Category Archives: North of 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

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

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

Kath Grant; Journalist and Trade Unionist

Posted on May 9, 2023 by lipstick socialist

Kath is from a Lancashire radical working-class tradition. Born in Rochdale in 1950,  she spent her first five  years living with her parents and grandfather in “The Mount”,  the Irish area in the centre of the town. Her grandparents were … Continue reading →

Posted in human rights, labour history, Manchester, Middle East, North of Ireland, Northern ReSisters Conversations with Radical Women, political women, trade unions, Uncategorized, women, working class history, young people | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

History of the Irish in Britain Representation Group Part nine: 1989

Posted on September 20, 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 anti-cuts, Bernadette McAliskey, education, feminism, films, human rights, Ireland, Irish second generation, labour history, Manchester, North of Ireland, political women, Salford, Socialism, trade unions, Uncategorized, women, working class history, young people | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

History of the Irish in Britain Representation Group Part eight: 1988

Posted on September 7, 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 … Continue reading →

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

History of the Irish in Britain Representation Group Part seven: 1987

Posted on August 10, 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 … Continue reading →

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

My review of “Threads of Life. A History of the World Through the Eye of a Needle” Clare Hunter

Posted on August 6, 2020 by lipstick socialist

I found this book in a charity shop and it opened my eyes to a different world; the world of sewing and the important place it has in all of our memories. As a socialist I have marched behind and … Continue reading →

Posted in book review, Communism, education, feminism, Ireland, Irish second generation, labour history, North of Ireland, political women, Salford, Socialism, Socialist Feminism, trade unions, Uncategorized, women, working class history, young people | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments