A Film Screening of “The Wildish Things”

A Lecture on Irish Women’s Activism in Britain, given by the long-standing feminist, activist and author Ann Rossiter: Filmed and Directed by Sé Merry Doyle.

To mark Women’s History Month 2025, the ICC is delighted to present a film screening of a powerful lecture on Irish Women’s History, which took place here at the Irish Cultural Centre in May 2024. For those of you who were not able to attend Ann Rossitor’s lecture last year, here is another chance for you to see her.

In her Lecture “These Wildish Things” – Ann Rossiter explores the political activism of London-Irish women, focusing on their involvement in the Irish National Question during the Troubles and their advocacy for Irish women’s reproductive rights leading up to the repeal of the Republic’s 8th amendment in 2018.

This lecture is based on Ann Rossiter’s own experience as a London-Irish activist and on her forthcoming book which airs a historical account of some of the radical feminist groups stretching back to the years of ‘the Troubles’ when The Women on Ireland Collective (1973-4), The Women and Ireland Group (1976-80), and the London Armagh Group (1980-c.1987) were active on issues concerning the Irish National Questions  This is followed by a focus on the reproductive rights groups, IWASG (Irish Women’s Abortion Support Group, 1980-2000), Iasc, (Irish Abortion Solidarity Campaign, 1990-2008), and by the performance art group, ‘Speaking of IMELDA’ (Ireland Making England the Legal Destination for Abortion) set up in post-Troubles London in 2013.  Through it’s employment of humour, parody,  satire and performance, IMELDA’s activities presented a colourful, but sharp, challenge to the Republic of Ireland’s tradition of exporting abortion to Britain until the repeal of the 8th Amendment to the constitution in 2018.

“… wildish things these/little newbreed Irish girls scarce/parented, not to be grooved into/rectangular requisite…” ( by Poet Eithne Strong)

About Ann Rossiter:

Ann Rossiter, a long-standing feminist activist living in London, hails from the village of Bruree, Co. Limerick from where she emigrated in 1961 to live in France and Spain before finally settling in London in the late 1960s. She attended the Sorbonne University in Paris, City and South Bank universities in London, receiving a doctorate in the history of Irish and British feminism during ‘the Troubles’ from the latter. She taught Irish Studies at various institutions, including Birkbeck, Kilburn Polytechnic, Luton, and London Metropolitan Universities. She has appeared in a number of documentary films and videos; her writings are extensive, ranging from academic essays to journal and magazine articles, as well as The Other Irish Journey, a survey of Northern Irish women attending British abortion clinicsconducted with Mary Sexton in 2000/2001 and published jointly by Marie Stopes International and Voice for Choice in 2001. Her book, Ireland’s Hidden Diaspora: the ‘abortion trail’ and the making of a London-Irish underground, 1980-2000 was published in 2009. As an octogenarian, Ann is still campaigning on feminist and international issues, writing her memoir, and working on HOWL (History of Women’s Liberation), an online repository for UK-wide, diverse grassroots recollections of the Women’s Liberation Movement from 1969 to the 1990s.

Ann Rossiter will be attending this Film Screening and will be open to questions at the end of the film.