Pamela O'Malley

Pamela O'Malley (12 July 1929 – 12 February 2006) was an Irish-Spanish bohemian, educationalist and radical. She taught at the British School in Madrid until her retirement in 2003 and was also a member of the Spanish Communist Party. O'Malley was a co-founder of the Workers' Commissions's education branch and contributed to the passing of the General Assembly of the College of Doctors and Graduates of Madrid of the Alternative Public School in 1974. She worked to establish and develop the Madrid Education Union and the State Federation of the Workers' Commissions and was also involved in feminist and radical politics. The City Council of Madrid voted to name a thoroughfare in the city after O'Malley in February 2019.

Early life On 12 July 1929, O'Malley was born in Dublin, Ireland, to the Limerick spirit, tea and wine importer Patrick O'Malley, and his wife Kathleen ( Bonass). Raised in Limerick, she had an elder brother and was a second cousin to Donogh O'Malley. In the 1960s, O'Malley became a member of the Spanish Communist Party and co-established the illegal Workers' Commission's education branch, which was an underground trade union movement.

Personality and legacy

The Irish Times wrote of her, "For her Irish friends, she will be remembered more for culture than politics, and most of all for her exuberant and generous sense of life."