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My aim is to tell the previously untold life story of my grandmother, Rita.

Her work on the farm and the household often went unrecognised, both by her family and society in general, not only in Rita’s case, but for many farmer’s wives at the time. The work of the men of the farms is often praised and highly regarded. However, the women’s role on the farm was a crucial one that is rarely spoken about and extremely undermined. Rita often took on the jobs of the farm, from feeding calves to rearing turf, alongside feeding and rearing ten children of her own plus the upkeep of the house.

 

‘Love Mam and All’ reveals the true stories of the commitment and dedication of my grandmother to the house, to the farm and to her children throughout her life time. These stories are told through the eyes of those who knew her best, her ten loving children.

 

The book could be book to be published on the Her Story website. The website contains a section called ‘Meet the Women.’ I think Rita represents many farm women of her time, whose work and life was unspoken about, however this book is finally telling these stories and making the hard work and hard life that she and other women had recognised. 

 

I started off the project knowing very little about my grandmother, apart from the occasional stories my own Mother told about her. I devised some questions that I wanted the answers to for example; when she was born, what age she was when she got married and so on. I began by asking my Mother these questions. Then I discovered that my Mother didn’t know the answers to some of my questions as she was too young or they had faded from her memory. From here

I interviewed the rest of my aunties and uncles. Some of the information overlapped and added a little extra detail each time. I also got some of Rita’s belongings that were kept for memories. Some of these belongings included beautiful handwritten letters. One of which was written to her daughter Dolores. The other was written to her husband. After seeing those letters I knew that I wanted a type face that complimented the handwriting on the letters.

The prayer book that belonged to her was also going to be an important feature as I discovered that she was a highly devoted woman of God.

She was very influenced by the priests and lived her life within the eyes of the Catholic Church.