The inaugural lecture of the Anna Eggert lecture series, organised by the WRDA.  Baroness May Blood was the speaker for the afternoon and delivered a biographical lecture entitled “From the factory floor to the House of Lords”.

May talks about her early life from passing her 11+, to her years in the linen mills and becoming an active member of the trade union and a shop steward to her life peerage as Baroness Blood of Blackwatertown from County Armagh in 1999, a first for a Northern Irish woman.  Blood spoke candidly about her journey from the streets of Belfast to becoming a member of the House of Lords saying women needed “be part of the system to change it”.

In her closing remarks, Blood described herself as “an ordinary women who has had the most extraordinary opportunities”, urging women to do things themselves, rather than cripple themselves and their opportunities to make change, with self disbelief.