ABSTRACT
Derry is an old and beautiful city dating back to the sixth century, situated along the banks of the River Foyle in surroundings of enormous natural beauty. After the partition of Ireland in 1921, Derry became a border city. It’s the place where Amelia Erhart landed – the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic in 1932. Derry is a working class city, divided geographically along religious lines into Catholic and Protestant areas, from which the middle class have moved out to safer and more desirable suburbs. Working class communities in Derry have grown used to poverty and politics. Eleanor Marx made a visit to Mooney’s shirt factory here in 1891 to encourage the growth of ‘organisation and combination’ among unskilled workers. Following her speech at St Columb’s Hall, the local newspaper estimated that hundreds of women workers came forward to join the women’s branch of the National Union of Gas Workers and General Labourers. The recession of the 1930s cut deeper and lasted longer than elsewhere in the UK. The post-war boom was shorter lived. By 1970 consumption per inhabitant was only three-quarters of the UK average (Rowthorne and Wayne 1998). In the period between partition and the resumption of Direct Rule from Westminster, Protestants used their influence as capitalists, property owners and administrators in the public sector to make sure the opportunities which did exist went to Protestants. These days both communities face similar problems. The manufacturing industry and jobs in the public sector – which once provided steady employment for men – have been devastated by economic recession and by Conservative policies. Women, as everywhere else, shoulder the main responsibility for unpaid domestic work, take most responsibility for managing family poverty and have the worst choice of low-paid, part-time and ‘unskilled’ jobs (Cockburn 1998).
