Tomás Ó Flatharta

Sally Shovelin passed away on August 4 2023 after an 18 month battle with cancer.

Sincerest Condolences to Sally’s partner John Gallagher, her close friends Betty Purcell and Helen Mahony, her sister Nora Shovelin and many other friends and family.

I first met Sally in the mid 1970’s via membership of People’s Democracy (part of the Fourth International). From that time onwards she was a committed left-wing, feminist, trade union, and anti-imperialist activist – always courageous and willing to confront injustice.

We remained in regular contact for many decades, our paths often crossing in political campaigns and many enjoyable social events. Sally had an impish sense of humour, and was great company.

In the late 1980’s I began an unexpected long and continuous work career in a trade union – then called the Local Government and Public Services Trade Union (LGPSU). Today it is known as FÓRSA. Sally had an office near my workplace where she was chairperson of the union’s Dublin County Council local authority branch. We often met socially – chatting, planning, and plotting! Sally was a committed activist in the campaigns to free the Birmingham Six and Guildford 4. I recall getting an urgent call on the morning of a public meeting. She was making sure that an advertised speaker – the LGPSU’s then general secretary Phil Flynn – was definitely speaking that night in Liberty Hall.

This campaign illustrated Sally Shovelin’s commitment to the politics of mass action.

A number of cultural political activists participated, including the late Thom McGinty (the Diceman), who mocks “British Justice” in the poster below, and on the large demonstration in the streets of Dublin that followed :

All photos supplied by Derek Spiers.

Sally Shovelin was not afraid to champion unpopular causes – she was a committed socialist opponent of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. We continued to meet regularly in the noughties and 2010’s – I remember canvassing with Sally for the successful socialist candidate Joan Collins in the 2011 Irish General Election. And Sally lived to see an unpopular campaign of the 1980’s – for A Woman’s Right to Choose Abortion – turned around in 2018 when a constitutional abortion ban was removed from the Irish Constitution. I will miss her very much.

John Meehan August 11 2023

Two of Betty’s closest friends and comrades, Betty Purcell and Helen Mahony, spoke at Sally’s funeral. Their fine tributes are below :
Betty Purcell :
I have known Sally almost 50 years. I met her first in the University College Dublin (UCD) women’s group in 1975 and the Socialist Society, where we campaigned for women’s rights and contraception, against repressive legislation, fighting student fee increases as they would impact working class participation, and supporting striking UCD canteen workers for better pay. Already I saw her mischief and sense of fun. But also a person who believed deeply in social justice, it was her guiding star all through her life; that belief was founded in integrity and love.

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She had the great fortune of meeting John Gallagher, the love of her life at a Midnight at the Olympia gig on 18th March 1990. They loved each other passionately and deeply from the beginning to the end.  They had a shared interest in history, politics, music and reading.  At their wedding , I have to say, the Craic was Ninety, with the particular highlight being when the Italian waiter in Al’s in Andrew St joined us to sing fabulous Neapolitan songs ; so fitting!

Both John and Sally loved to travel. In recent years. the to Lisbon were a special highlight.

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Sally had a great love of her own family, and the fondest memories of growing up in Donegal She knew every stone and field of her native St Johnston, and carried that landscape in her heart. Her sister Nora, did so much to support in her illness. she was delighted to make her trip home to Donegal with her brother John his wife Grace and her beloved nephew Charlie. It was a big undertaking in her last weeks of life, but she did it determinedly, and it was an uplifting success. Met neighbours who knew her parents.
4. Sally was a quiet person, but Her political campaigning was vocal and fierce. In fact many of the Trade Union leaders feared her outspoken opposition. she fought for the 1981 hunger strikers, and against strip searching of women prisoners in Armagh jail. She organised, with her trade Union colleague, Helen Mahony, a tribunal to examine the strip search issue. British Labour MP Kevin Mac Namara sat as a judge along with Niall Andrews of Fianna Fáil and Trade Union representatives.
She Opposed direct provision on principle and through union resolutions tried to prevent its racist imposition in social welfare. She Supported women’s struggles, and LGBT rights before it was popular.
Sally’s work was with the homeless and later with prisoners. She worked ceaselessly for the homeless. She believed that homeless services should be adequately resourced and delivered by public servants. When I was making tv doc for Would you believe with homeless people, all of them talked with such affection for Sally. How she helped them get their rights, and her empathy and warmth in all she did.

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My friendship with Sally was so much around music On this week of Sinéad O’Connor’s funeral, I remember many days and nights sharing that with her . We went to Willie Clancy week, , to the  Feakle festival, to Macroom to hear Rory Gallagher and later to Ballyshannon for Rory Gallagher festivals, to dozens of Vicar Streeet concerts, folk awards, Andy Irvine and Christy Moore. And then smaller local with  sessions on a Friday night in Graces in Rathmines.  And the Cobblestone Pub.  Her knowledge of music was encyclopaedic.  You could ask her about an obscure Neil Young  or Joni Mitchell song and she knew chapter and verse.   I will miss her terribly.
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For the last 18 months we watched Sally use her fearless fighting skills to fight the cancer…… and do it her way, always supported by John.  She had won a battle with cancer 13 years earlier and was determined to do so again. She always believed she’d find a way of defeating it . Right till the night before her death, she was confirming an appointment with her doctor for Friday morning, the one appointment she never made.

To finish, I’d like to Quote one of her great heroes, James Connolly; when his wife Lilly said to him, the night before his execution, “ your life James, your beautiful life “….  He replied “ hasn’t it been a full life, and isn’t this a good end”.  We can but think, Sally will not suffer any more pain or distress, and that her life was lived to the full, in the service of a better world.  

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Helen Mahony :

Sally was an amazing friend. She had many friends who she cared about and who care about and loved her. She was my very dear friend for nearly half a century since we first met in UCD.

She was, as you all know, loyal, caring and generous. She had a really great smile – so many people have talked about this in the past few days.

She was great fun and such good company, with a great love of music as Betty has spoken about, and theatre and cinema and books. She loved talking, a glass or two of fine wine, a walk and some fun and laughter. The places we met changed over the years but the talking, sharing and fun have been constant. In the early years the Van Morrison concert in January was part of our ritual, in recent decades the Christmas highlight was a visit to Sally and John’s lovely warm and welcoming home on Christmas eve, where there was always a beautiful real festive tree. Sally loved a traditional Christmas cake.

Sally exuded warmth and kindness, and had such a sharp sense of humour. She brought great joy to people and was thoughtful beyond measure. One of my grandchildren has a most treasured book – The Polar Express – which Sally posted to him one Christmas; another one a beautiful little monkey, a present from Sally when he was born.

In her work and her activism, as in her life, Sally was motivated by compassion and kindness. She had an unshakeable belief in human dignity and in the right of everyone to live with pride.

Recently, Sally received an award for outstanding lifetime service from her union, FORSA, an award which she greatly deserved. A socialist, feminist and campaigner all her life, Sally stood up time and again for workers’ rights, for women’s rights, for LGBT rights and for a decent public service. She absolutely believed that it was the duty of the state to provide housing and shelter for all.

Back in her college years, Sally was one of the founding members of the UCD women’s group and marched and campaigned on women’s issues throughout her life. She was one of the 100 signatories of the Defend the Clinics Declaration on Right to Information in the 1987. The last event that Sally attended was the International Women’s Day gathering in 2022, when she was already ill.

She was also involved in many political and social issues. She supported the hunger strikers and was active locally in Ringsend and in Dublin Central where Vincent Doherty and Bernadette McAlliskey stood. She, along with Kieran Rose, brought Lilly Hill, mother of Paul Hill of the Guildford Four, to Dublin to speak at an LGPSU conference.

Her unwavering sense of dignity and justice led her to initiate a campaign against the inhuman and degrading treatment of women in Armagh Gaol. She organised a bus to picket the gaol on International Women’s Day in 1981, as well as a subsequent large delegation of trade unionists to visit the women prisoners, and later arranged a tribunal in Dublin to give the women themselves the opportunity to share their experiences.

Sally was beautiful. And she loved well-tailored clothes and good shoes. She was a follower of slow fashion before the concept was named. She had a great sense of style and a certain liking for Brown Thomas, not just for herself but also for finding wonderful gifts for others.

Reading was always important to Sally. She loved the writer John Berger. One of the first book I ever talked about with Sally was the book G. In his essay A Gift for Rosa, John Berger quotes a letter from Rosa Luxembourg written from prison:

“To be a human being”, you say, “is the main thing above all else. And that means to be firm and clear and cheerful, yes, cheerful in spite of everything and anything, because howling is the business of the weak. To be a human being means to joyfully toss your entire life in the giant scales of fate if it must be so, and at the same time to rejoice in the brightness of every day and beauty of every cloud”

Sally rejoiced in life. She was brave and fearless. She brought great joy to her friends, to her beloved friend and husband John, to her family. And she did this all her life, even when she was really ill. She helped people in her work and in her life. She will be greatly missed.

In the past few days I’ve been thinking a lot about all that Sally loved. She loved the Irish language

Sally, mo chara dilis, Go gcoinneoimid inár gcuimhní agus inár gcroíthe thú go deo

We will keep you in our memories and our hearts forever

Death Notice : https://rip.ie/death-notice/condolences/sally-shovelin-dublin-ranelagh-525681?page=1&records=60&sortFields=a.createdAt&sortDirection=DESC

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The August 13 2023 edition of the Sunday Independent contains an obituary of Sally Shovelin “Campaigner who championed human rights, the poor, the homeless and migrants”. The author is Deaglán de Bréadún. A copy of this article can be viewed here :

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