The largest body of historical documentation on the modern Irish women's movement ever assembled has been deposited at the Boole Library in University College Cork. It includes the archive of Irish Feminist Information (IFI) and Attic Press.
Founded in 1978 by Roisin Conroy and Mary Doran, IFI published the first Irishwoman's Calendar: An End and a Begin- ning, as well as the annual Irish Women's Diary and Guidebook.
It then organised two courses for women in community publishing, from which emerged Attic Press, which was to become a significant force in feminist publishing.
Attic has now been acquired by the Cork University Press. The Boole librarian, Mr John Fitzgerald, said the collection was an unparalleled resource for the study and understanding of Irish social history, particularly the development of the feminist movement in the State.
The archive, he added, would be used extensively by students at UCC as well as the wider research community in Ireland and further afield.
It is also planned that access to the collection will be open to the general research public and will not be confined solely to students at the university.
The former president, Mrs Mary Robinson, now UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, has acknowledged Ms Conroy's contribution to women's studies and has said that the opportunities the collection offered would be important for future researchers.
The Attic Press takeover, coinciding with the new home for the archive, marked, Ms Conroy said recently, "the passing of the pen" to a new and younger generation at Cork University Press which was emerging with fresh ideas and approaches.
And, she added: "These are the minds that now need to demand the further changes necessary for women moving into the next century." Summing up, Ms Conroy spoke of where the women's movement is now and where it is going. "Women's studies and gender studies are now an integral part of university life. School texts and images of women have changed also.
"Attic Press has contributed enormously to the debates on, by and about women's issues that have dominated Irish society in the last two decades. These issues include poverty, divorce, violence, equality legislation, health, contraception, abortion, pay and public representation."
The CUP is the oldest commercially active university imprint in the State.
It was founded in 1925. CUP publisher Ms Sara Wilbourne believes the acquisition of Attic Press will strengthen its plans to enter the more general publishing arena.