A founder of the SDLP and the first woman to chair a political party in Ireland Bríd Rodgers talks about her career.
Bríd Rodgers is the deputy leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party in Northern Ireland. In 1978 she became the first woman to chair a political party in Ireland, and in 1981 was the party's general secretary. In 1983 Taoiseach Garret Fitzgerald appointed her to the Irish Senate.
Born in Gaoth Dobhair in the Donegal Gaeltacht, she studied languages at UCD (University College Dublin) and worked as a teacher in Dublin and An Fál Carrach (Falcarragh) until she moved to Lurgan in the 1960s with her husband, dentist Antoin Rodgers, also a Gaoth Dobhair native.
Presenter Padraic Ó Catháin introduces RTÉ News footage of her colleague John Hume at the Magilligan Strand protest in 1972. The clip is an illustration of the SDLP’s philosophy and the sentiment of those who are in the minority in Northern Ireland Bríd Rodgers says,
Sin bun...na faidhbe...nach dtugann an mhionlach agus nach dtugann riamh sa Tuaisceart tacaíocht don rialtas agus nach raibh consensus ann...
It was the desire to help vulnerable people in that minority of Northern Irish nationalists that drew Bríd Rodgers to social justice in the first place, assisting Dr Conn McCluskey and his wife Patricia who had founded the Campaign for Social Justice.
Part of the work involved the compilation of statistics which showed that Catholics were being discriminated against in both housing and employment. The first march to highlight the housing crisis took place in Dungannon in 1965 and was organised by a group called The Homeless Citizens League,
Bhí sé beag, ach sin an chéad coiscéim b'fhéidir.
When the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Movement started up Bríd Rodgers joined the Lurgan branch and became their public relations officer.
This episode of 'Bóithrín na Smaointe’ was broadcast on 21 January 1986. The presenter is Padraic Ó Catháin.
