Mary Ann McCracken

IN my simplistic view of heaven, Mary Ann McCracken, who died in 1866, must have welcomed with open arms Baroness May Blood MBE, a woman who began work at 14 in the Blackstaff Linen Mill in west Belfast and actively supported campaigns for legislation for men and women to receive equal pay and for an end to sex discrimination.

Belfast city council is seeking an artist to design statues of Mary Ann McCracken and Winifred Carney.

RECENTLY a young woman left Dublin for Poland and onwards to Ukraine.

TWO hundred and fifty years after her birth, the bust of one of Belfast's most important citizens has been put up at one of the city's newest housing developments.

MARY Ann McCracken and Winifred Carney are to be honoured with new installations in the grounds of Belfast City Hall.

ONE of the things I love most about getting older is that I seem to be up for trying new things.

SOME of Belfast's key heritage and cultural institutions are coming together to mark 250 years since the birth of one of the city's most important citizens.

WHAT would Mary Ann McCracken make of all this fuss? I would hazard a guess that she might feel embarrassed to be the subject of much debate, and disappointed that some of the causes she fought so hard to eradicate from society still have as prominent a place in our everyday lives as they did when she was alive, 200 years ago.

THE stories of some remarkable women from north Belfast who have been written out of history or overshadowed because of their gender are to be remembered to mark International Women's Day.