Ursula celebrates the women of Dominick Street

A captivating new book launching this Sunday celebrates the vibrant history of Dominick Street through the lives of the women who lived and worked there.

In ‘Snappin’ Twine’, Mullingar author Ursula Kane Cafferty, who grew up in Dominick Street, draws on her childhood experiences to explore and describe the resilience, ingenuity, and community spirit that defined the women of what was at the time as much a residential street as a business location.

The book offers a blend of prose, poetry, and personal reflections, focusing on the women who shaped Ursula’s life growing up in the 1960s. It also contains old photos of the street by photographers such as Sean Magee and the late father and son pair, Leo and William Daly.

“It’s not a book you sit down and read from cover to cover, it’s a book you dip in and out of,” says Ursula.

Adding a modern touch, Snappin’ Twine includes QR codes for each chapter. When scanned, readers can listen to the voice of Ursula, and also her collaborator, Mary Hughes, reading the items aloud.

Ursula grew up in the building that is now Con’s, and her mother, Helen Kane, is a central figure in the narrative.

Described by Ursula as ‘a great woman’, Helen ran a bustling business after being abandoned by her husband, keeping her head held high despite the disdain she endured because of her domestic situation.

Some of the family names Ursula recalls from her childhood are still on the street. The Coppola family still live on Dominick Street. The O’Malley family still has a business on the street.

Other names are still fresh in the memory. Whitelaws, who are located where Galvin’s is now; O’Callaghans, Katie Mahon, who ran Rochforts; the Bird sisters, who ran a pub in the street; Mrs Connolly, who ran a restaurant and B&B; the Caulfields, the Cullens, to mention just some.

Another woman of note who features in the book is the Westmeath Examiner’s Mary Nea. Suitably she gets mentioned in a verse entitled Dynamism.

Whether they were pub owners, teachers, chemists, or homemakers, Ursula emphasises how each woman contributed to the life and vibrancy of the community.

There were a lot of children living in the street too, as a result, and Ursula has their names listed on a bookmark which goes with the new book.

“The street was our playground,” she continues, adding that a favourite place to play was where the millstone sculpture now stands, outside the NJ Downes offices on Dominick Square.

Despite historical views of women as oppressed in that time, Ursula paints a more nuanced picture. She reflects on the sense of freedom and agency that women had within their roles, noting how societal constraints were often cleverly navigated.

“It might appear that the women of that generation all had comparable lives but reflecting on my memories of the similarities and differences of the Snappin’ Twine women, I was left with a few thoughts and many questions.

"I wondered about things such as… did those women have to sacrifice their individuality to survive in that world? Were they taken for granted? Has history tarnished their legacy?

“There are no real answers to those questions without them being influenced by the prism of today’s world view, but my best explanation of how the women of that generation managed is contained in the piece entitled Freedom on page 6… they were ‘unlimited in their own mind’s eyes’.”

There’s immense affection for these people contained in Ursula’s memory, and brought to life in the pages of her book: “Aren’t we the fortunate ones to have such strong shoulders to stand on?” she muses.

“At the end of the creative process there’s one thing I’m sure of… each and every one of the women was amazing in her own way! I feel lucky to have grown up surrounded by such wonderful female role models and I hope I have done them justice in my book,” she concludes.

Ursula, a retired healthcare professional, is a graduate of the Maeve Binchy Writers Course at the National College of Ireland. She is author of ‘Suitcase Number 7’ and developer of the board game ActiVacation.

Snappin’ Twine will be available to purchase via Just Books in Mullingar and from Roy O’Connor’s Spar on Dominick Street and via ursulakanecafferty.ie.