Reflection by National Women’s Council Director at International Worker’s Memorial Day

Published: Tuesday, April 27, 2010

"Remember the dead, fight for the living."

This event was organised by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions as a ceremony of remembrance and reflection for people who have lost their lives because of their work. In 2009, 43 workers in Ireland are known to have died in workplace accidents. The day also highlights that most deaths through work are preventable, and promotes union organisation on health and safety at work.

Speakers at the event in Dublin's Chester Beatty Library included David Begg, general secretary of ICTU, Martin O'Halloran, CEO of the Health and Safety Authority, Breffni McGuinness of the Irish Hospice Foundation, Noeleen Blackwell, Director General of FLAC, Siobhan O'Donoghue of the Migrant Rights Centre of Ireland, and religious leaders including Archbishop Diarmuid Martin.

There was a one minute silence to remember the dead at noon, in the garden where a bust commemorates the murdered journalist, Veronica Guerin.

"Noeleen Blackwell has acknowledged workers in the sex trade and others who are undocumented and unprotected," said Susan McKay. "I'd like to add to that the women whose workplace is their home and who have died there as a result of domestic violence.
Martin O'Halloran spoke about foreseeable accidents, and David Begg spoke about those whose work puts them at risk of violence.

I will speak today as a Northerner, a former journalist and a woman. We have to recognise that some of those who have been killed die as a political consequence of ignored hatred. We must honour those who were killed because of their work not least because after their deaths, their good names may continue to be attacked.

When I was invited to take part in today's excellent event, the first person who came into my mind was Rosemary Nelson, a brave woman I knew who was killed because she was a lawyer and she was good at her job. Her murder was foreseeable and it could have been prevented if the hatred which had gathered around her had been defused by political leaders. She knew she was at risk and she said so. She was murdered in 1999.

I think too of Veronica, who has already been mentioned. She was a former colleague when I worked at the Sunday Tribune. She exposed the ease with which criminal gangsters conducted their business in this country. Laws were brought in as a consequence of her death - it would have been better if they had been brought in sooner so that the criminals would have paid the price for her journalism instead of her.

Internationally, I think of Anna Politskaya, whose fierce courage as a journalist covering the war in Chechnya led to her murder in 2006. A friend of mine set up an award in her name - its first winner was Anna's colleague, Natalia Estermirova. She too refused to be silent in the face of corruption and violence, and she too was murdered in 2009. Both of these women knew they were at risk, and both of their deaths could have been prevented if Russian political leaders had been responsible rather than complicit.

Lastly, I think of someone less well known, a British journalist called Kate Peyton. She was a freelance employed by the BBC, and in 2005, against her better judgement, she went on an assignment to Somalia. She knew the trip to this extremely dangerous country was not safe, that it had not been properly organised. She went because as a freelance she felt she had no choice. She felt the BBC might not renew her contract. She told her mother, 'this will prove to them that I am committed.' Within a very short time of arriving in Somalia, she was shot dead. The coroner at her inquest was very critical of the BBC.

No one should have to prove their commitment to their work by putting their life at risk.

My thanks to Noeleen for pointing out that the slogan for this great international day of remembrance is based on words originally spoken by Mother Jones, who said, "Pray for the dead - fight like hell for the living." As an atheist, I think I'll advocate that we remember the dead and fight like hell for the living."