Violence Against Women Focus of Tweedy Lecture

Posted on: 26 April 2013

The Trinity Centre for Gender & Women’s Studies recently held the third Tweedy Lecture entitled Bloody Footprints: the Anatomy of Violence against Women in association with the Tweedy Family.

The lecture was part of the Hilda and Robert Tweedy lecture series, consisting of biennial lectures alternatively addressing peace, gender and human rights, and environmental issues, which reflect long-time interests of Irish feminist activist, Hilda Tweedy and her husband, Robert Tweedy. The lecture series was set up in their memory by their daughter Dr. Jean M. Tweedy Walker who is a Trinity alumna.

Delivering the lecture was Turkish activist, actress and writer, Pelin Batu, who has lectured extensively throughout rural Anatolia with several NGOs. Introductory remarks were made by Dr Catherine Lawless from the Centre for Gender and Women’s Studies, Head of History at TCD, David Ditchburn, Dr Jean Tweedy Walker and the Turkish Ambassador to Ireland, His Excellency Necip Egüz.

Robert F. Tweedy, Elizabeth MacGovern (nee Tweedy), Ambassador Necip Egüz, Pelin Batu and Dr. Catherine Lawless.

The event also marked the public launch of the Hilda Tweedy Archive website, which has been established to showcase the life of Hilda and her family. The records contain a wide variety of private and public records, including personal writings and documents by Hilda, an extensive range of photographs, interviews and newspaper articles as well as a digital version of Hilda’s book A Link in the Chain: The Story of the Irish Housewives Association 1942-1992.

The archive was developed and created as part of the Bridge-IT project, a digital humanities project undertaken by the Centre for Gender and Women’s Studies at Trinity, which aims to preserve and increase the accessibility of sources for academic and private research while displaying the material in a technologically innovative and user-friendly way. The project was managed and coordinated by Claire Marie Quentin, Centre for Gender and Women’s Studies.