Category Archives: human rights

My review of Malgorzata Mirga-Tas; Romani textile artist and activist exhibition and book

Posted on May 11, 2025 by lipstick socialist

What is your image of a Romani woman? A woman selling the Big Issue? A group of young women wearing brightly coloured long dresses with babies begging on the street? Artist and activist Malgorzata Mirga-Tas in this exhibition at the … Continue reading →

Posted in anti-cuts, book review, education, feminism, human rights, labour history, Manchester, political women, Socialist Feminism, trade unions, Uncategorized, women, working class history | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

My interview with Rose Hunter of the North Staffs Miners Wives Action Group

Posted on December 1, 2024 by lipstick socialist

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 … Continue reading →

Posted in art exhibition, biography, drama, education, feminism, human rights, Ireland, labour history, North of Ireland, political women, Socialist Feminism, trade unions, women, Women Against Pit Closures, working class history | 4 Comments

My review of “The Wearing of the Green a Political History of the Irish in Manchester” by Michael Herbert

Posted on November 23, 2024 by lipstick socialist

Published in 2001 by the Irish in Britain Representation Group   “The Wearing Of The Green” is part of a radical tradition of history, a  history that is written by the people who make the history and one that  seeks to … Continue reading →

Posted in book review, education, human rights, Ireland, Irish second generation, labour history, Manchester, North of Ireland, Salford, trade unions, working class history, young people | Tagged | 1 Comment

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 “THE WOMEN WHO WOULDN’T WHEESHT. Voices from the frontline of Scotland’s battle for women’s rights.” Edited by Susan Dalgety and Lucy Hunter Blackburn.

Posted on July 20, 2024 by lipstick socialist

Wheesht (Scots) (wi:ft): a plea or demand for silence(exclamation);to silence(a person,etc.) or to be silent (verb)   On 21 March 2015 the Mary Quaile Club (of which I was a co-founder) organised what we called a “real International Women’s Day … Continue reading →

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“there was a belief, I could do things” .Women in the Irish in Britain Representation Group; genuine grassroots activism.

Posted on May 10, 2024 by lipstick socialist

This is the text of a talk I gave for the Women’s Grassroots Activism Conference. I am  an activist, not an academic. I am Mancunian and  second generation Irish. From 1985-2000 I was a member and a National Officer of … Continue reading →

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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

My review of “Rewriting the Troubles War and Propaganda Ireland and Algeria” Patrick Anderson

Posted on August 25, 2023 by lipstick socialist

The formation of the Irish in Britain Representation Group, a national grassroots-based community organisation in the 1980s, challenged the  traditional Irish organisation  – the Federation of Irish Societies  – and its toadying to the Irish Government over the relationship between … Continue reading →

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