JOE Glenholmes’s legacy will be the belief in equality and justice that he instilled and nurtured in his six children.
Joe was himself one of a family of six, born in 1933 to Richard and Mary Glenholmes (née McAuley) of Vulcan Street, Ballymacarrett in east Belfast.
He was went to St Matthew’s PS and like many of his generation, his education was cut short. However, his own curiosity would be his teacher.
Joe tried his hand at a variety of jobs, including as a roofer with his dad, until he moved with his bride-to-be Jean McCracken to Birmingham in the 1950s.
The Troubles may not have officially started but Belfast was still rife with sectarian tension. With Joe a Catholic and Jean a Protestant, their lives would have undoubtedly been difficult and, being working class, their options limited.
It was perhaps all the inequity that Joe witnessed growing up that fuelled his determination to challenge prejudice and inequality wherever he found it – one that saw him identify with other struggles around the world and join the Communist Party.
As a delegate to the Birmingham Trades Council he stood with miners and hundreds of other sympathetic workers as they picketed Saltley Gate in 1972, shutting the fuel storage depot. The strike was seen as a turning point for miners’ rights.
He later visited Cuba with a union delegation and proudly attended the Fete de L’Humanite communist festival in France on behalf of the Morning Star newspaper.
Joe’s six children grew to share his beliefs and values, having been taken even as toddlers to protest marches and rallies opposing the National Front, which he saw as a threat to immigrants like himself in an ethnically diverse city such as Birmingham.
Joe loved to be around children and was passionate about his work at Atherstone House Children’s Home where he helped nurture disadvantage young people – some of whom became lifelong friends.
He once told his son Tony: “Always make time for children. Who wants to be around adults all the time anyway.”
His grandchildren too recall fond memories of standing at picket lines and attending rallies such as the 2003 march against the war in Iraq.
Joe was diagnosed with bowel cancer which spread to his spine and lung, but even when his health began to deteriorate he remained a delegate to the Birmingham Trades Council.
He believed that cultural activity was an important companion to political and social activism and was heavily involved with the Star Club, Birmingham’s Communist Party social club.
He also frequently visited family and friends in Belfast and never flinched in his espousal of Irish unity – a brave stand in bomb-scarred Birmingham.
Joe died on January 11 after a long battle with ill health.
The latest edition of the Morning Star was placed inside his coffin, which was draped in the Starry Plough.
Predeceased by brothers Sammy and Johnny, he is missed by his brothers Frank and twin Richard, sister Ann, his children Marie, Patsy, Janet, Philip, Paul and Tony and wide family circle in Birmingham and Belfast.
Joe was incredibly proud when some of his grandchildren joined the UK Labour Party and they have vowed to continue his fight for social equality.
