Aileen Allen McCorkell, Lady McCorkell OBE ( Booth; 18 September 1921 – 25 December 2010) was the founder and first President of the British Red Cross branch in Derry. In 1972, she and her husband, Colonel Sir Michael McCorkell, hosted secret peace talks between the British Government and the Provisional IRA, whose delegation included Gerry Adams.
Early life
McCorkell was born on 18 September 1921 in the Indian hill station of Ootacamund, the younger daughter of Lt-Col Ernest Brabazon Booth DSO, RAMC, and his wife Marguerita Agnes, daughter of John Currie, of London. Her obituary noted that "Aileen had no memories of India, but a lifelong fear of snakes was reliably attributed to an incident in her infancy when a cobra came up through the bath’s plughole, only to be quickly dispatched by a capable ayah with a meat cleaver."
When she was two years old, the family returned to Ireland to live at Darver Castle, Dundalk, County Louth. She was taught by a Governess before being educated at Dundalk Grammar School and Westonbirt. She was at a finishing school in Paris in 1939 at the outbreak of war.
War Experiences
"In an Anglo-Irish society in which those "who did not go" to the war were long remembered, it never occurred to her that she should not do her bit, but ironically her early attempts to join the Wrens in Belfast were rebuffed precisely because she came from southern Ireland. She was eventually accepted for the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (the WAAF) in 1941", hiding her privileged upbringing in a castle from the other girls in the ranks.
She signed the Official Secrets Act and was trained, on the then highly Hush-Hush Radar, as a Filter Plotter at Leighton Buzzard and was eventually stationed near Nottingham, and later in Belfast. "She was commissioned after four years in the ranks – an experience which left her with a lifelong distrust of women in authority – and posted to North of England Coastal Command". She stayed in service until the end of 1946. After a brief spell as a school matron at Cheltenham she returned to Ireland.
The Troubles
"Brought up in the Irish Republic before World War II, she had never imbibed the political and religious intolerance of the North, realising instead that, by its principles of humanity, neutrality and impartiality, the Red Cross could play a vital role in Northern Ireland. Accordingly she steered the Derry branch down a middle way of absolute neutrality between two warring communities."
Having broken her back hunting, she turned to voluntary work in 1961. She founded the Derry City Red Cross group in 1962, which became a fully-fledged branch in 1965, with her as its first President. She also became a member of the Northern Ireland Council of the British Red Cross.
Her obituary noted that her early work focussed on establishing welfare services across the city of a kind now taken for granted but then notably absent; in areas of considerable poverty and dilapidation such as Catholic Bogside. In particular, the physically handicapped who were confined to homes wholly ill-suited to their needs and Lady McCorkell began a "Thursday Club" to bring together the disabled from across the city. These early beginnings were to result, after victory in battles financial and political, in the building of the Glenbrook Day Centre. It was established on land accessible to all parts of the city, but originally denied them because it had been designated for Protestant housing. Additionally, the Red Cross established services, such as Meals on Wheels, this put Lady McCorkell into contact with other voluntary organisations working in Derry, notably the Order of Malta, "a connection which was to be vital when serious trouble began to engulf the city from October 1968 onwards".
It was to the Order of Malta First Aid Post, in Westland Street near the Bogside Inn, that she and her deputy made their way amid the ferocious fighting which followed the Apprentice Boys' parade of 12 August 1969. Here she learnt quickly to lose her identity and to help treat, without judgement, the seriously injured casualties who were unwilling to go to hospital.
"She did not share the temporary euphoria that greeted the arrival of the British Army to protect the Catholic communities, and her foreboding was soon vindicated. As the Bogside and Creggan areas became 'no go' areas to the security forces she developed a lifelong admiration and respect for the strength of character and unfailing good humour of the Derry people in the face of continual adversity."