Belfast-themed Christmas card collection helping to raise thousands for Women’s Aid

Christmas cards showing Belfast’s festive side are helping to raise thousands of pounds for Women’s Aid.

Created by Castlerock fashion designer and artist Sara O’Neill, the illustrations feature landmarks including Belfast Castle and the King’s Hall.

Since the campaign first started three years ago, Ms O’Neill told The Irish News that over £37,000 has now been raised for the charity.

The designs of dream-like winter scenes outside Belfast landmarks feature a character based on mill-workers.

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“My great-granny was a millie and they were such a massive influence on Belfast, they were the backbone of the economy and society but are given so little credit,” she said.

“Millie was also such a derogatory term for so many years, so I wanted to reclaim that and came up with a character from the 1930s.

“I wanted to bring in some Belfast architecture as well and created a whole world for this little millie. Through social media, people started sharing stories of their granny, mummy and aunties who were millies.

“I felt this was really personal to a lot of people and felt like a good time to give back to women.”

With the cards selling out within minutes in the first year, the team now use a pre-order system before volunteers pack up the deliveries at an event in Belfast Castle in early November.

This month, Women’s Aid spoke out against the “shocking” levels of femicide in Northern Ireland, with four women killed in six weeks.

“Women’s Aid is sadly such a vital charity in our society,” Ms O’Neill said.

“The first thing that attracted me to working with them was a very arresting campaign they had during lockdown, drawing attention to the fact we were told to stay home to be safe.

“But others were having to stay at home with their abusers. That really grabbed me and I’m constantly in awe of the work they do.

“Getting to contribute in a small way to their work is amazing.

“A lot of people will now thank me for talking about Women’s Aid because it destigmatises it.

“I was shocked that was even an issue. I’m very lucky to do amazing fashion projects, but this is such a special thing to work on.”

To allow enough time to prepare deliveries, orders for the Christmas cards must be placed online by the end of this weekend via shesellsanctuary.bigcartel.com.