“WHO’S YOUR HEROINE?”
ANIMATION PROJECT
Watch the 6 animated short films on RTÉ Player now.
As part of the Herstory 20/20 Project, RTÉjr commissioned 6 brand-new Irish animations about 6 more great Irish women.
Entitled Who’s Your Heroine?, RTÉjr invited children and young people from ages 7 – 17 to nominate the women who inspire them and whom they think should be the subjects of these 6 RTÉ animations.
There was no limit to the women who could be nominated: it could be a pioneering woman from history; a mythological legend, or a woman at the heart of someone’s family or local community with an awe-inspiring story.
From hundreds of entries, 6 were chosen to become the subjects of original RTÉ animations…
Máire Ní Chinnéide
Nominated by Sadhbh King, School St Pius X GNS, Dublin
Animation by Out Left Productions
‘My heroine is Máire Ni Chinnéide. She was the founder of the game of camogie, and I think that for that reason, she deserves to be recognised and celebrated…’
Read more about this entry here.
Dr Norah Patten
Nominated by Clara Bermingham, School Loreto Beaufort Rathfarnham, Co. Dublin
Animation by Daily Madness
‘My heroine is Dr Norah Patten, from Ballina, Mayo. I think she should be the subject of an RTÉ Junior animation show because she is very inspirational. At 11 years old she visited NASA, she decided after that trip she wanted to be an astronaut…’
Read more about this entry here.
The Irish Granny
Nominated by Henry Judge, Dublin 7 Educate Together
Animation by Treehouse Republic
‘Irish grannies are some of the most amazing people ever. Well, to children anyway..'.’
Read more about this entry here.
Lilian Bland
Suggested by Adam Djerroud, Dublin 7 Educate Together
Animation by FlickerPix
‘Lilian Bland was born in Maidstone, England on September 22 1878. Lilian was the first female in Ireland to build and fly an aircraft…’
Read more about this entry here.
Laura Geraldine Lennox
Nominated by Kate Fitzgerald, Dromahone N.S., Co. Cork
Animation by Caboom
‘Laura Geraldine Lennox is my great-great grandaunt. She was born in Durrus, West Cork in 1883 and was a suffragette…’
Read more about this entry here.
Discover how this animation was made, how the ‘paper-puppets’ worked and how Kate, Laura Lennox’s great-great-grandniece recorded her voice for the animation here.
Mary Elmes
Nominated by Lela Curran
Animation by Bowsie
Mary was an Irish aid worker who saved the lives of hundreds of Jewish children at various times during the Holocaust…
Watch the 6 animated short films on RTÉ Player now.
For teachers, you’ll find lesson plans for primary and secondary school children. These take the form of a Herstory Treasure Hunt, with lesson plan exercises that help children and young people to uncover lost heroines and awaken their own inner heroines or heroes. Plus, there’s a special exercise around the heroines of the Northern Irish Peace Process who were honoured at the forthcoming 2020 Herstory Light Festival. Teachers can log on here to download the lesson plans.
““I have always believed that the young people of Ireland and Northern Ireland will steal the show in the Herstory 20/20 Project,” says Melanie Lynch of Herstory. ”The RTÉjr animation project and the Treasure Hunt schools workshops are magical opportunities to celebrate your heroine and ensure herstory is never forgotten. To quote the wonderful Inez McCormack; “At the heart of everything, I desire to see the glint in a woman’s eye who thought she was nobody, when she realised she was somebody.””