Bríd Rodgers, who was inspired by injustices in Lurgan to fight for civil rights and join the SDLP, celebrates her 90th birthday

Born in Gweedore in County Donegal, Bríd moved to Lurgan after her husband Antoin Rodgers took over a dental surgery. It was there in the 1960s she was inspired to stand up for civil rights having seen so many injustices in the Co Armagh town.

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A mother of six children she balanced her life admirably amid the male domain of politics and is invariably regarded as a titan in the Irish political arena.

She told the BBC: "I wasn't a born politician. I never intended to be in politics. I started through civil rights and working for equality," she said.

"It wasn't easy because I was the only woman in the room most of the time.

"The men would all go off, as they do, after a meeting and they would meet wherever, probably in the pub, and I had to go back [home] because I had children to look after."

In 1965 Bríd with her husband Antoin became involved in the Campaign for Social Justice, precursor of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA).

The campaign aimed to highlight discrimination in areas such as jobs and housing, gerrymandering through the voting system, and in the special powers legislation.

She revealed to the Irish Times that her first job was to compile statistics on unionist discrimination of Catholics in Lurgan.

An early discovery was that while there were Catholic nurses employed in the local Craigavon hospital only one was a sister, and ‘that was because she was prepared to work night shifts’. There were no Catholic clerical officers or managers on the local council although there was a Catholic cleaning woman employed at the council swimming pool and one of the town hall caretakers was a Catholic.

Bríd was involved in the SDLP from its inception in the early 1970s. She recalls contacting John Hume asking him to help with an issue in Lurgan.

"I wrote a note to John and I said 'this is happening in Lurgan and it's awful the SDLP are doing nothing about it' and he just wrote me back one line: 'What are YOU doing about it?'

"I got the message and I joined the party, and the rest is history I suppose," she said.

A former councillor on the old Craigavon Borough Council, Bríd was the SDLP group chairperson and gradually she rose through the party ranks becoming Deputy Leader of the party and one of its senior negotiators during the Good Friday Agreement. In the first NI Assembly she took on the role of Minister for Agriculture.

Bríd took challenges head on and spoke eloquently on behalf of the Garvaghy Road Residents in Portadown during the Drumcree Crisis. This challenging period during the late 1990s led to the Lurgan woman being subject to death threats from loyalist paramilitaries.

Speaking to the BBC this week, Bríd revealed she was warned by police she was ‘on the list’. She had a bullet-proof door installed at her home. She said it made her nervous but she never considered leaving politics.

"It never occurred to me at that stage because I knew that we had to keep going," she said. "I was in an area where things were pretty difficult for the nationalist community – how was I going to walk away?"

Bríd stood down from the NI Assembly in 2003 at the age of 68.

A highlight in her long career is her involvement in the Good Friday Agreement which she helped negotiate and brought peace to the country.

On Thursday SDLP Leader Claire Hanna MP paid tribute to her party’s president at a birthday celebration in her honour at Derry’s Guildhall.

She said: “Brid Rodgers is truly a one off. As she turns 90 today Bríd continues to be an inspiration to the SDLP, as our party President, and to a much wider political spectrum. She has lost none of the humour, clarity of thought and determination that made her a formidable force during her elected political career.

"Like many ordinary people of her time, Bríd was dismayed by the injustice and division she saw. She got involved in the civil rights movement and later the SDLP after encouragement from John Hume. Bríd knew that if she wanted to see real change she would have to do something about it herself, and she’s been doing it ever since.

"A mother-of-six when she entered politics, it’s important to remember the significant challenges Bríd faced, not only threats from paramilitaries, but the outdated and misogynistic attitudes that blighted our politics at that time.

"Though we still have a ways to go when it comes to representation of women in our politics, the issues we face now are a far cry from those women like Bríd dealt with, and we have her to thank for being a trailblazer in that respect.

"Bríd was one of the few women involved the Good Friday Agreement at a senior level, providing some much-needed perspective, and also served as a Minister in the nascent Stormont Executive.

"These are huge achievements in their own right and to list all of Bríd’s accolades would take me another 90 years.

"On behalf of the SDLP I am delighted to wish Bríd a happy 90th birthday and to thank her for everything she has done not just for our party, but to make this island a better place for every one of us to live.”