Joyce McCartan

Joyce McCartan MBE (26 November 1929 – 8 January 1996) was a Northern Irish community worker.

Early life and family Joyce McCartan was born Joyce Buchanan on 26 November 1929 in Banbridge, County Down. Her father was Hugh Buchanan, whose family originally came from Scotland. She had three brothers. Her mother died when she was around 7 years old, which left her with the responsibility of looking after her father and brothers. She attended school in Banbridge, but left at age 14 to work in a cloth factory in Seaforde. She worked there for 2 years, but due to her unhappiness at home, she ran away to Belfast at age 16. There she found work as an assistant in a draper's shop. She met her husband, Seamus McCartan, at a dance hall. They lived in Bagot Street, just off the Ormeau Road. McCartan had been raised Protestant, but her husband was Catholic, and they raised their 8 children as Catholics.

Activism From the early 1970s, McCartan was involved in local protests along the Ormeau Road organised by women. These protests were on a wide range of issues including the ending of free milk for primary school children and the increasingly high cost of public transport. McCartan later described herself as a "family feminist". To help provide a support network to groups involved in this sort of action, McCartan was involved with the Women's Information Group, which allowed women to lead on local community issues. The services ranged from advice centres to children's facilities to action groups to pressure government bodies. The movement spread across Belfast, and despite the sectarian tension of the time, was a cross community initiative.

McCartan suffered personal loss during this time, with 17 members of her immediate family members dying during the sectarian violence. Hillary Clinton later recalled that McCartan "gave me an old battered aluminium teapot - which kept the tea very warm, which is what I first noticed about it - that I took with me to the White House where I used it every single day in the second floor private kitchen." The University of Ulster established a professorial chair in her honour, and the inaugural Joyce McCartan lecture in October 1997 was given by Hillary Clinton.