Lecture 85: Mary Ann McCracken by Reclaim the Enlightenment
Launch of the Mary Ann McCracken Pamphlet by Reclaim the Enlightenment Mary Ann McCracken was a unique and progressive figure in Belfast’s history. She was a pioneer of women’s rights and a serious revolutionary in the era of the United Irishmen. In the nineteenth century she was able to recognise changed times in which armed struggle was no longer a viable or justifiable strategy. She carried over her reforming zeal into a variety of charitable and campaigning activities into great old age and always on a resolutely non-sectarian basis. Her ideas on social reform remained in advance of her time. She not only cared for the poor, and women and children in particular, but she advocated government policies which could have alleviated their condition. She remained a staunch advocate of women’s rights, and a determined opponent of slavery, when both causes were in abeyance, and she was a critic of the wrongs of empire when imperial enthusiasm was sweeping all before it. John Gray is a committee member of Reclaim the Enlightenment. He is the former Librarian of Belfast’s Linen Hall Library. He served as Chair of the United Irishmen Commemoration Society at the time of the bicentenary of their rebellion in 1998. He has written, lectured, and broadcast extensively on many aspects of Ulster’s Labour and radical history and is the author of two previous Reclaim pamphlets; The United Irishmen and the Men of No Property the Sans Culottes of Belfast, and Cave Hill and the United Irishmen both published in 2018. Also speaking on Mary Ann McCracken is Clifton Houses Archive and Heritage Development officer Aaron McIntyre. Pamphlet price is £5. Delivery by post an additional £1.20 or £4.40 to the Republic. For international Posting email the above. Paypal Send too: [email protected] Send a message with the payment regarding delivery address.
Launch of the Mary Ann McCracken Pamphlet by Reclaim the Enlightenment Mary Ann McCracken was a unique and progressive figure in Belfast’s history. She was a pioneer of women’s rights and a serious revolutionary in the era of the United Irishmen. In the nineteenth century she was able to recognise changed times in which armed struggle was no longer a viable or justifiable strategy. She carried over her reforming zeal into a variety of charitable and campaigning activities into great old age and always on a resolutely non-sectarian basis. Her ideas on social reform remained in advance of her time. She not only cared for the poor, and women and children in particular, but she advocated government policies which could have alleviated their condition. She remained a staunch advocate of women’s rights, and a determined opponent of slavery, when both causes were in abeyance, and she was a critic of the wrongs of empire when imperial enthusiasm was sweeping all before it. John Gray is a committee member of Reclaim the Enlightenment. He is the former Librarian of Belfast’s Linen Hall Library. He served as Chair of the United Irishmen Commemoration Society at the time of the bicentenary of their rebellion in 1998. He has written, lectured, and broadcast extensively on many aspects of Ulster’s Labour and radical history and is the author of two previous Reclaim pamphlets; The United Irishmen and the Men of No Property the Sans Culottes of Belfast, and Cave Hill and the United Irishmen both published in 2018. Also speaking on Mary Ann McCracken is Clifton Houses Archive and Heritage Development officer Aaron McIntyre. Pamphlet price is £5. Delivery by post an additional £1.20 or £4.40 to the Republic. For international Posting email the above. Paypal Send too: [email protected] Send a message with the payment regarding delivery address.