Deirdre Tobin:DEIRDRE TOBIN, who has died aged 56, was one of those responsible for major advances in equal pay legislation. As a member of the Women's Committee of the Irish Congress of Trades Unions, she campaigned for the equal pay laws that are now part of legislation.
She was born in Walkinstown, Dublin, in 1952, the eldest of four daughters of Willie and Kathleen Tobin. Willie Tobin was a barman, a member of the Irish National Union of Vintners’, Grocers and Allied Trades Assistants (now part of Mandate).
In the early 1970s she moved to nearby Drimnagh, where she spent the rest of her life. At that time she was one of the founders of the Militant Tendency (now the Socialist Party) as a faction in the Labour Party. She was a stalwart of the Crumlin branch of the Labour Party when it was one of the party’s most left-wing.
Her experience encouraged her to fight for women’s rights at work. In the early 70s, after her first marriage, the marriage ban forced her to resign from the Civil Service.
In the following years she was prominent in the Amalgamated Transport and General Workers Union (ATGWU – now part of Unite). Trade unionism was an integral part of her life: she met her husband Alan Walker at a trade union conference. In the 1980s, work took her into the Local Government and Public Services Union (now part of Impact). There she achieved an important regrading for women staff in Dublin Corporation’s law department.
Her support for multi-denominational education had its roots in the same desire for a better society. She was determined her children, and their generation, would have a broader education than she had. In 1993 she was instrumental in the setting up of the Crumlin Multi-Denominational School, now Griffith Barracks National School, and it gaining recognition. Through that she became a director of Educate Together, the umbrella body for multi-denominational schools.
For a while, the Crumlin School was housed in a property owned by a major property developer. Relations between school and landlord turned acrimonious. The developer could afford top-notch legal advice. Nonetheless, the school was defended successfully by Deirdre. This was because, while working outside the home and raising two children, Deirdre studied at night and qualified as a solicitor. She specialised in family law and conveyancing. Such was her expertise in conveyancing that other solicitors approached her for help with difficulties.
Her community in Drimnagh also benefited from that legal expertise. In the 1990s, she was chairwoman of the Dublin 12 Drugs Task Force and kept it together at a time of internal tensions.
Unfortunately, her later years were blighted by illness. During her frequent hospitalisations, immigrant staff approached her to help reunite families divided by Irish immigration laws. Her advice, given free, enabled them to bring spouses and children to Ireland and have a normal family life.
She was always gifted with a sense of humour. The oncologist who treated her paid tribute in a letter: “She was unfailingly good humoured and entertaining, despite the terrible problems she faced.”
She is survived by husband Alan Walker, mother Kathleen (née Furlong), children Emmet and Gráinne, daughter-in-law Martha, and sisters Sylvia, Fidelma and Christine. She was predeceased by her father William (Willie).
Deirdre Tobin: born December 31st, 1952; died January 29th, 2009