Margaret Gaj

Background

Margaret Dunlop was born in Edinburgh in 1919 to Irish parents.

Career

As a pacifist she joined the Red Cross as a nurse during the second world war. He was working as an electrician with the Royal Air Force, after escaping from Poland. At the end of the war Margaret and Boleslaw moved to Ireland.

She had two sons Wladek and Tadek.

In the 1960s she became involved in the Dublin Housing Action Committee along with other progressive and left wing activists. Other campaigns she was involved in were Irish Voice on Vietnam, Reform (against corporal punishment in schools), anti-drug campaigns, and the Prisoners rights organisation(Public Relations Officer) which she founded along with Gerry O"Callaghan and now Labour Territorial Decoration Joe Costello.

She died aged 92 on 26 June 2011.

Achievements

• She later set up a restaurant initially in Molesworth Street but then in Baggot Street: the restaurant later became famous as a meeting place for Irish left-wing activists. She was a founder member of the Irish Womens Liberation Movement.

Politics

She was a member of the Irish Labour Party for a time, and Noel Brownes Socialist Labour Party.