Margaretta D'Arcy- feminist, Irish republican, internationalist, socialist, artist, environmentalist, anti-war activist, anti-imperialist campaigner.

 

So many warm loving tributes have been paid by so many people to the great and unique Margaretta D'Arcy over the last week that I agree wholeheartedly with.

The last time I met this iconic inspirational woman was a few weeks ago at one of the weekly Thursday 'Campus Anti-Genocide' protests she regularly took part in which were held to highlight the University of Galway's unacceptable refusal to cut its research links with the Haifa-based Technion university that has strong links to the Israeli military industrial complex.

The first time I met her was in the late 1970s when I was a student union activist impressed by her and her late husband John Arden as they promoted the British "7:84" left wing political theatre group to the students of what was then the University College Galway (UCG). The group's name came from the fact that 7% of the population of Britain owned 84% of the country's wealth. She was then and always remained a fiery passionate left-wing idealist who stayed true to her radical beliefs.

Over the decades she was always on the front line standing up against oppression and for justice both in Ireland and elsewhere.

Galway and the world will be poorer for her departure.