'Dear Diary' participants create digital timeline sharing powerful insights of women from the archives

On Dear Diary Day 2020, the team behind our Women in the Archives project strand launched a fascinating new online resource showcasing diary entries by women throughout 1798-1981. 

The new Dear Diary resource, which provides a personal insight into how historical events impacted everyday life, was the creative output of a community engagement programme when seventeen women came together in the Public Record Office NI (PRONI) to explore and transcribe diaries.  

During this special online event, the researchers and team involved shared insights about the programme before the website was unveiled. Speaking about their experience of the programme some of the participants shared: 

"It's a very emotive experience hearing those voices coming back to life." Bronagh McAtasney.

"The way that the diaries were assigned was totally random and yet it turned out that I had lots of connections with the woman I was assigned to transcribe." Johanna Deaney.

"I applied to join the project not really knowing what I was getting myself in for. It was so nice to meet the other women involved - we had great days chatting and doing the tasks set for us. We were a group of women of different ages and backgrounds just like the diarists." Colette McCafferty.

Click here to visit the Dear Diary digital timeline but before you go, hear all about the programme in the video below.