Baroness Blood visits WIN

The Highzone Women’s Group and the Greenbank Circle of Women hosted a visit to Newry by Baroness May Blood of Blackwatertown in the County of Armagh a Labour member of the British House of Lords Women groups, affiliated to Newry and Mourne Women Limited.

 Guests and other invitees had an opportunity to explore with Baroness Blood, her life and work in Northern Ireland.

Baroness May Blood was born in Belfast and has lived for the last thirty years in the Springmartin area of West Belfast. For 39 years she worked in a local mill as a cutter, during which time she was an active trade unionist. As a member of the Amalgamated Transport and General Workers’ Union she worked as senior union stewart becoming a director on the Labour Relations Agency, and a panel member of the Industrial Tribunal Panels. She now uses her position in the House of Lords to speak up for working-class people.

In 1995 Baroness Blood was given the Global Citizens Circle Awards. In 1996, she was awarded an MBE for her work in labour relations. She holds honorary doctorates for the University of Ulster, Open University, and the Queens’ University Belfast. From 1990-2000 she has been a full-time community worker, working from 1993-1997 for the Greater Shankill Partnership, a community-led regeneration initiative, working to support the social and economic integration of parents with young children, particularly women.

She is currently the Chair of Shankill Sure Start/The Early Years Project and sits on the Management Board of Barnardos. She is also a Board Member of N & West Belfast HSS Trust.

In 1999 she became the first woman in Northern Ireland to be given a life peerage. Throughout her entire working life she has been a passionate advocate for those living with the effects of poverty, particularly in relation to housing, unemployment and early years education. Since 1999 she has been an active campaigner for integrated education, and is Chair of the Integrated Education Fund.

Baroness Blood is a founder member of the Northern Ireland Women’s Coalition; she was a member of the Coalition’s Talks Team during the multi-party talks, which culminated with the Good Friday Agreement.