"PARITAS" noun. [Latin feminine] /pari'ta/: parity, equality, and equivalence. (2018–ongoing), a new portrait series exploring Irish and global feminist political activism through the depiction of individuals in locations of social-historical and international political significance.

Research Material: Photo courtesy of the Houses of the Oireachtas, Ireland. Tuesday 9th December 2008 documentation of an event for all former and (at that time) current women TDs and Senators.

Trezija Stoisits (2022), The Belvedere Museum, Vienna.

In 1896, Vienna, Austria, the Upper Belvedere was a residence for Franz Ferdinand. His assassination in June 1914 contributed to the outbreak of WW1 and the collapse of the Habsburg Monarchy. After WW1, many nations instigated the right to vote for women.

Ivana Bacik (2018), The Mansion House, Dublin.

The 100th anniversary of women achieving the right to vote in Ireland (and the UK) was on Friday, 14th December 2018. On this date, Dunsmore filmed a video portrait of Ivana Bacik in the location of the first Dáil Éireann (Irish Government), the ‘Round Room’ of The Mansion House, Dublin.

Nell McCafferty (2019), Platform 2, Connolly train station, Dublin.

In 1971, members of the Irish Women’s Liberation Movement (IWLM) staged a media event. They traveled to Belfast by train to buy contraceptives in protest against the law prohibiting the importation and sale of contraceptives in Ireland.

These portraits have not yet been exhibited, and the filming location documentation represents the artworks.

image shows camera equipment used to film Trezija Stoisits's portrait at the location of The Belvedere Museum, in Vienna, 2022
Trezija Stoisits filmed portrait location The Belvedere Museum, Vienna, 2022

Image depicts the location for Trezija Stoisits, The Belvedere, Vienna, 2022.

Trezija Stoisits is an Austrian Green Party member, past parliamentary minister, and feminist. She is known in Austria for her long-standing advocacy for minorities. She was also directly involved in the repatriation of artworks taken by the Nazis. Since December 2019, she has served as Head of the Executive Board of the Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies (VWI). Dunsmore filmed Trezija Stoisits’s portrait outside The Belvedere Museum in Vienna, which is one of the world’s first public art galleries and museums. The Belvedere later had a representative association with Nazi authorities' attitudes towards "degenerate art" and artwork appropriation.

Trezija Stoisits (portrait has not yet been exhibited) was made in collaboration with KunstRaum xtd Gallery, Austria. The portrait is silent and 20 mins long. Edition of 3 + 1 AP. 2022. Edition 1; Collection of KunstRaum xtd, Linz, Austria.

Camera set up for the filming of Ivana Bacik portrait, in the Mansion House, Dublin, 2018
Image depicts filming location Ivana Bacik's portrait, filmed on the 14th December 2018, the Round Room, in The Mansion House, Dublin

Image depicts the location for Ivana, The Mansion House, Dublin, 20 mins, 2018.

Ivana Bacik is the leader of the Irish Labour Party. Her research interests include criminal law, criminology, feminist theory of law, and equality law. She was Chairperson of the Oireachtas Vótáil 100 Committee, which organized a programme of events in 2018 to mark the centenary of women’s suffrage in Ireland.

The portrait of (then Senator) Ivana Bacik embodies significant social and political change. It conceptually represents the 80 Oireachtas women she brought together in 2008 and serves as a visual marker of the 100th anniversary of the election in which women first had the vote in Ireland and Britain.

Nell McCafferty portrait filming set up, on location at Connelly Street train station, Dublin, 2019.
Nell McCafferty portrait filming set up, on location at Connolly Street train station, Dublin, 2019.

Image depicts Nell McCafferty on Platform 2, Connolly Station, being filmed for her silent 14-minute portrait, 2019.

Nell McCafferty (1944–2024) was known as a social campaigner, a playwright, and an outspoken feminist. She was described by Aine Lawler on RTE’s Morning Ireland in 2023 as "the fiercest feminist of her time." She wrote about the church and state, their attitudes toward women and the working class, and the role of the British government in Northern Ireland. She was prominent in campaigns for contraception, divorce, and equal pay, and she was a founding member of the Irish Women’s Liberation Movement (IWLM).

In 1971, the IWLM traveled to Belfast by train to buy contraceptives in protest against the law prohibiting their importation and sale in Ireland. At Connolly Station in Dublin, where the Belfast train returned to Platform 2 with the women on board, demonstrators chanted "let them through" and "enforce the constitution" at the customs officials. It was a landmark moment in the Irish women’s movement.