Hero Jackie Weaver
A LADY OF SUBSTANCE
Fascinated with the parish politics story during the week. Jackie Weaver took over a zoom meeting and balled out the members of the Handforth Parish Council’s planning and environment committee. What a powerful woman who left the pompous committee men reeling – the chief officer of the Cheshire Association of Local Councils chopped one out of the zoom meeting – only the Chairman himself! “You have no authority here Jackie Weaver no authority at all.” boom and he’s gone from the zoom screen. Up pops the vice chair insisting that he should take charge – “Read the standing orders ,” he shouts, “read them and understand them.” What fun and games. I must say it occurs to me this is a very elaborate hoax which has captivated people round the You Tube world! There was a lot of giggling amongst those attending the meeting so it didn’t seem terribly serious. Whatever, just when we need a good laugh along comes Jackie who is now every celebrities chosen guest! Even Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber has written a song about her and that is fame. I bet those two naughty disrespecting men are furious.
I swing from hope to despair these days and it all depends on television or radio news. Newspapers are more reliable as there is time to expand on a story and give the facts, otherwise what’s happening is contained in such a limited time and space on the airwaves. Also the national news seems to concentrate on England, Scotland, Wales and we in Northern Ireland are a side event, in fact I have the terrible feeling we are being cut adrift from everyone north, south, east and west.
THE BIG BAD BREXIT
Things have come to a pretty pass when we’re not allowed to bring a hammer with a wooden handle into the country let alone a tractor that hasn’t been washed down and denuded of any soil! Roll on some sort of sensibility. It’s a funny thing that recently I’ve had a few messages coming through on my phone about garden centres where I can buy on e-mail. Yet when I go back to followup and see more details, the posts have disappeared. If it happen again I will be quicker off the mark and find out more. I wonder if they suddenly realise it’s a phone in Northern Ireland and opt out of getting involved. Oh for a few little colourful plants to dot around the place and some packets of seeds to scatter.
THOUGHT PROVOKING
TV historian Professor David Olusoga is concerned that we are loosing a lot of modern historical information thanks to social media. Why? Because in our digital age we tend to dash off twitters or snapchats which dissolve into the ether and sometimes unique information is lost. The old fashioned art of diaries or letter writing has always been a source of interest to historians but who writes letters anymore and as Oscar Wilde said, only good girls have time to keep a diary. More to the point is his fear that politicians and business leaders even academics use social media to share their thoughts leaving future historians with less understanding of the personalities and how their policies and decisions are made. Written memos, even emails give a clue to the thinking behind the scenes otherwise there is little background or colour with this fashion of unrecorded messages. He cites the habit of Winston Churchill who made notes in the margin of his state papers and how these have given a greater insight into the working of his mind and of the times.
At the recent 249th annual meeting of the Belfast Charitable Society at Clifton House, David Olusoga launched the Mary Ann McCracken Memorial which, coming towards the 250th anniversary is the focus of the charity to commemorate a woman who was involved in the Society since its foundation and throughout her life tackling disadvantage and championing women’s rights. The aim was and still is to promote, protect and enhance the philanthropic heritage of the society through working for the benefit of the community. Although times have changed the need is just as great today as 249 years ago.
New Technological Age Is Upon Us
Today computers are at the centre of life from an early age and during the meeting in Clifton House it was announced that support was given to secondary school children in five north Belfast schools with the gift of 225 reconditioned laptops to enable pupils to study at home during the current lockdown, opening a portal to learning which otherwise would be unavailable and something Mary Ann would approve.
Apart from education, one of her most important roles was campaigning against slavery in Belfast. The Society preceded the abolition of the Slavery Bill and some members of the board were benefitting hugely from the slave trade showing that, despite their care for those less fortunate at home, they had little concern for the suffering that occurred elsewhere.
Slavery was the theme of David Olusoga’s talk and he highlighted Mary Ann’s involvement. She was a remarkable feminist whose motto was it’s better to wear out than to rust out! She strove to abolish the use of climbing boys in chimney sweeping, she was involved in early women’s suffrage and prison reform. She was also a life long abolitionist founding the Belfast Women’s Anti-Slavery League ignoring opposition and ridicule to dedicate her life to this campaign.
David spoke of the 80,000 black lives ‘owned’ by respected men living within the British Empire including Belfast. It was true that men who traded in human flesh used their money to do good and, probably unknowingly, people benefited from the trauma and terror of the slaves toiling on plantations. In the north east of England wealthy merchants sent coal to Jamaica to fire the boilers to produce rum for sale at home, ironworks had orders for shackles and branding irons to be used on ‘negros’; in Scotland wealthy traders owned sugar cane and tobacco plantations; locally slavery brought huge wealth to the city especially from sugar estates in the West Indies, rum from the Caribbean, there was even an attempt to establish a slave trading company in Belfast. Such was her disgust Mary Ann refused to eat anything containing sugar and even in her later life this woman when almost 90 could be found at the docks, handing out anti-slavery leaflets to emigrants embarking for the slave-owning United States. How little we know and how much there is to learn.
Does it matter in 2021?
Absolutely, trafficking is slavery by another name, sweat shops, child labour and it still goes on even here. Charitable organisations such as the Belfast Charitable Society are as vital in 2021 as in 1752.
David also talked of the global anti-racist movement Black Lives Matter and the murder of George Floyd. As it happened I was watching the Netflix film ‘This Is Us’ the story of three children, two white and one adopted black baby all sharing the same birth date, increasingly difficult for Randall as he grew up in a white family, white neighbourhood, white friends. The impact of Floyd’s murder by a police officer kneeling on his neck for 8 minutes and 46 second, showed up the ignorance of Randall’s white family when it comes to empathy and communication. He becomes withdrawn, his sister challenges him, she says she’s sorry for what he’s going through, the protests, the murder. Her comment is crass: “I can’t imagine what you guys are going through,” she says.
He looks at her in sorrow immediately distanced from his white family. “You’ve never apologised before,” he says, “and this isn’t the first black person to be killed on camera. We grew up in the same house Kate, things like this have been happening to black people for years and we’ve never talked about it, not once, not once in 40 years. Growing up I had to keep so many things to myself because I didn’t want to make you guys feel bad, I didn’t want you to worry about saying the wrong thing. All my life I’ve been trying to make it easier for you, and honestly Kate, I’m exhausted.”
I learned a lot from Randall in ‘This is Us’, from David Olusoga and from Mary Ann McCracken.
“Silence in the face of injustice is complicity with the oppressor “
Ginetta Sagan who works to protect the liberty and lives of women and children in areas where human rights violations are widespread.
The Olusoga lecturer at www.belfastcharitablesociety.org
