Sean Cooney
Wikipedia: “Mary Fildes (c. 1789-1876) was a British social reformer and political activist. She was president of the Manchester Female Reform Society in 1819, and played a leading role at the mass rally at Manchester in that year which ended in the Peterloo massacre.”
Eliza Carthy: Mary Fildes
https://youtu.be/d9O0UT_tq5U?si=XPn7TblbySNqqSLA
She was born in Ireland when the war with France began Her father was a working man a friend to all the poor When she married William, the bells of Stockport sweetly sang Soon there were four children marching through the door But hard times came a-calling, down the rain came falling And conditions were appalling, life was like a jail How her parents they are dying and our children they are crying And our husbands they are trying, but we must tip the scale So said? Chorus: Mary, Mary Fildes Oh Mary, Mary Fildes From Blackburn she heard the call, come womenfolk and stand up tall One thousand came to sign up all in Manchester one day Come sisters of the [earth] said she, then heart in hand come stand with me We’re here to reform society or we will hold our sway And from the alleys of the town, from the country all around The folk came marching to the sound of fife and drum the same And the women dressed in white serene their arms open, hands were clean With banners high and courage keen, to Peter’s Field they came And they followed? She rode in the carriage that her handkerchief held in the air No finer hero could compare in any fabled tale When she climbed the [hustings] high, she waved her banner through the sky On it was Britannia fine holding of the scale And she looked like?