IWN Hosts First Intercultural Event to Raise Awareness about the Irish Pilot of INSPIRE

On 1st April 2025, the Intercultural Women’s Network (IWN) held an event to celebrate their 10 year anniversary, in the Mansion House, Dublin. Organised by the IWN in partnership with CiviQ and researchers from the School of Applied Social Studies at UCC. The event was attended by women from a diverse group of migrant backgrounds in Ireland. 

Speakers at the event included migrant women from diverse backgrounds sharing stories of their life in Ireland. They delivered in depth, heartfelt and progressive accounts of their experiences as researchers, practitioners, professionals, family members, caregivers, executives. They highlighted how they are vested in the process of resisting inequalities by focusing on the importance of practising communities as a form of resisting inequalities that marginalised groups face at large.  

Dr Zhyan Phelan (Chair of the IWN) emphasised the importance of the interconnectedness of women representing themselves and their communities, while Dr Catherine Forde (UCC) focused on the embedded nature of the reflexive communicativity that INSPIRED the event. Other speakers included Ibtihal Saud who emphaised on the importance of talking about the remarkable tenacity and strength of migrant women from around the world, Pere Banaf who spoke about the importance of female autonomy and independence and Leen Al Azhary spoke of the importance of growing connections among women from all backgrounds in Ireland for fostering inclusion and creating strong communities. Participants sharing their stories inclusive of their life histories, memories and presence allowed a form of meaning making that had a lease of life of its own.  

This inter-dependency and symbiotic relationship between the individuals and communities that constitute the IWN have allowed it to flourish over the years into the dynamic organisation that it has become. The IWN now connects women from culturally diverse communities and allowing spontaneous inter-cultural relationships to foster dynamically. This most recent event was an embodiment of a spirit of the dynamic qualities that are present in the individual women representing the multiple communities that are part of the organisation.  

The event also served to expand the verbiage of multicultural communication through culinary exchange, singing, dancing and providing a space for spontaneous conversation that enabled dialogical exchange between the attendees. 

It was a powerful event in terms of understanding perspectives and lived experience that is central to the INSPIRE project. This ongoing learning and understanding will inform INSPIRE’s research event in May which will explore women's perspectives on inclusion. The event will use visual art and filmography to support participation as a spontaneous method and mechanism. The emphasis on spontaneity allows co-designing the methods of reflexive participation. Such an approach allows research practice to evolve that draws from community, life histories and everyday experiences to produce meaningful research. 

The event had representation from several women’s organisations from across Ireland. Women from the Afro Diaspora Center, Latina Women Against Violence, Hands for Unity Drogheda, Amal Islamic Women’s Group, National Women’s Council of Ireland, Arabesque Events, Islamic Cultural Centre of Ireland, Indian Ladies in Ireland and New Communities Partnership. On reflection, the event embodied the central theme of INSPIRE that attempts to facilitate deliberative participation amongst the diverse aspects of community-based practice.