Image
Lynda Walker
Biography
Lynda Walker taught for 31 years at the Belfast Institute of Further and Higher Education, now Belfast Metropolitan College, where she organised the first women only taster course in non-traditional skills, and helped to introduce the Access to University Women's Studies Course to college, eventually becoming the Director of Women's Studies. As a mature student she gained an honours degree at Queen's University in 1974 and a Masters of Education in 1995.
Activity in women's organisations includes being a founder member for the Northern Ireland Women's Rights Movement, she helped to open the first women's centre in Belfast in 1979 and has been active on abortion rights since the early ?O's.
She was secretary of the NI Irish Congress of Trade Union (NI ICTU) Women's Committee, and was a Commissioner on the Equal Opportunities Commission NI (now the Equality Commission) representing the NI ICTU.
She was a founder member of NI Women's Coalition and was a candidate in the Peace Talks elections in North Belfast and the local council elections in the Shankill ward. She was also a founder member of Training for Women Network and Reclaim the Agenda, and presently represents Belfast and District Trades Union Council on Reclaim the Agenda and Women's Resource and Development Agency. She was active in the NI Civil Rights Association.
From 1969 she was a member of the Communist Party of Ireland and was chairperson of the CPI from 2006 to 2017. She is presently a member of the Irish Communist Party.
Lynda has written many articles and a number of booklets on women. Lynda was born in Sheffield, in 1969 came to live in Belfast with her two children Daniella and Russell, her son died as a result of being given contaminated blood products. She has three grandchildren.
Object
Some of the sitters have provided objects that came up in discussions with Hannah Starkey when sitting for their portraits. These personal selections speak to their work, activism and impact, and give insight into the meaning behind the project.
“a letter that I wrote in 1996, it along with others helped to set the ball rolling”