Participant Info

First Name
Brónagh
Last Name
McAtasney
Country
United Kingdom
State
Affiliation
Northern Ireland Screen
Website URL
www.digitalfilmarchive,net
Keywords
Public History, Northern Ireland, Women. Women Stories, Conflicting Narratives, Film Archive, Archive, Storytelling, Outreach, Engagement, Community history, community filmmaking
Availability
Media Contact
Additional Contact Information
PhD
MA

Personal Info

Photo
About Me

Brónagh McAtasney MA, is a Public Historian. Her focus is on archives and unheard voices, especially women.

Brónagh is Public Engagement Manager for Heritage & Education at Northern Ireland Screen. It is her role to develop engagement and responses to the Digital Film Archive (https://digitalfilmarchive.net), bringing the archive to a wide audience and facilitating interaction with groups, individuals, partnerships and in education.

Previous to this, Brónagh focussed on the Ulster Television archives, 1959-1969. In this position, she catalogues and published digitised UTV film from this period for access via the Digital Film Archive.

Brónagh has developed and worked on a number of public history projects in Northern Ireland.

These include:

Curating her own diary from 1981 on Twitter and BlueSky @NrnIrnGirl1981.

Dear Diary (https://www.makingthefuture.eu/dear-diary)
Using women’s diaries and letters to create a unique timeline of women’s history from 1798 to 1981.

The Horror! Filmmaking Programme
Using archives and the films of the Spence brothers to teach children 12-16 years to create one-minute horror films using low-budget techniques.
https://digitalfilmarchive.net/news/the-horror-1279

In Her Words
A Public Records Office of Northern Ireland exhibition showcasing the voices and experiences of unseen women in Northern Irish society.

Bronagh has also written a number of online articles and interviews: Lockdown Life, and My Pandemic Story on www.newry.ie

In 2021, her essay, “Chasing Boys Around Woolies and Other War Stories” was included in an anthology of writers living on the Northern Ireland border, The New Frontier: Reflections from The Irish Border (2021, Ed JC Patterson).

Recent Publications
When Horror and Local Stories Meet the Archives: Participatory Events in the North of Ireland
Creative Research Methods for Critical Event Studies (Taylor Francis, 2024), Edited By Louise Platt, Rebecca Finkel, Briony Sharp

https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/heritage/seeing-the-future-through-the-past-searching-for-more-than-history-in-northern-ireland-s-stories-1.4815171

https://womens-spaces.org/news/interview-with-bronagh-mcatasney/

https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/film/2022/08/17/the-looking-glass-anthology-artistic-interpretations-of-the-ni-digital-film-archive/

Media Coverage
https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/life/dear-diary-how-a-record-of-teen-life-in-80s-changed-ni-womans-life/40141970.html  https://www.rte.ie/radio/radio1/clips/21489137/
Country Focus
Northern Ireland
Expertise by Geography
British Isles, Ireland
Expertise by Chronology
20th century, 21st century
Expertise by Topic
Local & Regional, Public History, Women