Marion Patrick Jones (16 August 1931 – 2 March 2016) was a

Trinidadian Trinidadians and Tobagonians, colloquially known as Trinis or Trinbagonians, are the people who are identified with the country of Trinidad and Tobago. The country is home to people of many different national, ethnic and religious origins. As a ...

novelist, whose training was in the fields of library science and social anthropology. She is also known by the names Marion Glean and Marion O'Callaghan (her married name). Barbara Fister
"O'Callaghan, Marion"
''Third World Women's Literatures: A Dictionary and Guide to Materials in English'', Greenwood Press, 1995, p. 226. Living in Britain during the 1960s, she was also an activist within the black community. She was the author of two notable novels – ''Pan Beat'', first published in 1973, and ''J'Ouvert Morning'' (1976) – and also wrote non-fiction.

Early life

Jones was born in

Woodbrook, Port of Spain The Woodbrook district, west of Downtown, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, was formerly a sugar estate owned by the Siegert family of Angostura bitters fame. The estate was sold to the Town Board in 1911 and developed into a residential neighbo ...

Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago (, ), officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is the southernmost island country in the Caribbean. Consisting of the main islands Trinidad and Tobago, and numerous much smaller islands, it is situated south of ...

, in 1934. She graduated from St Joseph's Convent — an exclusive

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

girls' school in Port of Spain run by Irish nuns, the Sisters of Cluny — winning the Girls' Open Island Scholarship in 1950, and placing third. She attended the Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture,

St Augustine Augustine of Hippo ( , ; la, Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Afr ...

, one of the first two women to be admitted. Funso Aiyejina
"Jones, Marion (Marion Glean O’Callaghan)"
in Daniel Balderston, Mike Gonzalez (eds), ''Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century Latin American and Caribbean Literature 1900–2003'', Routledge, 2004, p. 287. In the 1950s Jones went to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, where she earned a diploma in library science, paying for her education by working in a ceramics factory painting the wares. She worked with Manny Spiro to create a trade union. She then returned home to become a chartered librarian, working as Senior Librarian at Carnegie Library,

San Fernando San Fernando may refer to: People *Ferdinand III of Castile (c. 1200–1252), called ''San Fernando'' (Spanish) or ''Saint Ferdinand'', King of Castile, León, and Galicia Places Argentina *San Fernando de la Buena Vista, city of Greater Buenos ...

, Trinidad.Jennifer Rahim
"Jones, Marion Patrick"
in Eugene Benson and L. W. Conolly (eds), ''Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English'', Routledge (1994), 2nd edn 2005, p. 741. In the 1960s she continued her studies in Britain, graduating with a BSc degree from the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

. She did postgraduate studies in social anthropology at the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) is a public university, public research university located in London, England and a constituent college of the federal University of London. Founded in 1895 by Fabian Society members Sidn ...

,Terry Coleman
"From the archive, 12 December 1964: Martin Luther King stops off in the UK"
''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' (UK), 12 December 2014. writing a thesis on the Chinese community in Trinidad.

Activism in Britain, 1960s

A pacifist and a Quaker, known as Marion Glean during her time in Britain, she played a prominent role within the black community John Rex, review of ''The Politics of the Powerless: A Study of the Campaign Against Racial Discrimination'' by Benjamin W. Heineman, ''American Journal of Sociology'', Vol. 80, No. 5 (March 1975; pp. 1272–75), p. 1274. and "contributed to a series of statements by

post-colonial Postcolonialism is the critical academic study of the cultural, political and economic legacy of colonialism and imperialism, focusing on the impact of human control and exploitation of colonized people and their lands. More specifically, it is a ...

activists on 'race' in the run-up to the

1964 UK general election The 1964 United Kingdom general election was held on 15 October 1964, five years after the previous election, and thirteen years after the Conservative Party (UK), Conservative Party, first led by Winston Churchill, had regained power. It result ...

, published by Theodore Roszak, editor of ''

Peace News ''Peace News'' (''PN'') is a pacifist magazine first published on 6 June 1936 to serve the peace movement in the United Kingdom. From later in 1936 to April 1961 it was the official paper of the Peace Pledge Union (PPU), and from 1990 to 2004 w ...

''."Kalbir Shukra
''The Changing Pattern of Black Politics in Britain''
Pluto Press, 1998, p. 20. As Kalbir Shukra describes in ''The Changing Pattern of Black Politics in Britain'' (1998): "After the election, Glean brought together Alan Lovell and

Michael Randle Michael Randle (born 1933) is an English peace campaigner and researcher known for his involvement in nonviolent direct action in Britain and also for his role in helping the Soviet spy George Blake escape from a British prison. Early life Born ...

, who were pacifists and former members of the Committee of 100, with other friends who had written for ''Peace News'' including an Asian woman, Ranjana Ash (an active member of the

Movement for Colonial Freedom Liberation (founded as the Movement for Colonial Freedom) is a political civil rights advocacy group founded in the United Kingdom in 1954. It had the support of many MPs, including Harold Wilson, Barbara Castle and Tony Benn, and celebrities such ...

C. L. R. James Cyril Lionel Robert James (4 January 1901 – 31 May 1989),Fraser, C. Gerald, '' The New York Times'', 2 June 1989. who sometimes wrote under the pen-name J. R. Johnson, was a Trinidadian historian, journalist and Marxist. His works are i ...

and

Barry Reckord Barrington John Reckord (19 November 1926 – 20 December 2011), known as Barry Reckord, was a Jamaican playwright, one of the earliest Caribbean writers to make a contribution to theatre in Britain. His brother was the actor and director Lloyd ...

(African-Caribbean playwright and actor)." The initial outcome was that a debating group called Multi-Racial Britain was formed; however, when

Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...

was on his way to Stockholm to receive the

Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Chemistry, Physics, Physiolog ...

, Glean arranged with

Bayard Rustin Bayard Rustin (; March 17, 1912 – August 24, 1987) was an African American leader in social movements for civil rights, socialism, nonviolence, and gay rights. Rustin worked with A. Philip Randolph on the March on Washington Movement, ...

for King to come to London to address a meeting, which was chaired by David Pitt. According to ''

''′s report at the time: "Mrs Glean, together with Canon L. John Collins, hastily assembled about 30 Indians, Pakistanis, West Indians, and Africans...at the Hilton Hotel in London, where Dr King spoke for only a few minutes. The whole discussion lasted only an hour and a half, but at the end of it the new movement was formed and Mrs Glean appointed secretary." The movement founded at that gathering in December 1964 was the

Campaign Against Racial Discrimination The Campaign Against Racial Discrimination (CARD) was a British organization, founded in 1964 and which lasted until 1967, that lobbied for race relations legislation. The group's formation was inspired by a visit by Martin Luther King Jr. to Londo ...

(CARD), which was formally launched soon afterwards.Lloyd W. Brown
"Jones, Marion Patrick"
Contemporary Novelists, 2001. Retrieved 25 April 2015 from Encyclopedia.com.

Writings, 1970s

She worked as Director of Social Science Programmes for

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

from 1965 to 1990, during which time she used her married name Marion O'Callaghan, or Marion Glean O'Callaghan, for her non-fiction writings, particularly on Africa. She was in charge of the anti-

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

programme at UNESCO. As Marion O'Callaghan she wrote "Introductory Notes" for a symposium, ''Sociological Theories; Race and Colonialism'', published by UNESCO in 1980. Her first novel, ''Pan Beat'' (1973), was about steelband and the involvement of women in its development. Her other novel, ''J’Ouvert Morning'', was published in 1976, and examines middle-class predicaments in a society with a colonial heritage. These were published under the name Marion Patrick Jones. Lloyd W. Brown commented on her work: "In spite of the soap operatic quality of her narrative materials, Jones's novels succeed as riveting documents of a troubled society in a state of transition. ...despite Jones's melodramatic tendencies, the characters are vividly drawn and the language—especially in ''J'Ouvert Morning'' —is original and invigorating." According to

Jennifer Rahim Jennifer Rahim (1963 – 13 March 2023) was a Trinidadian fiction writer, poet and literary critic. Career Rahim held a BA (1987) and PhD (1993) in literatures in English and an MA in theology (2016), and having joined the University of the W ...

, "The author's invaluable contribution to the region's literature is her sensitive analysis of the Trinidadian urban middle class, as it strives to escape poverty and anonymity." Writing by Jones appears in such collections as ''Her True-True Name: An Anthology of Women's Writing from the Caribbean'' (eds Pamela Mordecai and Betty Wilson, 1989), ''Caribbean Women Writers: Essays from the First International Conference'' (ed. Selwyn R. Cudjoe, 1990) and '' Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Words and Writings by Women of African Descent'' (ed. Margaret Busby, 1992). As Marion O'Callaghan, she wrote a weekly commentary column in the ''

Trinidad and Tobago Newsday ''Trinidad and Tobago Newsday'' is a daily newspaper in Trinidad and Tobago. ''Newsday'' is the newest of the three daily papers after the ''Trinidad and Tobago Guardian'' and the ''Trinidad and Tobago Express'' respectively. The newspaper was fo ...

'' newspaper. After retiring from UNESCO in 1990, she lived in Trinidad. She died aged 84 at her home in Port of Spain on 2 March 2016.

Family

Her father Patrick Jones (1876–1965), of African/Chinese heritage, was a leading Trinidadian trade unionist and socio-political activist at the turn of the 20th century.Dermot Keogh
"Big topic, big book"
''

Irish Times ''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is considered a newspaper ...

'', 23 September 2000. He was also a well known calypsonian who used the sobriquet "Cromwell, the Lord Protector" (popularly called "Chinee Patrick"), and sang what he called "the first political cariso" in 1920. In addition he is notable as the first pyrotechnist in Trinidad and Tobago, manufacturing fireworks from the end of the 1920s.Marion O'Callaghan
"Those fireworks"
''Newsday'', 13 January 2014. She was married to Benedict Glean, and to the late Maurice O'Callaghan, who came to Trinidad from Cork in

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

to help establish the

Presentation Brothers The Congregation of Presentation Brothers is an international Catholic congregation of laymen founded in 1802 in Waterford, Ireland, by a local Irish businessman, Edmund Ignatius Rice, now Blessed Edmund Ignatius Rice. Presentation Brothers live a ...

' school, Presentation College, in

at the end of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

.Tim Pat Coogan
''Wherever Green is Worn: The Story of the Irish Diaspora''
Head of Zeus, 2015, p. 591.

Bibliography

Fiction

* ''Pan Beat''. Port of Spain: Columbus, 1973. * ''J'Ouvert Morning''. Port of Spain: Columbus, 1976.

Non-fiction

''Namibia: The Effects of Apartheid on Culture and Education''
Unesco, 1977.
''Southern Rhodesia: The effects of a conquest society on education, culture, and information''
Unesco, 1977.