analytics consistently show that posts relating to women’s history tended to attract more user engagement than other kinds of posts.