Projects

Millie Girls

The Millie Girls project was a fantastic project based in Clonard Monastery Youth Centre.

This was an education project that involved the young women from the group to carry out research of the proud history of women and girls who worked in the Mills in Belfast. The girls visited alot of interesting places as they collected their information. Some of these locations included; the Conway Mill which is very close to the Youth Centre, also Clonard House which is a centre for the elderly and they also visted the Clonard Monastery.

Conway Mill was really interesting. The girl got a guided tour of the building and listened to interesting stories about the Mill. The Mill was quite a scary place especially the places that are not open to the public anymore. It was really great to see actually where the Mill workers carried out their long days at work making Linen in Belfast.

Our visit to Clonard house was very enjoyable. We got the opportunity to meet lots of women who had actually worked in the Mills throughout Belfast. We carried out interviews with them. We also had a tea party with them and we had such a laugh! The ladies there were very friendly and were really glad of our company.

When we visited Clonard Monastery we met up with Father O' Donnell. He has been passionate about the Mills in Belfast for a very long time and he was able to offer us alot of historical information. Father O' Donnell was also good fun to be with and he told us alot of great stories.

To bring this project to an end we celebrated all our hard work with a presentation that was held in Clonard Youth Centre in December 2007. At this presentation we had a photographic wall display, a mini museum and display boards containing alot of our work. At this presentation we also launched our 'Millie Girls' information booklet. This was a great evening and their was alot of people there that celebrated then end of this wonderful project.

We are all very glad that we got the opportunity to be part of a project like this one! If you would like a copy of the Millie Girls booklet please contact Regina on 02890 325939. Also go and have a look in the gallery section for more photgraphs of the Millie Girls!!

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