Clodagh Finn: Why isn’t Irish anti-slavery campaigner Mary Ann McCracken better known?

It is astonishing that Belfast-born social reformer and abolitionist Mary Ann McCracken is not a household name, particularly in a year when there has been so much discussion of slavery and its enduring legacy, writes Clodagh Finn

Forgotten Irishwoman Mary Ann McCracken who found slavery so abhorrent she refused to take sugar, the product of slave labour, in her tea. Picture by John Gibson ©National Museums NICollection Ulster Museum.

It is astonishing that Belfast-born social reformer and abolitionist Mary Ann McCracken is not a household name, particularly in a year when there has been so much discussion of slavery and its enduring legacy.

In July, the 250th anniversary of her birth went by with hardly a whisper but there is still time to celebrate the long life of a woman whose motto was: “It is better to wear out than to rust out.”