"Loved in low places and loathed in high places"

Thanks to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, I have learned of the work of the late Inez Jane Mary McCormack (article here; registration required) in Northern Ireland. She would have been 75 last Friday. What stood out for me was the contribution she made to the Belfast Agreement.

McCormack's work as a champion of a fairer society for workers, especially women, and for the human rights of all, including minorities, led to her becoming a founder member of the equal opportunities commission and the Fair Employment Agency, which were established in 1976 to outlaw for the first time discrimination in employment on grounds of religious belief or political opinion. She was also a signatory to the Seán MacBride principles for fair employment, which were based on a South African model to harness the power of American investment in Northern Ireland against any discriminatory recruitment and promotion practices.

Through her trade union activities McCormack also developed working relationships with groups on both sides of the sectarian divide and fostered reconciliation encounters across the border with the active co-operation of Mary Robinson, the president of the Irish Republic, who became a close friend. During the tortuous negotiations leading up to the Belfast agreement in 1998, she used her considerable influence to help shape its provisions on human rights and equality and then worked to ensure the agreement was welcomed and implemented within the wider trade union movement. Over the succeeding years of comparative peace, she remained unhappy that communities most affected by the conflict continued to be the most socially deprived in Northern Ireland.

That good work could be nullified if the Conservatives and the DUP have their way. Jeremy Corbyn too, with his TU roots, should be ashamed that his current policy of accepting Brexit stands to betray McCormack.