Margaret Gaj

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Margaret Gaj, née Dunlop (1919 – 26 June 2011) was a Dublin restaurant owner and activist.

Life[]

Margaret Dunlop was born in Scotland in 1919 to Irish parents.[1]

As a pacifist she joined the Red Cross as a nurse during the second world war. During her time as a nurse she met Polish soldier, Boleslaw Gaj, and they married. He was working as an electrician with the RAF, after escaping from Poland.[1]

At the end of the war Margaret and Boleslaw moved to Ireland. 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.[1][2] 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. She was a founder member of the Irish Women's Liberation Movement in 1970.[3][1] They had their meetings in her restaurant on Baggot Street every Monday. 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 (PRO) which she founded along with Gerry O'Callaghan and now Labour TD Joe Costello.[1][4] She was a member of the Irish Labour Party for a time, and Noel Browne's Socialist Labour Party.

She died aged 92 on 26 June 2011.[1][5]

References[]

  1. ^ a b c d e f "The matriarch who served up stew and social progress". independent.
  2. ^ Stopper, Anne. Mondays at Gaj's: the story of the Irish Women's Liberation Movement. Liffey Press, 2006ISBN 1904148948 (p.10)
  3. ^ Ferriter, Diarmuid.Occasions of Sin: Sex and Society in Modern Ireland. Profile Books, 2010ISBN 1847652581 (p.441).
  4. ^ Margaret Gaj - Obituary Irish Independent, Sunday July 03 2011.
  5. ^ Restaurant owner and left-wing campaigner Irish Times, 2 July 2011.
Retrieved from ""