Museum project capturing life of Derry's factory girls

A new museum project is archiving a significant collection of artefacts to capture the life and times of those who worked in Londonderry's famous shirt factory industry.

A team from Derry's Tower Museum is to begin work on the collection, which includes personal photographs, handwritten ledgers and correspondence from the many shirt factory workers who helped power the north west economy throughout the 19th and 20th Centuries.

The archive will go on display at the state-of-the-art Derry-Londonderry North Atlantic (DNA) Museum, which is scheduled to open at Ebrington Square in autumn 2026.

Funding of £39,620 for the project was confirmed earlier this week through a National Archives grant.

Derry was a globally-renowned centre for shirt-making, with the industry developing from the late 19th Century.

By the 1920s, there were more than 40 shirt factories employing thousands of workers, with thousands more servicing the industry from their homes.

The Tillie and Henderson factory, near Craigavon Bridge, was even mentioned in Karl Marx's famous book, Capital.

The vast majority of those who did the job were women.

They were immortalised by the songwriter Phil Coulter in The Town I Loved So Well.

There were still hundreds of people employed in clothing manufacturing up until the early 2000s.

However, the industry has since been all but wiped out in the face of global competition, with one of the last traditional handmade shirt makers in Britain and Ireland closing in May 2019.

The Shirt Factories collection is aimed at recognising the vital role of local people and businesses that contributed to a key time in the city's history, organisers have said.

Nods to the many factory workers' contributions to the north west are seen across the city and district from murals to sculptures.

Head of Culture at Derry City and Strabane District Council, Aeidin McCarter, said they were delighted to have the opportunity to bring together a "comprehensive collection of items that will tell the story of the world-renowned shirt factories, which have become so synonymous with the city".

"As we prepare to unveil the new shirt factory sculpture in Harbour Square, this will be another enduring memorial to keep the memories alive, and I know this collection will be a fitting tribute to the thousands who contributed to the industry, especially those who are still with us today," she said.

"By cataloguing the collection in this way we can fully unlock those chapters in our history and share them with a wider audience.

"This will also be supported by a programme of engaging activities celebrating the contribution of the factory workers to the social, cultural and economic development of Derry over two centuries."

The National Archives' Revealed programme aims to ensure that significant archive collections, representing the lives and perspective of all people across the UK, are made accessible to the public for research and enjoyment.

Eilish McGuinness, chief executive of the National Lottery Heritage Fund, said "archives are home to our stories".

"Records, collections and histories all shine a light on who we are, how we live and what is important to us.

"I am delighted that funding from all four partners is enabling Archives Revealed projects to unlock and share many more of these stories right across the UK, safeguarding them for future generations."