Miriam Daly

Miriam Daly (1928 - 1980), was an Irish republican activist and University lecturer who was assasinated by Loyalist paramilitaries.

Miriam was born in the Curragh army camp, Kildare, Ireland. Her father had been active in the Irish War of Independence alongside Michael Collins but was in favour of the treaty and then joined the Free State Army. Nevertheless he taught his daughter much about insurrectionary politics.

She grew up in Hatch Street, Dublin, attending Loreto College on St Stephen's Green and then University College, Dublin, graduating in history. George O'Brien supervised her MPhil in economic history looking into Irish emigration to England. Then she taught economic history in UCD for some years before moving to Southampton University with her husband Joseph Lee. Two years after Joseph died in 1963, she married James Daly, returning to Ireland with him in 1968. They both were appointed lecturers in Queen's University, Belfast.

She soon became an activist in the Civil Rights Movement particularly following the introduction of internment without trial by the Stormont government. She was active in Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association and the Northern Resistance Movement. Her organising skills and gifted oratory soon made her prominent in the republican movement. She was particularly appreciated by the internees in Long Kesh who she regularly visited and with whom she discussed Irish history.

Coming from the South she was particularly appreciated in Northern Ireland, but failed to get backing for her proposed campaign to educate the people in the Republic of Ireland about the political realities in the North. She saw such a campaign as an important way to make up for their lack of experience of the Troubles and so generate a struggle for a united Ireland.

Miriam was a militant member of the Prisoners' Relatives Action Committee, and the national Hunger Strike Committee. She was a founder member of the Murray Defence Committee to save the Murrays from the death sentence in Dublin. In that campaign, she worked with Seamus Costello, and soon joined him in the Irish Republican Socialist Party and the Irish National Liberation Army. After Seamus was assassinated, she became chairperson, leading the party for two years.

Daly was shot dead at home in the Andersonstown area of West Belfast. At the time of her assassination she was in charge of the IRSP prisoners' welfare. The Ulster Freedom Fighters claimed responsibility for her murder, but her husband claims that other people were involved. She was buried in Swords, County Dublin.

References

• Straight from the Heart - an interview Jim Daly, accessed 24 April 2008
• IRSP: Miriam Daly Commemoration Speech 25 June 2005 accessed 24 April 2008
• Speech Delivered by IRSP AC member Gerry Ruddy at Unveiling of Daly/McNamee Plaque 22 June 2003 accessed 24 April 2008