‘Factory Girls: Voices and Songs’ project striking the right chord
‘New songs inspired by the lives, voices, and histories of the Factory Girls who shaped communities, economies, and generations’
Sabrina Ives and Ciarán Dunphy are looking for singers, not the famous sewing machines but the women who might have used them in Derry’s once omnipresent shirt factories.
Musicians and singers, Sabrina and Ciarán are facilitating the ‘Factory Girls: Voices and Songs’ project - a singing group running at Derry Playhouse every Monday, from 4pm to 6pm, until May 4, 2026.
The Ulster University, Magee, MMus Creative Musicianship students are inviting women of all ages and abilities to get involved to “create and perform new songs inspired by the lives, voices, and histories of the Factory Girls who shaped communities, economies, and generations”.
Reassuringly, Sabrina and Ciarán described ‘Factory Girls: Voices and Songs’ as a “space for everyone”
“You don’t need to read music or have any previous singing experience - just a willingness to take part, explore and be heard,” smiled Sabrina, who was celebrating her birthday.
“Across the weeks we will sing together; share stories and ideas; create original songs as a group; and build towards an informal performance,” she added.
“The ‘Factory Girls: Voices and Songs’ project celebrates collective voice, creativity, and the power of coming together,” she added.
According to Ciarán, the idea for ‘Factory Girls: Voices and Songs’ was born out of the Music in Communities module of their master’s degree, which is based around creating projects.
“Initially I had an idea for a documentary about the Shirt Factory Girls because I had been doing research about Derry’s shirt factory industry. I only really learned about the Shirt Factory Girls when I came to Derry. It is very well known in Derry but it is not known outside of Derry,” said Ciarán, “and the more I learned about it, the more it blew me away.
“I did some research. I looked up Louise Walsh’s project. She recorded oral histories with the shirt factory workers back 12 or 13 years ago.
“There are obviously a few other things that have happened over the years but there wasn’t really much I could see that centred the workers themselves. There were songs written about it, books written about it but the women themselves and their stories, told by them, was a thing I felt there wasn’t really a lot of.
“But I quickly realised the idea of a documentary was way too big and way too unwieldy. Then Sabrina put forward the idea of a choral and song writing project, so, we put these two ideas together and came up with doing a song writing project for the shirt factory workers, for the factory girls.
“Over the last couple of months we have been making contact with as many different groups as possible in the city, and meeting people face-to-face and to introduce ourselves and answer any questions they have. We recognised that getting a group of people together and building the trust as well was going to take a bit of work. In addition we had a limited timescale but we were very happy with the turnout of five women at our initial session and we are hoping word of mouth will help keep it growing as well,” said Ciarán.
Originally from Australia, Sabrina who leads the sessions said she and Ciarán are helping the women involved to write the songs - the melody, the lyrics, everything.
“I love composing, that’s my job but it's giving the women involved the opportunity to dive back into their memories, their past. I think everyone deserves a chance to songwrite and the fact these special women are getting the opportunity is just great,” she added.
“Ciarán and I are two creatives coming together to put forward this project to really hone in on the shirt factory women who deserve to write a song. I think everyone deserves a chance to write a song but especially about this special project.
“I think what is amazing as well is that Ireland is such a musical land, so I think what is beautiful is ‘Factory Girls: Voices and Songs’actually brings out the culture, the memories but it is in your blood, in your veins.
“Getting the opportunity to work with women who are from my mother’s homeland is beautiful. It is a really great experience, a surreal experience. I never thought I would hop on a plane and come all the way here to live. It has always been a dream,” said Sabrina whose mum hailed from County Down.
“We wrote most of a song in the first session. It is very much a collaborative process. The mantra is ‘We are not doing this for the shirt factory women or about them, this is to be their project, by them and for them’, she added. “Ciarán and I are coming here to facilitate that. We have most of a song written which we will run through today”.
We have three more sessions of ‘Factory Girls: Voices and Songs’confirmed. The hope is we will finish up with a little repertoire.
“Brian Irvine, our course director, is big into music in community projects,” said Ciarán, “so he gave a few people to contact. We want to engage a choir to come in and sing with the women, that is the next thing, so we are hoping to finish off two recordings to send to them.
“The hope would be to do a live recording session, where we get everyone together, with an audience potentially and do a film and an audio recording and have that as something that can be put up on youtube or maybe put it out on Bandcamp.”
If anyone is interested in getting involved in ‘Factory Girls: Voices and Songs’ they can contact Ciarán Dunphy at:[email protected].