McAliskey, Bernadette Devlin (1947–)

Irish activist. Name variations: Bernadette Devlin; Bernadette Devlin-McAliskey. Pronunciations Mack-AL-is-KEE. Born Bernadette Josephine Devlin at Cookstown, Co. Tyrone, Northern Ireland, April 23, 1947; dau. of John James Devlin and Elizabeth Bernadette Devlin, both of Cookstown; educated at St. Patrick's Academy, Dungannon, Co. Tyrone, and at Queen's University, Belfast; m. Michael McAliskey, April 23, 1973; children: Roisin McAliskey (b. Aug 1971); Deirdre McAliskey (b. 1976); Fintan McAliskey (b. 1979).

Irish socialist republican, who was a prominent and well-remembered figure in 1960s civil-rights campaign in Northern Ireland, became a founder-member of the People's Democracy movement (1968); took part in the civil-rights march from Belfast to Derry (Jan 1969); elected to British House of Commons and sat for Mid-Ulster constituency (1969–74); unsuccessfully contested European election (1979) and Irish Republic's election (1982); narrowly survived assassination attempt (1981); campaigned against extradition from Irish Republic to Northern Ireland (1987–88); was opposed to the Downing Street Declaration of Dec 1993; continued to take an active part in socialist republican politics; as the popular champion of nationalist Derry during the ferment of 1969–70, became a living symbol both of Northern Ireland's most intractable political problems and of the need for, and inevitability of, change.

See also autobiography The Price of My Soul (Deutsch, 1969); G.W. Target, Bernadette (Hodder & Stoughton, 1975); and Women in World History.