As a follow-on to After the Train – a superb essay collection published earlier this year celebrating the social transformation brought about by Irishwomen United, the activist collective founded in 1975 – UCD Press has published another gorgeously illustrated, multi-voiced account of a more recent Irish feminist revolution: that of #WakingTheFeminists.
Ten years ago, #WTF blew up the boys’ club ruling Irish theatre. It did this by raising feminist consciousness, and tearing down the false “meritocracy” mask that had been disguising extreme gender inequality in the theatre sector. The positive repercussions of #WTF were felt across Irish culture.
After the Train and WTF Happened deliver the clever double-whammy of teaching while documenting for posterity the effective bombardment and dismantling of patriarchal power systems through awareness-raising, grassroots organisation and cultural insurgency. This makes them deliciously seditious how-tos for those of us working to undo systematic discrimination and oppression, empower marginalised people and call organisations and systems to account for a fairer, more equitable society.
[ Waking The Feminists report gets the measure of Irish theatreOpens in new window ]
It took just a year, from Samhain 2015 to Samhain 2016, for #WTF to take down the institutional and cultural male supremacist hegemony that had been relegating women and women’s stories to the margins since forever in Irish theatre. With battle-goddess momentum, the movement grew Valkyrie wings on social media, sparked by disgracefully poor female representation in the Abbey Theatre’s 2016 Waking the Nation programme.
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An outpouring of women across the sector shared their stories of sexist discrimination and internalised misogyny. The collective rage and sorrow were rapidly channelled into a campaign of community building and focused direct action towards specific gender equality goals. In the process, awareness was raised about further work to be done in the areas of race, class, LGBTQ+ and disability equality in Irish theatre and beyond.
Reading this first-hand account of how the theatre boys’ club was exposed, made to examine its unconscious bias, and compelled towards gender equality to the point that a mere five years later, the playing field in theatre was close to being levelled, I hear the revolutionary archetypes of Kali and The Morrigan howl. Through this important book, they ask us to shake down our own unconscious biases; to clear the way for greater compassion, inclusion and respect for all.
