Margaret Gaj

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

Life

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

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.

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] 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.[2] 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.[3] 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.[4]

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References
  1. Stopper, Anne. Mondays at Gaj's: the story of the Irish Women's Liberation Movement. Liffey Press, 2006 ISBN 1904148948 (p.10)
  2. Ferriter, Diarmuid. Occasions of Sin: Sex and Society in Modern Ireland. Profile Books, 2010 ISBN 1847652581 (p.441).
  3. Margaret Gaj - Obituary Irish Independent, Sunday July 03 2011.
  4. Restaurant owner and left-wing campaigner Irish Times, 2 July 2011.
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