Na Cailleacha: 'We’ve decided we're quite proud of being old women'

A new arts collective has happily titled itself with the Irish word for 'witches'. Catherine Marshall, 72, explains why 
Na Cailleacha: 'We’ve decided we're quite proud of being old women'

Catherine Marshall, third from right, and the other members of the Cailleacha arts collective. 

A marginalised group appropriating a once-derogatory term is nothing new. LGBT movements have done it, some racial groups have done it. Now, it seems, it’s the turn of old women.

A new arts collective, made up of eight female artists based in Ireland with a combined professional practice of over 550 years, has adopted the name Na Cailleacha: the Irish word for hags or witches.

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