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 Human rights activist who set up Amnesty International in Ireland
Brigid Wilkinson: BRIGID WILKINSON, who has died aged 87, was a stalwart of human rights and civil liberties organisations in Ireland. A founding member and former honorary secretary of Amnesty International in Ireland, she was also closely involved with the Irish Association, Irish Anti-Apartheid Movement and the Irish Council for Civil Liberties.
Remembered for her independence, sense of adventure, love of travel, tolerance and openness to new ideas, she was influenced by the times she lived in. As a young girl she witnessed one of Hitler’s rallies, and as a young woman took part in the war against Nazism.
Born in Belfast in 1922, she was one of four children of Charles Wilson and his wife Marion McIlrath. A civil servant, her father was based in Singapore where he lived with his wife. The children were mainly reared by their grandparents.
Brigid was educated in Germany and in England, at Roedean School, and studied social science at Trinity College Dublin, where she took a full part in college life.
During the second World War, she served in the Wrens, before being discharged after she contracted TB. In 1948, she married Dick Wilkinson, a farmer, and they lived in north county Dublin. In the late 1960s, the family moved to Brittas, Co Wicklow.
In May 1972, she was one of a representative group of Protestants living in the Republic who signed a statement saying that Southern Protestants had every opportunity to play a full part in the life of the community.
A response to Northern criticism of the Republic, it acknowledged there were “sensitive issues” facing Protestants, but that they were “far short of crucial” and “adjustable by stages”.
Eleven years later, with Senator Catherine McGuinness, she delivered a letter from the sponsors of the Anti-Amendment Campaign asking the New Ireland Forum to recommend that people vote against the first constitutional amendment on abortion.
As general secretary of the Irish Association for Cultural, Economic and Social Relations, she was a member of the committee that organised the association’s 50th anniversary in 1988.
The Celebration of Ulster opened in Dublin with the premiere of Frank McGuinness’s play The Carthaginians. An exhibition of work by Northern artists was also held and the Ulster Orchestra performed at the National Concert Hall.
Speaking in 2003, the association’s former director, Barbara Fitzgerald, told members: “Brigid Wilkinson was wonderful. She knew more than anyone about the association and I always felt should have been president.”
She loved nature and Dylan Thomas once described her as a “wild child of the Earth”. But she also did farm work, driving a tractor and plough when necessary. A renowned hostess, she hosted fundraisers at her home for a range of worthy causes. Guests included members of the Bolshoi ballet company and members of the Dubliners and Clancy brothers.
A lifelong supporter of the Irish rugby team, one of the few home internationals she missed was the controversial game against the Springboks in 1970, which she picketed with her daughters in protest at apartheid. As well as her work for human rights and civil liberties, she also manned the phones for the Samaritans. She suffered from Parkinson’s disease in her final years, but with her family’s support visited the cinema and theatre and went swimming.
Predeceased by her husband Dick, she is survived by her daughters Dikka, Janet and Emma, sons Richard and Graham and grandchildren.
(2010/01/23 - The Irish Times) |
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