'Building a platform for our voices to be heard': Migrant women's networks as locations of transformation in the republic of Ireland

Several migrant women's organisations have been set up in Ireland over the last decade. This article surveys three such groups: NOUR (Al Huda Women's Group), a Dublin independent Muslim women's group; WOMB (Women of Multi-Culture Balbriggan), a suburban multi-ethnic women's network; and AkiDwA, the African and Migrant Women's Network. In the second part of the article we focus in more depth on the evolution of the first two-NOUR and WOMB-both very different associations. Using the concept of network and focusing on the networking practices of these groups, we argue that migrant women's networks attest not only to women's agency and resourcefulness in transforming their lives but also to the nature of contemporary Irish society. We also suggest that, while the resilience and flexibility of networking embody a culture of global gendered resistance, networking also bespeaks the contradictions that migrant women face in Ireland, showing the everyday experiences of belonging and living in the margins and in-between social locations. © 2011 Taylor & Francis.