|
Inez McCormack (née Murphy; 28 September 1943 – 21 January 2013) was a Northern Irish trade union leader and human rights activist. She was the first female president of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (1999 to 2001), representing the UNISON union. She also successfully campaigned for the inclusion of strong equality and human rights provisions in the Good Friday Agreement, and was a signatory to the MacBride Principles for fair employment.〔〔 McCormack founded Participation and the Practice of Rights,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Participation and the Practice of Rights )〕 a human rights organisation supporting disadvantaged groups based in Belfast, Northern Ireland, which she continued to advise until her death. McCormack was named by the American publication ''Newsweek'' in 2011 as one of "150 women who shake the world", and her life and work have been portrayed by Meryl Streep in the documentary play SEVEN. ==Early years== Born Inez Murphy into an Ulster Protestant family in Cultra, County Down, she attended Glenlola Collegiate School until taking up a position as a junior clerk in the Northern Ireland Civil Service at the age of 17, studying at night for her A-levels. Of her sheltered unionist background, McCormack recalled: "I was a puzzled young Prod – until I was 17 I hadn't knowingly met a Catholic. I was a young Protestant girl who didn't understand that there were grave issues of inequality, injustice and division in our society".〔 McCormack attended Magee College in Derry between 1964–1966〔 at the time of the controversial decision to locate Northern Ireland's second university in Coleraine: her "first taste of street politics, and a lesson in the nature of exclusion and abuse of power".〔 She then attended Trinity College, Dublin from 1966–1968, and met Vincent McCormack – a founding member of the Derry Labour Party and former Bogside resident – in London shortly after her graduation. The pair married within three months of meeting. McCormack returned to Northern Ireland in late 1968 to find a burgeoning civil rights movement in the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association, describing the experience years later as "living through a historical defining moment".〔 McCormack became active in the civil rights marches alongside her husband, and was at the People's Democracy march in 1969 that was famously attacked by Ulster loyalists, including off-duty police, in the Burntollet bridge incident.〔 McCormack began a Diploma in Social Studies in 1969, commencing employment as a social worker in the Ballymurphy office of West Belfast Social Services in 1972. Wracked by the Troubles, Ballymurphy at the time was 'extraordinarily poor' and McCormack carried out her duties amid gunfights and extreme deprivation.〔 An attempt was made to close down the Ballymurphy office, and the social workers based there were instructed to transfer to a different area. Realising they were needed in Ballymurphy, they refused to leave and were advised to join a trade union to help withstand the pressure to transfer. McCormack made contact with the National Union of Public Employees and they were subsequently accepted into the union with McCormack acting as shop steward. The transfer was eventually squashed, and McCormack began working part-time for the union in 1974.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Inez McCormack」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|