History of the local 'Votes for Women' campaign explored in a Talk

November 28, 2018

Almost 100 people attended a talk on the history of women’s suffrage in Lisburn and the life of local suffragette Lilian Metge at the Irish Linen Centre & Lisburn Museum on Wednesday 21st November 2018.  The talk was part of the Museum’s hugely popular autumn lecture series, now in its fifth year, and a wider programme of events across the Council marking 100 years since women were granted the voted. 

Chair of the Council’s Leisure and Community Development Committee Alderman Paul Porter, who recently opened the Museum’s exhibition exploring women and the First World War, said: “Lisburn had a thriving women’s suffrage society, and it wonderful to see such enthusiasm for its history.”

The speaker, the Museum’s Research Officer Dr Ciaran Toal, based the talk on research the Museum had undertaken as part of its First World War exhibition and education programme.  In introducing the talk Collette Brownlee, Education Services Officer, remarked that “over 100 years earlier the Assembly Room, now Lisburn Museum, had hosted meetings of the Lisburn Suffrage Society and it was fitting that today, in the same room, the history of the Society, and the wider suffrage campaign in Ulster, would be explored.”

The exhibition ‘A voice of her own? A women’s place after the Great War’ is on display until 2019 in the Museum. 

The exhibition includes the museum’s most recent acquisition, a rare WSPU medal belonging to local suffragette Lillian Metge. 

Admission is free. 

For more details visit lisburnmuseum.com