A research initiative on 'Women and Irish Society: Understanding the Past and Present Through Archives and Social Research' received a significant research grant from the Higher Education Authority Programme for research in Third Level Institutions in Ireland. The Women and Irish Society project represented a collaborative venture between staff from the Departments of Applied Social Studies, English and Sociology in University College Cork. The project was successfully launched on Friday, the 18th of February 2000, and it was attended by a number of academics from Ireland, England and Canada who constituted the panel of experts and who provided support and guidance to the project.

The overall project aimed to develop UCC as an international centre for excellence in research into Women in Irish Society. It sought to illuminate the transformation of women's lives in Irish society over time and place, through sociological, literary and applied social research.
   
The oral history strand of the project sought to document the working lives of women in the Munster counties of Cork, Kerry and Limerick, during the period 1936-1960, through the collection of oral histories. It was designed to elicit information from women about their experiences of working, their family lives, their schooling and their impressions of how women's lives in Ireland have changed since this period.