Category Archives: Catholicism

My review of “That’s How it Was” by Maureen Duffy

Posted on September 10, 2020 by lipstick socialist

  Secondhand bookshops are treasure troves,  but sadly they are in decline. They have been  defeated by Abe books and the lack of books bought generally. But in Hamburg I came across this great  English language bookshop   run by … 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

My review of “Across the Water Irish Women’s Lives in Britain” (1988) Mary Lennon Marie McAdam Joanne O’Brien

Posted on December 4, 2018 by lipstick socialist

    This  unique history of the role of Irish women in Britain was published  in  1988: Across the Water Irish Women’s Lives in Britain.  It was produced by three women, none of whom were academics, all of them had … Continue reading →

Posted in book review, Catholicism, Communism, education, feminism, human rights, Ireland, Irish second generation, labour history, Manchester, North of Ireland, political women, Socialist Feminism, trade unions, Uncategorized, women, working class history, young people | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

IBRG Archive at the WCML. Out of Ireland. Six Irish Film Festivals 1988-93

Posted on November 13, 2018 by lipstick socialist

Out of Ireland was the name given to six Irish Film Festivals that were initiated by the Manchester branch of the Irish in Britain Representation Group  and organised  from 1988 to 1993 with the Irish in Manchester History Group and … Continue reading →

Posted in Catholicism, drama, education, feminism, films, human rights, Ireland, Irish second generation, labour history, Manchester, North of Ireland, political women, trade unions, TV drama, Uncategorized, women, working class history, young people | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

My review of “The Miami Showband Massacre A survivor’s search for the truth” Stephen Travers and Neil Fetherstonhaugh

Posted on August 25, 2018 by lipstick socialist

      On 31 July 1975  as the  popular group,  The Miami Showband, were travelling back home across the border in the North of Ireland, they were stopped by a fake army patrol made up of Ulster Defence Regiment … Continue reading →

Posted in biography, book review, Catholicism, education, human rights, Ireland, North of Ireland, Uncategorized, working class history, young people | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

My review of “Where are you really from” by Tim Brannigan

Posted on May 31, 2018 by lipstick socialist

  In the 1970s I went to a girls Catholic (read Irish) secondary school in south Manchester. Most of the girls were like me, second generation Irish, with a sprinkling of Irish born, like my friends who were had recently … Continue reading →

Posted in book review, Catholicism, Ireland, Irish second generation, labour history, North of Ireland, Uncategorized, working class history, young people | Tagged , | 2 Comments