Children from Long Tower PS, Nazareth House PS, Fountain PS, Gaelscoil Éadain Mhóir and St. Eugene’s PS recently took part in Made in Our City – My Shirt, My Story – a project exploring the history of the city’s shirt factories.
From the late 19th Century, Derry became a global centre for shirt-making and by the 1920s, the city was home to more than 40 factories, employing thousands of workers.
The factories were central to people’s daily lives, and their influence and legacy is still felt in many families across the city today.
Artist Caroline Devenney worked closely with the children, helping them to connect with the stories behind our city’s once thriving shirt-making industry and supporting them in creating their own textile-based artworks, while Deirdre Williams, an expert in the Shirt Factories, gave the children a real sense of the people who worked in the factories.
The fantastic pieces produced by the children are now part of Féile’s latest exhibition, currently on display at Abercorn Play Park, right next to the site of the old Tillie and Henderson shirt factory.
A big thank you to all the schools who took part – and to Caroline and Deirdre – for helping bring these important stories to life.
This project was part of Féile’s Connect:Interact:Create programme, supported by the Executive Office’s Central Good Relations Fund.
