International Women’s Day marked by republican women in Belfast

» Peadar Whelan

Hundreds of women from Newry, Armagh and Dundalk as well as Belfast gathered in the Women’s Memorial Garden at the Roddy McCorley Club to see young activists from the Mairéad Farrell Republican Youth Committee stage a pageant

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY was marked on Saturday 8 March with a highly successful day of events by republican women from the Macha group to mark and celebrate the role of women in the Irish struggle.

Centred on the Roddy McCorley Club in Belfast, an exhibition illustrated the courage and tenacity of women in struggle. In this centenary year of the founding of Cumann na mBan, the military involvement of women underpinned the day’s activities.

As hundreds of women (many having travelled from Newry, Armagh and Dundalk) gathered in the Women’s Memorial Garden, young activists from the fittingly-named Mairéad Farrell Republican Youth Committee staged a pageant.

Dressed in period costume, the young women read extracts from speeches and letters written by the revolutionary women of 100 years ago.

Sinn Féin Councillor Janice Austin was the main speaker and in her speech she urged solidarity with women in struggle throughout the world.

Former Armagh POW Bridie McMahon had her audience transfixed as she recited a speech of former Sinn Féin Vice-President Máire Drumm’s from the early 1970s, a speech that lead to Drumm’s imprisonment. While recovering from an eye operation in Belfast’s Mater Hospital in October 1976, Máire was shot dead by loyalist gunmen dressed as doctors who were able to enter and leave the hospital undisturbed.

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