Exhibition at Mayo Museum celebrates the community midwives of the twentieth century

The National Museum of Ireland – Country Life at Turlough Park has opened a new temporary exhibition, ‘Mary Anne Fanning: Remembering Our Community Midwives’.

The exhibition, which remains until March 2025, celebrates the often-unsung contributions of community midwives to maternity care in Ireland in the early twentieth century.

This exhibition is a project by the Irish Community Archive Network (iCAN), delivered in partnership with the Heritage Council and participating Local Heritage Officers. 

The exhibit is centred around Mary Anne Fanning, a District Midwife and Nurse in Kerry and then Dublin over the course of a 48-year-long career.

_{Pacelli Linscheid, Dr Éimear O’Connor, and Emma Laffey (Photo: Brian Farrell)}

The exhibition features the stories of midwives and nurses from Mayo, researched by the Historical Ballinrobe and the Louisburgh & Killeen Heritage iCAN groups. There are also stories from Clare, Cork, Galway, Tipperary & Wicklow.  In total, 22 groups in the Irish Community Archive Network (iCAN) contributed to the exhibition.

Regulation of midwifery in Ireland started before the foundation of the State, in 1918, and is ongoing today.  Birth over this time has evolved from most births happening at home in the early twentieth century, to 30 percent in the 1950s, 3 percent in the 1970s and 0.3 percent in the 1990s. There has been a recent upsurge in the number of women planning birth at home, with demand well more than what can be provided by the available private and public midwifery led services.

The exhibition features several objects relating to Mary Anne Fanning, including her 124-year-old leather midwifery bag, which was used to render medical aid to senior commander Thomas Ashe, as well as other volunteers during the 1916 Rising.

The exhibition also features some of Mary Anne’s medical instruments, her midwifery certificates, a writing bureau, and a christening gown from 1902 still in use by the family.

A video includes memories from her grandchildren with a short cinefilm clip of Mary Anne, plus an oil painting by her great-great-granddaughter, and poetry in her memory. Audio recordings delve into the life of a rural midwife, modern midwifery, and birthing customs, with insights from Kathleen Ward, a 93-year-old member of the Travelling community.

Visitors can also engage with audio recordings, touchscreen stories, and personal reflections from midwives and their families. The exhibition invites the public to contribute their own memories through a Midwives’ Memory Book, encouraging a collective reflection on the role of midwifery in Irish communities.

Community curator Emma Laffey, a healthcare assistant in the maternity department at Portiuncula Hospital, Galway, and a mother of six, began researching the history of community midwifery while exploring her family history. Discovering her great-grandmother's death from ‘maternal exhaustion’ led Emma to delve into the important role of community midwives in early twentieth-century Ireland. Director of the National Museum of Ireland, Lynn Scarff, called the exhibition ‘a tribute to the extraordinary work of community midwives, whose dedication and care helped shape the lives of countless families across Ireland’. 

“Through this exhibition, we not only honour the legacy of its subjects, but we also celebrate the dedication of volunteers and heritage groups who continue to preserve and share these remarkable stories in digital archives. It is a powerful reminder of the value of community history in understanding our shared past,” she added.

Ms Laffey added; “Through my work as a healthcare assistant, I was always very interested in a time when women only birthed their babies at home. It was a time that carried immense risks and vulnerabilities for both the mother and the child. 

“These women overcame so many barriers to get educated and work for themselves. They were pillars of the community, and I am delighted they are being given the recognition they deserve,” she said.

Chief Executive of the Heritage Council, Virginia Teehan, said the Heritage Council was ‘proud’ to fund Ms Laffey’s book, ‘An Bhean Ghlúine’, which inspired this exhibition. 

“Laffey’s book and this exhibition remind us of the importance of local midwives in providing culturally sensitive, community-based care, addressing unique challenges such as geographic isolation, limited access to medical facilities, and the need for personalised care.”

Pacelli Linscheid, who is a granddaughter of Mary Anne Fanning, is ‘so incredibly proud’ to see her grandmother’s legacy honoured ‘in this way by the National Museum of Ireland’. 

She concluded: “Her dedication to the community and to helping families in their most vulnerable moments is something that has inspired generations of our family.”

A public program will accompany the duration of the exhibition, with highlights including a talk on community midwives by Emma Laffey on October 19, a talk by Lisa McGeeney on the professionalism of nursing and midwifery in the poor-law unions between 1882 and 1922 in November, a lace demonstration by the Headford Lace Project in December, and a baby rattle-making workshop in February 7. 

Other events include talks on nursing professionalism, midwifery traditions, and a midwifery genealogy workshop.

This temporary, free, exhibition, Mary Anne Fanning: Remembering Our Community Midwives, will run at the National Museum of Ireland – Country Life in Mayo until March 2025.