Sir, – There are further connections between George Lansbury, former socialist leader of the UK Labour Party and Ireland (An Irishman’s Diary, January 9th). His daughter Dorothy joined the Labour Party in London at the age of 16. Together with her husband Ernest Thurtle and others, she founded the Workers’ Birth Control Group in 1924. She wanted to persuade public authorities to provide information on fertility control at publicly run health clinics. The then Labour minister for health John Wheatley MP, born in Co Waterford and with a Catholic background, opposed this campaign. Dorothy went on to write a book entitled Abortion Right or Wrong?, which was published by T Werner Laurie Ltd in London in 1942. Her book was banned in Ireland the same year and placed on the register of banned publications, where it remains to this day, 81 years later. – Yours, etc,
PAULINE CONROY,
Clonskeagh,
Dublin 14.