The Three Kings

• My grandmother loved Nollaig na mBan, when my Dad would collect her around lunchtime and bring her to visit with her sister in Dún Chaoin, a village in west County Kerry.
• They would both dress in their Sunday best, my grandmother wearing the colourful beaded necklace she saved for special occasions.
• My dad was their chauffeur because Nollaig na mBan was traditionally a “day off” for women after organising and executing a busy Christmas holiday for their families.

Celebrating Nollaig na mBan around Ireland

• The tradition of Nollaig na mBan has been celebrated for generations in West Kerry.
• Elsewhere in counties Kerry and Cork, as well as other Gaeltacht (Irish-speaking) areas it was also common, but in many other communities around Ireland it was not a tradition at all.
• In 1970, Danaher wrote of Nollaig na mBan: “Christmas Day was marked by beef and whiskey, men’s fare, while on Little Christmas Day the dainties preferred by women – cake, tea and wine, were more in evidence”.

Modern-day Nollaig na mBan traditions

• For the second year, a Nollaig na mBan festival is celebrating women in north County Dublin.
• Online discussion around Nollaig na mBan often centres on celebrating historical figures or creatives, alongside pictures women post of themselves with their female family members and friends.
• Nollaig na mBan is a day to remember how far women in Ireland have come since the latew 1970s before which bans against contraception and married women working limited our freedom.

[email protected] previously received funding but not currently from Culture Ireland, Arts Council of Ireland, Ealaín na Gaeltachta, Kerry County Council. She is affiliated with the Board of the Arts Council of Ireland and works at the Folklore Department, University College Cork.