Patricia McCluskey (19142010) was a Northern Ireland civil rights activist.

Biography

Patricia McCluskey was born Patricia McShane in 1914 in Portadown. Her father ran a drapery business. McCluskey trained as a home economics teacher in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. During World War II McCluskey was working on evacuating children from cities into rural areas. McCluskey founded the Homeless Citizens League in 1963. They held what was to be the first march of the civil rights movement in

Dungannon Dungannon () is a town in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It is the second-largest town in the county (after Omagh) and had a population of 14,340 at the 2011 Census. The Dungannon and South Tyrone Borough Council had its headquarters in the ...

in June. She was also a founder of the

Campaign for Social Justice The Campaign for Social Justice (CSJ) was an organisation based in Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label=Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in th ...

. She was a councilor for the Dungannon Urban Council, elected in 1964 along with four other nationalists. McCluskey held the role for more than ten years. She focused on ending discrimination in housing and jobs, collecting evidence and presenting it to the public. She spoke at a rally in Manchester in 1966 when she talked about how Northern Ireland Catholics wanted to live in harmony with their Protestant neighbours and this movement was aiming towards that end. She was also a member of the

Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association ) was an organisation that campaigned for civil rights in Northern Ireland during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Formed in Belfast on 9 April 1967,

Personal life

McCluskey married

Conn McCluskey Conn McCluskey (1914-16 December 2013) was an Irish civil rights activist in the 1960s, and a medical doctor. Born in County Down, McCluskey was working as a general practitioner in Dungannon, County Tyrone, in 1963, when along with his wife Pa ...

, a doctor and fellow activist. They lived in Keady and Dungannon. The couple had three daughters. When they retired the couple travelled Australia before they moved to Dublin. McCluskey died in 2010.

Sources

{{DEFAULTSORT:McCluskey , Patricia 1914 births 2010 deaths