Category Archives: Ireland

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

“It’s to work for this new world that these women have joined the Communist Party.”: the story of Alice Bates (1920-2010).

Posted on September 8, 2024 by lipstick socialist

In 1953 the Communist Party published a booklet called “Five Women tell their story” which told the story of five working class women who joined the party to change the world. But one of them was not new to the … Continue reading →

Posted in art exhibition, Ireland, Manchester, Salford, Uncategorized | 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 “Eleanor Marx” BBC Television Drama 1977

Posted on July 25, 2024 by lipstick socialist

In 1977 the BBC commissioned Andrew Davies to write a three-part drama about the life of Eleanor Marx. Eleanor was the daughter of Karl Marx, philosopher,  political economist (and much more) and lived an intense, hot house life with her … Continue reading →

Posted in art exhibition, Ireland, Manchester, Salford, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 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

Every Badge tells a Story; Armagh Women and the Strip Search Campaign

Posted on September 10, 2023 by lipstick socialist

  The Working Class Movement Library  collects badges as part of archiving the history of the labour movement. Recently a new collection of Irish badges was donated. As a member of the Irish in Britain Representation Group whose archive (and … Continue reading →

Posted in art exhibition, Ireland, Manchester, Salford, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

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 →

Posted in book review, Communism, human rights, Ireland, Irish second generation, labour history, North of Ireland, Uncategorized, working class history | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Mrs. Mavis Sheerin: an Englishwoman in Derry in 1972

Posted on April 13, 2023 by lipstick socialist

Mole Express was a Manchester  alternative magazine, first published in 1970, which  ran for 7 years and published 57 issues.  It gave a voice to the anarchist subculture, publishing articles that exposed corruption and injustice, and  offered people a network … Continue reading →

Posted in art exhibition, Ireland, Manchester, Salford, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

My review of “But You Did Not Come Back” by Marceline Loridan-Ivens

Posted on March 30, 2023 by lipstick socialist

Marceline Loridan-Ivens  (19th March 1928 – 18th September 2018) was a French Jew, an activist in the French Resistance and the Algerian resistance, an actor, a filmmaker, and a writer. In 1944 at the age of 15 she was arrested … Continue reading →

Posted in art exhibition, Ireland, Manchester, Salford, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments