‘How Women Brought Peace to Northern Ireland’: Remembering the Legacy of Women on the 25th Anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement

By Laura Rodriguez-Davis

The 10th of April 2023 marks 25 years since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland, ending a decades-long sectarian conflict rife with violence.

In anticipation of the anniversary, there have been a number of events and commemorations throughout Northern Ireland calling for reflection on the conditions preceding the Agreement, the miracle of its passing, and the 25 years that followed.

Many are quick to celebrate the involvement of Senator George Mitchell, Sinn Féin’s Gerry Adams, staunch unionist David Trimble, and Nobel Peace Prize winner John Hume. However, there is far too much known about the vital work of women during the peace negotiations for it to be side-lined any longer.

In the practice of reflecting on Northern Ireland’s progress, it is imperative to remember the contributions of women involved in the peace talks that made the Agreement possible.

Monica McWilliams

You cannot talk about women and the Agreement without discussing Monica McWilliams. She is the co-founder of the Northern Ireland Women’s Coalition (NIWC) and one of two women elected to the All-Party talks. The influence of the NIWC is credited with ensuring the inclusion of victims’ rights (an issue considered crucial to the Agreement’s passing), gender equality, integrated education and community development as part of the Agreement.

An educator and mother, McWilliams endured sexism and dismissive attitudes from male colleagues (including mooing from one Ian Paisley) to help secure peace in Northern Ireland. She went on to serve as the Chief Commissioner of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission from 2005–2011 and has provided support to resolving other conflicts throughout the world. McWilliams has advocated for victims of domestic violence and received numerous prizes for her work.

Bronagh Hinds

A life-long activist, Bronagh Hinds’s work has spanned across sectors, including establishing some of the first women’s shelters in Belfast. Hinds participated in the march in Derry/Londonderry on Bloody Sunday in 1972 and collected witness statements following the massacre. In addition to being the first female president of the Queen’s University Belfast student union, she was also a co-founder of the Northern Ireland Women’s Rights Movement and the NIWC, to ensure women’s voices were included in developing the future of Northern Ireland.

Hinds served as an advisor and negotiator in the peace talks leading up to the signing of the Agreement. In 2000, she founded DemocraShe, which promoted and invested in female participation and leadership in politics. Hinds continues to be a vocal advocate today for women, peacebuilding and the inclusion of youth voices in Northern Ireland.

Mo Mowlam

Famed for her grounded, straightforward approach to politics, Dr Marjorie ‘Mo’ Mowlam was the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland in the British Government. During the peace talks, Mowlam was coping with treatment for a brain tumour but did not allow this to deter her from her mission. Ignoring public ridicule for her balding head, she donned a wig and continued negotiations until an agreement was reached.

In a bold move, Mowlam talked with paramilitary inmates in the Maze Prison in Northern Ireland to help secure their support of the peace process. Though initially criticised for such a risky endeavour, she was later credited for her bravery. After retiring from Parliament, Mowlam went on to establish a charity providing rehabilitation to ex-drug users and support to families with children with disabilities called MoMo Helps. Mowlam is remembered for her good humour, her inclusivity and her frequently bare feet while she was in office. She passed away in 2005 from cancer.

Pat Hume

What Coretta Scott King was to Martin Luther King, Jr., so Pat Hume was to John Hume. Often overshadowed by her Nobel laureate husband, Pat is no less deserving of recognition and commemoration for her efforts in attaining peace in Northern Ireland. She was well-respected in the Social Democratic and Labour Party and known as a resolver of conflict in her own right, often working behind the scenes to quell disagreements in a kind of informal diplomacy.

Pat not only provided support in the form of advice and guidance to her husband but financially supported her family while working as a primary school teacher. She strived to maintain a peaceful household for her children, despite multiple attacks on their home. Later, she would work as a constituency office manager through the Troubles. Many in Derry/Londonderry would go to Pat for assistance on a variety of issues, making her an invaluable on-the-ground informant and analyser that shaped John’s actions. She passed away in 2021.

Baroness May Blood

No stranger to hard work and poverty, May Blood left school at the age of fourteen to work in the Blackstaff Linen Mill where she remained for 38 years. She promptly joined the Transport and General Workers Union (against her father’s reservations), which became the training ground for her advocacy of workers’ rights. Despite growing up in a mixed-community neighbourhood with strong communal bonds, Blood witnessed her next-door neighbours being burnt out of their home before her own family was also burnt out of their home as sectarian tensions escalated during the Troubles.

She was also a founding member of the NIWC and worked as their campaign manager. Blood continued to champion the cause of integrated education after the Agreement’s passing and raised millions of pounds for the Integrated Education Fund. She was granted a life peerage as Baroness Blood of Blackwatertown (the first woman in Northern Ireland to do so) and leveraged her position in the House of Lords to advocate for equality in health, social economy, and education. Blood passed away in October 2022.

Many more women could have been included on this list – Pearl Sagar, Anne Carr, Dawn Purvis, to name a few – which is a testament to the vast communal capability of women, who often worked across sectarian and religious divides to achieve peace. They are well worth the time to learn about and from.

This time of reflection naturally lends itself to looking towards the future and all that remains undone in Northern Ireland. Certainly, many of these featured heroines who are still living will be the first to tell you that the work of peace is not yet complete. The absence of a governing body at Stormont, abysmally high rates of mental illness, trauma and suicide, and lingering incidences of sectarian-motivated violence all point to the work that is left to be done – especially as the proverbial baton is passed to subsequent generations.

While history may be guilty of overlooking female champions of justice and reconciliation, with a rich legacy of determination, empowerment and resiliency to look back upon, the future cannot fail to ignore them.