May Blood, Baroness Blood

May Blood, Baroness Blood, MBE (born 26 May 1938) is a former member of the British House of Lords, where she was a Labour peer from 31 July 1999 to 4 September 2018.

The Right Honourable

The Baroness Blood

MBE
Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
In office
31 July 1999 – 4 September 2018
Personal details
Born
May Blood

(1938-05-26) 26 May 1938
Belfast, Northern Ireland
Political partyLabour
OccupationLabour movement leader

Blood was born and raised in Belfast and worked in a linen mill from 1952 to 1989 where she soon became an active member of the Transport and General Workers Union and a shop steward. She was involved in creating the women's committee in the Trade Union and promoting equality for women at work. Later she worked as a manager of Cairn Martin Wood Products from 1991 to 1994.

Since 1994, she has been an Information Officer of the Greater Shankill Partnership and is a founding member of the Northern Ireland Women's Coalition. She was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 1995 Birthday Honours.[1] In 1998, she was awarded an honorary degree from the University of Ulster.

She has received an honorary D.Univ from Ulster University in 1998, Queen's University of Belfast in 2000 and Open University in 2001. In 2007, she published her autobiography, Watch my Lips, I'm Speaking.[2]

Early life and career

Blood was born in Belfast on 26 May 1938 and lived on Magnetic Street, a cross-community area of Belfast, with her mother and sister. Her father worked in a shipyard, but for the first six years of Blood's life her father was away in the army. Her mother worked as a cook at Mackies foundry. Blood attended Donegall Road Methodist Church Primary School and went on to Linfield Secondary School on Sandy Row.[3]

After leaving school at age fourteen, she began working at a local linen mill. Blood joined the Transport and General Worker's Union very soon after starting at the mill and would go on to deal with health and safety issues, such as long working hours, as well as wages. She remained at the mill until it closed in 1989 and during this time Blood became the shop steward and was elected to the regional committee of the Transport and General Worker's Union.[4]

Community work

In 1989, Blood became a community worker on a project for long-term unemployed men. She also worked with the Great Shankill Early Years Project as Information Officer from 1994 to 1998 where she helped to establish three community centres in the Shankill area, and as Chair for Early Years (Befast) from 2000 to 2009.[4][5] Blood was a Chair for Barnardo's Northern Ireland committee from 2000 to 2009.[5]

In January 2013, Blood was awarded the Grassroot Diplomat Initiative Award under the Social Driver category for her tireless campaign for integrated education in Northern Ireland, where she helped to raise over £15 million.[6]

Political career

Blood's political career began in the 90s as she participated at a grassroots level in the Peace Process and helped set up Northern Ireland Women's Coalition in 1996 where she was chosen to be Campaign Manager for the party.[7]

In 1995, Blood was awarded an MBE for her labour relations work.[7]

Blood was created a life peeress as Baroness Blood, of Blackwatertown in the County of Armagh on 31 July 1999.[8] She was the first woman in Northern Ireland to be given a life peerage.[9]

In the May 2016 elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly Baroness Blood made an appeal to the electorate to vote for the Labour Party in Northern Ireland members standing as candidates on behalf of the Northern Ireland Representation Committee.[10] The Labour Party (UK) is not a registered political party in Northern Ireland and its members there are not permitted to stand for election as official Labour candidates.

She retired from the House of Lords on 4 September 2018.[11]

Honours and awards
  • 1995: Member of the Order of the British Empire
  • 1997: Global Citizen's Circle Award[12]
  • 1998: Honorary DUniv from Ulster University[13]
  • 2000: Honorary DUniv from Queen's University of Belfast[14]
  • 2001: Honorary DUniv from Open University[15]
  • 2013: Grassroot Diplomat Initiative Award[16]

References
  1. "No. 54066". The London Gazette (Supplement). 17 June 1995. p. 15.
  2. Watch my Lips, I'm Speaking, Gill & Macmillan Ltd (September 2007); ISBN 0-7171-4252-3
  3. "Baroness Blood: from linen mills to the Lords". www.newsletter.co.uk. Retrieved 21 September 2019.
  4. "Herstory: Baroness May Blood". 4 September 2019. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  5. "Baroness Blood". UK Parliament. Retrieved 21 September 2019.
  6. "Grassroot Diplomat Who's Who". Grassroot Diplomat. 15 March 2015. Archived from the original on 20 May 2015. Retrieved 27 April 2015.
  7. "May Blood". Northern Visions. Retrieved 21 September 2019.
  8. "No. 55574". The London Gazette. 6 August 1999. p. 8518.
  9. "Celebrated citizen: Baroness May Blood MBE", City Matters, September–October 2009. Belfast City Council.
  10. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0v4h09D2C7Y
  11. "Baroness Blood". UK Parliament.
  12. "Circles Since 1974". globalcitizenscircle.org. Retrieved 21 September 2019.
  13. "Honorary graduates". www.ulster.ac.uk. Retrieved 21 September 2019.
  14. "Queen's University Belfast (formerly Queen's College Belfast) Honorary Degrees 1871-2018" (PDF). Queen's University Belfast. Retrieved 21 September 2019.
  15. "Honorary graduate cumulative list" (PDF). Open University. Retrieved 21 September 2019.
  16. "Baroness May Blood wins the Grassroot Diplomat Social Driver Award". Integrated Education Northern Ireland. 27 February 2013. Retrieved 21 September 2019.
Orders of precedence in the United Kingdom
Preceded by
The Baroness Wilkins		 Gentlemen
Baroness Blood 		Followed by
The Baroness Barker
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