Culture And Memory

Our Hidden Healers - the untold heritage beyond the walls

Exploring the house’s 250-year history, we will focus on a powerful but underrepresented and untold narrative of the women and the medical legacies associated with this site. In this project we want to explore and discover the role of women as hidden healers, celebrating the untold medical and social heritage of St. Columb’s Park House in Derry/Londonderry. We will explore the connection to this house of the medical, nursing and caring professions including during the war effort through to the more modern day, (1985 when the Hospital Authority terminated health provision at St Columb's), championing the role women played in delivering health care provision in the Waterside area over that 45 year period. This initiative will engage the local community in unearthing and celebrating forgotten stories, re-animating spaces of healing, and inspiring new generations through heritage-based learning.