The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) and the Northern Ireland War Memorial (NIWM) invite you to a talk on 'Wrens, WAAF, and Wardens: Women during the War' by Dr Robyn Atcheson as part of NI Science Festival 2026.

When war broke out across Europe, women in Northern Ireland began to organise. They volunteered, they entered new professions, they took on roles that were unthinkable for their mothers and grandmothers. This talk explores the lives of women during the war; those who served officially, those who assisted unofficially and those who dealt with the daily reality of war.

Women played key roles in war-time Northern Ireland and were on the front line in response to the Belfast Blitz in 1941. Using testimony from the women themselves, historian Dr Robyn Atcheson tells the stories usually neglected in histories of the Second World War by focusing on the women who lived and died in 1940s Northern Ireland.

About the speaker:

Dr Robyn Atcheson is a social historian and history communicator who specialises in the histories of the marginalised in Irish history. Her research focuses on the poor of Belfast, public health in Ulster and the history of women across the eighteenth to twentieth centuries.

The lecture will take place on Tuesday 17 February 2026 at PRONI (2 Titanic Boulevard, Titanic Quarter, Belfast, BT3 9HQ) starting at 1pm.

*Register for a FREE ticket via Eventbrite: Wrens, WAAF, and Wardens: Women during the War*