Woman's Hour

Derry Girls' actors Siobhan McSweeney and Louisa Harland on London stage, Laura Trevelyan, Mrs Pankhurst's Bodyguard

04.12.2023 - By BBC Radio 4Play

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Brian Friel’s classic play Dancing at Lughnasa has opened at the National Theatre in London. Telling the story of the five Mundy sisters, two of the actors, more recently on our screens in Derry Girls – newly-Bafta nominated Siobhan McSweeney (AKA Sister Michael) and Louisa Harland (AKA Orla McCool) - join Nuala McGovern in the Woman’s Hour studio. UN experts have warned the UK government that its treatment of unaccompanied asylum seeker children is increasing the risk that they could be trafficked and is breaching international law. A statement issued yesterday expressed concern about the fate of children who had gone missing and has urged that the government does more to protect them. Siobhán Mullally is the United Nations Special Rapporteur on trafficking. Laura Trevelyan and 6 members of her family earlier this year travelled to Grenada to issue a public apology to the people of the Caribbean Island for her family’s links to the slave trade. The Trevelyan family is donating more than £100,000 in reparations. Now Laura is campaigning full time on the Caribbean’s fight for reparatory justice. And later this month she is launching a new group composed of families in Britain, with similar backgrounds, ancestors who were slave owners. Yesterday a 19-year-old who stabbed another teenager to death in a quiet Somerset town was found guilty of murder. Joshua Delbono stabbed 16-year-old Charley Bates in Radstock, Somerset, on 31 July last year. It was Delbono's mother Donna who called the police and told them her son had killed Charley. This is a very serious crime which perhaps made it a clear cut decision for Donna Delbono to call the police but what about when it comes to other issues, if you knew your teenage child was taking or dealing drugs, stealing, or maybe drink driving - Would you ever call the police on your child? If, so at what point would you do it?

Former detective superintendent Shabnam Chauhdri and former Conservative MP, parent and now criminal barrister Anna Soubry discuss. You may well have heard of Emmeline Pankhurst who was a leading figure in the suffragette movement, which called for the right for women to vote….But what about Kitty Marshall - one of Emmeline Pankhurst’s bodyguards? Emelyne Godfrey’s new book Mrs Pankhurst’s Bodyguard shines a light on Kitty Marshall and how she helped Mrs Pankhurst to evade the clutches of the authorities as a member of the Women’s Social and Political Union’s elite team ‘the Bodyguard’. Presenter: Nuala McGovern

Producer: Kirsty Starkey

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