The Baroness Blood, MBE 1938-2022

 The Baroness Blood, MBE, died 21 October, 2022, aged 84.

She was a Labour life peer, taking her seat in the Lords in 1999. She retired in 2018.

Mary Blood was born 26 May 1938. She was a founding member of the Northern Ireland Women's Coalition (NIWC). She was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 1995 Birthday Honours "for services to Equal Opportunities and to Industrial Relations". Blood received an honorary D.Univ. from Ulster University in 1998, Queen's University of Belfast in 2000 and Open University in 2001. In 2007 her autobiography, Watch my Lips, I'm Speaking, was published by Gill Books.

Blood's political career began in the 1990s as she participated at a grassroots level in the Peace Process and helped set up Northern Ireland Women's Coalition in 1996 where she was chosen to be Campaign Manager for the party. In 1995, Blood was appointed a member of the Order of the British Empire for her labour relations work.

Blood was created a life peeress as Baroness Blood, of Blackwatertown in the County of Armagh on 31 July 1999. She was the first woman in Northern Ireland to be given a life peerage.

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