Category Archives: Catholicism

My review of “No Going Back” 40 years of the  North Staffordshire Miners’ Wives Action Group.

Posted on August 29, 2024 by lipstick socialist

In May 1993 as part of the Kate Magee Support Group I headed over to Stoke to meet up with the North Staffordshire Miners Wives Action Group. I arrived at Trentham colliery as Bridget Bell, Brenda Proctor and Gina Earle … Continue reading →

Posted in book review, Catholicism, Communism, drama, education, films, human rights, Ireland, labour history, Lorenza Mazzetti, North of Ireland, novels, political women, Socialist Feminism, trade unions, Uncategorized, women, working class history, young people | Leave a comment

My review of “Children of the Revolution” by Bill Rolston

Posted on February 5, 2024 by lipstick socialist

Reading this book reminded me when I joined on a protest sometimes in the 1980s  outside the West Midlands Police HQ for the Birmingham 6. I remember the children and grandchildren of the  imprisoned men who stood alongside campaigners. They … Continue reading →

Posted in Catholicism, Children of the Revolution, Communism, education, human rights, Ireland, Irish second generation, labour history, North of Ireland | 1 Comment

Margaret Mullarkey of Bolton Irish in Britain Representation Group; her life seen through the eyes of her children.

Posted on January 17, 2024 by lipstick socialist

  In the history of the Irish in Britain Representation Group many women were active; but,  as in other organisations,  their role has been often  marginalised and underestimated. One of those women was  Margaret Mullarkey of Bolton IBRG. Sadly, she … Continue reading →

Posted in Catholicism, education, human rights, Lorenza Mazzetti, novels, political women, Uncategorized, women, young people | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

My review of “The Sky is Falling” by Lorenza Mazzetti

Posted on September 24, 2023 by lipstick socialist

Lorenza Mazzetti (1927-2020) was a  writer, filmmaker,  and theatre puppeteer who wrote this, her first novel,  in 1962, published as II Cielo cade. It was only published in this country in 2022. “The Sky is Falling” is a fictionalised account … Continue reading →

Posted in book review, Catholicism, Communism, drama, education, films, human rights, Lorenza Mazzetti, novels, political women, Uncategorized, women, young people | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

After the end of the Miners’ Strike in 1985 Rose Hunter says: “Men lost their freedom; the women gained theirs.” Rose and her sisters in the  North Staffs Miners Wives Action Group  then embarked on forty years of  raising  issues about jobs and communities and making  links with other progressive strikes and organisations.

Posted on September 10, 2020 by lipstick socialist

Rose comes from a mining family. Her father, Denzil, was Indian who  went to Scotland and became a miner. Her mother, Mary, is from a Scots Irish background. The family moved to the Potteries for her father’s work in the … Continue reading →

Posted in book review, Catholicism, education, feminism, novels, TV drama, Uncategorized, women, working class history, young people | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

My review of “Breaking Ground: the story of the London Irish Women’s Centre” ( Michelle Deignan 2013)

Posted on July 20, 2020 by lipstick socialist

    On 26 November 1989, as the first woman chair of national Irish  organisation, IBRG, I spoke at the 5th London Irish Women’s Conference. Other speakers represented organisations as diverse as pensioners, adult education, Troops Out Movement, Open Line … Continue reading →

Posted in Catholicism, education, feminism, films, human rights, Ireland, Irish second generation, labour history, North of Ireland, political women, Socialist Feminism, trade unions, Uncategorized, women, working class history, young people | Tagged , | 1 Comment

History of the Irish in Britain Representation Group by Patrick Reynolds. Part 2: 1982

Posted on June 1, 2020 by lipstick socialist

Patrick Reynolds was one of the founders of IBRG and played a key role in its history. He is now writing up that history and putting it into the context of radical history in Britain and Ireland in the C20th. … Continue reading →

Posted in Catholicism, Communism, education, human rights, Ireland, Irish second generation, labour history, Manchester, North of Ireland, political women, Uncategorized, women, working class history, young people | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

My review of “Sisters in Cells” by Aine and Eibhlin Nic Giolla Easpaig

Posted on September 5, 2019 by lipstick socialist

  Aine and Eibhlin Nic Giolla Easpaig are unique in several ways. They were republican women political prisoners in the 70s – the first women of that era to be imprisoned in England, while their autobiography “Sisters in Cells” is … Continue reading →

Posted in biography, book review, Catholicism, human rights, Ireland, Irish second generation, labour history, Manchester, North of Ireland, political women, Uncategorized, women, working class history | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

My review of “The Metal Mountain” by John Healy

Posted on July 26, 2019 by lipstick socialist

IT  is 30 years since John Healy wrote his classic “Grass Arena”  his autobiography of growing up Irish in London. Published at a time when the Irish in Britain were going through a time of renaissance from politics in groups … Continue reading →

Posted in book review, Catholicism, education, feminism, human rights, Ireland, Irish second generation, labour history, North of Ireland, Uncategorized, women, working class history, young people | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

My review of “Moving Histories Irish Women’s Emigration to Britain from Independance to Republic” Jennifer Redmond

Posted on December 15, 2018 by lipstick socialist

  MORE Irish women than Irishmen have over the years emigrated from Ireland. In this new history of Ireland from the 1920s to the 1950s Jennifer Redmond uses an important array of new sources to tell their story. This includes … Continue reading →

Posted in book review, Catholicism, Communism, education, feminism, Ireland, Irish second generation, labour history, North of Ireland, political women, trade unions, Uncategorized, women, working class history, young people | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment