Sarah Doherty: women’s rights campaigner remembered by Derry and Inishowen family

It was truly a family occasion on Derry’s Shipquay Street as the relatives of Sarah Doherty gathered at her recently unveiled Blue plaque.

Speaking to The Derry News, Noleen Conboy, whose mother was the niece of the pioneering labour activist and women’s rights campaigner, explained Sarah Doherty’s Derry and Inishowen connections.

“My mother was called Minnie McLaughlin (née Martin) and her mother, my grandmother, was called Jeanie Martin (née Doherty) and Jeanie was the full sister to Sarah Doherty who we are celebrating here today,” explained Noleen.

“The Martin’s were from Stanley’s Terrace [a small row of houses located in the Bogside area of Derry, near Lecky Road and Lone Moor Road] on the way out to the Brandywell,” she added.

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“My mother had one sister, Sadie Martin, and four brothers, Barney Martin, whose two daughters are here today; Manus Martin, whose daughter is also here today; Roddy Martin, who emigrated to America; and Dennis Martin, whose daughter would have come along to represent the Derry Girls but sadly died.

“An interesting thing about me in terms of our family history is that my name is Sarah Magdalene, by birth, that’s what my mother called me. She called me after her sister Sadie, my aunt, who was also Sarah Magdalene, and she was called after this Sarah Doherty, who was Sarah Magdalene Doherty.

“My mother was a factory girl. She worked in the Hogg and Mitchell shirt factory [Great James’ Street] and in the Star shirt Factory [Foyle Road]. Her job was smoother - she ironed the shirts.

“And when ‘The Quiet Man’ was made in 1951, every shirt factory worker in Derry thought that they had made the shirt that was worn by John Wayne, and my mother was very insistent that she had ironed the shirt or one of the shirts that was worn by John Wayne but of course that could have been an old bit of a piseóg,” laughed Noleen, “but, I know for definite the shirts he wore were made in Derry.”

Jeanie Doherty’s family gathered in Derry on Tuesday because they had been unable to attend the official unveiling of the Blue Plaque honouring Sarah Doherty on July 23, 2026.

“The Plaque was unveiled by other members of the family,” said Noleen.

“Sarah Doherty came from a family of 12, and each one of them who married had a large number of children, so this connection is absolutely huge. We are here today to represent Jeanie Doherty, our granny’s family, she explained.

“As well as me, from Buncrana because my mother married a Buncrana man, my brother Donal is here, and he is called after Daniel Martin, who was Jeanie Doherty’s husband. My sister Myra (McColgan) is also here, along with my sister-in-law Marie McLaughlin, who is representing my brother,” said Noleen.

She added: “Sarah Doherty died in 1947 so I don’t remember her. My memory, which is very subjective, but is what I remember being told by our mother, was that, whenever Auntie Sarah took sick, she [Noleen’s mother] used to have to go to the union meetings to represent the shirt factory workers in the Seamstresses Union.

“She told me it was very intimidating for a single girl from Derry to go up to Dublin at that time, in the 1940s, but she went.

“Sarah took sick in the mid 1940s, so it would probably have been just after the war, when my mother went to a meeting, and if my memory serves me correctly, I think she was the only woman representative at that meeting.

“I don’t know if Sarah Doherty had an income but I know my mother wouldn't have had an income, and then, when the role was taken over by men, of course they were paid.

“My mother married a Buncrana man. My mammy’s mammy was Jeanie Doherty, and my mother, Minnie, was her eldest daughter. She had three sons, my mother, another son, and then my aunt Sadie, Sarah Doherty's namesake, and their surname was Martin,” said Noleen.

She added: “ My Uncle Dennis, who was the oldest of that family, was a bookie, and he met my father, Johnny the Poet, who was also a bookie.

“My father would have been quite well known in Buncrana. He met my Uncle Dennis through the Brandywell, where the dog racing was held, and through that he met my mother.

“My mother had a very interesting girlhood. She had been engaged to a GI during World War II because Derry was a base for the American Marines. She met and fell in love with a man from Boston, who we only knew as Chisholm. He gave her a locket,which I have, with their names and their photographs in it. I always thought it was a very romantic story.

“He went back to the States and the romance fizzled out, and she met and married my father and moved to Buncrana and that was the real love story,” said Noleen.

“My father was a shirt factory worker in Buncrana. He was a master cutter, so he trained the apprentice cutters, and whenever he was asked what his occupation was, even though he owned his two businesses by then, he always wrote down master cutter because he was very proud of his craft,” she added.

“The shirt factory industry in Buncrana was like an add-on to Derry. When I was growing up, all my friends would have worked in the shirt factory industry in Buncrana,” said Noleen, who also reminisced about the family lore on her mother’s side of the family.

“There is a tale told that my mother’s great grandfather supposedly threw an RUC man over Craigavon Bridge,” she revealed,” and a second cousin of ours, Seamus Deane wrote about it in his book ‘Reading in the Dark’. Seamus’ mother was Winnie Doherty, who was my mother’s full cousin.

“And on the other side, my father's father died fighting for an Irish regiment in World War One and was awarded the highest Medal of Honour that can be awarded to someone who was not an officer.

“In addition, Sarah’s youngest sister, Josephine Doherty married to John Daly, was a very active member of Cumann na mBan and when she died, in the 1980s, she had her Cumann na mBan badge on in her coffin. That is something our family is also very proud of. They must have been a remarkable family of strong women.”