Nollaig na mBan exhibition aims to capture essence of female empowerment

Empower Her is the work of Linda Hanlon, who hopes her collection of portraits and accompanying limited-edition book captures the essence of female empowerment in modern Ireland

Zainab Boladale, the first person of African heritage to work in the RTÉ newsroom, features in portrait exhibition Empower Her.

The timing is perfect. Not only does Empower Her, a new portrait exhibition celebrating the extraordinary women of Ireland, open on Nollaig na mBan (Women’s Christmas), it also offers new year advice that doesn’t involve turning yourself inside out.

Take these encouraging words from one of the 54 subjects, Commander Roberta O’Brien: “Nobody’s perfect, we learn from failures … Failure is success turned inside out.”

Or this piece of advice from Ireland’s first female tower crane operator, 19-year-old Kate Fahey: “No matter what gender you are, no matter what age you are, just go for it. I didn’t go to college after school, I went straight into construction and don’t regret it.”

And if you do decide to go to third level, don’t be so hard on yourself. As aeronautical engineer Norah Patten says: “Not everything works out in a straight line or immediately. You will fall many times, but it’s the getting up and getting yourself going again that shapes the person you are.”

Empower Her is the work of Linda Hanlon, a retired psychotherapist-turned-photographer who hopes her collection of portraits and accompanying limited-edition book captures the essence of female empowerment in modern Ireland.

“Women’s achievements often go unheralded," she says.

The aim of this project is to use the camera lens to illuminate extraordinary women and document the pathways they have created as a visual spur for others to create new ones

As the well-known phrase has it: “You need to see it, to be it”.

Commander Roberta O'Brien, the first woman to captain Irish naval ship, says: 'Failure is success turned inside out.'

And Empower Her, which launches in Cork tonight, showcases women of all ages — from 19 to 95 — and traces their many paths through life.

All of them have, in some way, pushed through a professional or personal ceiling.

There are many career firsts here, too — Linda Doyle, first female provost at Trinity College Dublin; Zainab Boladale, first person of African heritage to work in the RTÉ newsroom; Mary Horgan, first female president of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland — although the emphasis is on following your dream, rather than reaching the pinnacle.

Emerging sisterhood

Hanlon’s own path offers inspiration in itself. In 2020, following a bout of illness and the challenges of the covid pandemic, she decided to retire early from her private psychotherapy practice.

Long fascinated by the concept of personal empowerment, she returned to her passion for photography and set out on a journey across Ireland to show how women accomplished their goals.

The women were photographed individually, but the artist realised that an emerging sisterhood began to build from the first photo. She hopes that spirit lives on as people engage with the exhibition, reading the advice each woman passes on.

Their words are intended as a repository of collective wisdom about female resilience

And such wisdom. Here’s a perfect Nollaig na mBan message, courtesy of Mary Pyle, the oldest person to receive a doctorate at Trinity College Dublin: “I would say, don’t be afraid to start something when you’re older. 

"I began to play the cello at 60. My mother said I was too old at 16, so I started at 60 and I have loved it. I began my PhD in 2013 and finished it at age 84, so no hiding of age. But why not start, at whatever age, and finish or don’t finish, but do it.”

Empower Her opens tonight at St Peter’s visitor centre, Cork, and runs until February 1, opening Monday to Saturday from 10am to 5pm.