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Lines in memory of Irish Chartist James Bronterre O’Brien … and Blair Peach
BERNARD REGAN gave this year’s Abney Park Trust Bronterre O’Brien commemorative address cautioning against allowing the ruling class to rewrite our radical history. The Star prints here an edited version of his speech

I WANT to dedicate these words to a friend of mine, Blair Peach, who was murdered by the police 40 years ago. 

Blair lived in Hackney — he too, like Bronterre O’Brien, came to this country from abroad — from New Zealand — and became politically active here. 

He was an educationalist dedicated to the education of working-class children in Tower Hamlets where we worked together and he was a passionate campaigner against racism and social injustice — a revolutionary.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
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