May O'Callaghan

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May O'Callaghan
Born1881
Died1973
NationalityIrish
EducationUniversity of Vienna
Political partyCommunist Party (British Section of the Third International)

May O'Callaghan (1881–1973) was born in Wexford.[1] Known to many as O'C[2] she was a suffragette and communist.[3]

Life[edit]

Callaghan was born in Wexford. She studied Modern Languages at the University of Vienna and between 1901 and 1914 taught English and gave lectures on the Irish Literary Revival.[1]

In 1916 she was writing letters on behalf of East London Federation of Suffragettes.[4] This was a socialist suffragette organisation that broke away from Women's Social and Political Union.

Along with Nellie Cohen (sister of Rose Cohen), between 1919 and 1921 she ran the office of the People's Russian Information Bureau (established by Sylvia Pankhurst).[1] She was also working as the sub-editor of the Worker's Dreadnought at this time.[5] In 1919 the Communist Party (British Section of the Third International) was founded in the flat that she shared with Nellie Cohen and Daisy Lansbury.[1]

In 1924[1] she travelled to Moscow where she stayed until 1928 and worked in the Translation Section of the Comintern Press Department.[3]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e Maurice Casey (speaker) (11 September 2017). To Abduct the Mistresses of the Commissars (video). Connolly Mediagroup. Event occurs at 5:17.
  2. ^ "Cohen Rose". www.grahamstevenson.me.uk. Retrieved 2 January 2018.
  3. ^ a b Mickenberg, Julia L. (25 April 2017). American Girls in Red Russia: Chasing the Soviet Dream. University of Chicago Press. p. 299. ISBN 9780226256269.
  4. ^ "1916 Letters |". letters1916.maynoothuniversity.ie. Retrieved 3 January 2018.
  5. ^ Winslow, Barbara (18 October 2013). Sylvia Pankhurst: Sexual Politics And Political Activism. Routledge. p. 118. ISBN 9781134220106.