“I struggled to breathe. My thoughts blurred. Fear pressed in from every side. Yet beneath it all, I knew there was only one path open to me. I chose the struggle.”

From IRA volunteer to elected Member of the European Parliament, Martina Anderson has led an extraordinary life of struggle, commitment and sacrifice. She was born in 1962 in the heart of Derry’s Bogside area. As a young girl she witnessed the Battle of the Bogside, Bloody Sunday and other murderous events.

In this revealing and deeply personal biography, Martina takes us through her first arrest aged 16 and subsequent arrests, her life on the run and eventual capture in Glasgow. She received a life sentence and served thirteen gruesome years in English prisons, first in Brixton and then in Durham with her comrade Ella O’Dwyer. While in prison she married IRA volunteer Paul Kavanagh who was serving a sentence of ‘natural life’. They were eventually released under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.

Martina immersed herself in politics, becoming a Sinn Féin Junior Minister at Stormont. She was twice elected to the European Parliament and for three years chaired the Parliament’s Delegation for Relations with Palestine. She is now Co-ordinator of Sinn Féin’s Training and Political Development Unit. Martina still lives in the Bogside community she grew up in.

Contents:

Foreword by Eibhlín Glenholmes; Prologue; 1 Bogside Child; 2 Turning Point; 3 Occupation and Resistance; 4 ‘On the Gallop’; 5 Captured; 6 Survival; 7 Repatriated to Ireland; 8 Freedom; 9 Electoral Politics; 10 Standing Up for Derry; 11 Words are not enough; 12 Referendums North and South; 13 Back Home in Derry; Epilogue.

ISBN 978-1-914318-33-7 Paperback 234x156mm RRP: £14.99

288 pages, including 87 colour photos.

Publication date 1st August 2026.

To be launched at Féile an Phobail, Saturday 1st August at 3.00 p.m. in St Mary’s College, Falls Road, Belfast.

Also in Derry, 5th August, 7.00 p.m. in Cuturlann.