Today we received the very sad news that our staff member, Anne Moore, who was a Policy and Practice Advisor based in Northern Ireland, died after a short illness.
She was a valued and respected member of the Northern Ireland team for over a decade.
Her friend and colleague Peter Bryson has written the following to pay tribute to Anne's huge contribution to Save the Children’s work.
I am sharing some memories below, unapologetically in the present tense, of a person who was such a force for social justice in Northern Ireland (NI), a teacher, journalist, political animal, networker extraordinaire and good soul. I hope you will take a moment, as we will to remember Anne with a smile.
Anne comes from a teaching background but in her varied career has worked for the NI Tourist Board, as a campaign advisor for the Women’s Coalition and within the voluntary sector expressing her focus and passion for Human Rights and Children’s Rights.
Anne is an expert in child poverty and social policy, she holds a Master’s Degree in Human Rights Law from Queens University, she joined Save and supported the setting up of the Child Poverty Alliance in NI developing her expertise and achieving recognition within the sector for her passion and knowledge advocating for children through our End Child Poverty Campaign and through her contribution to research and publications.
Anne is well loved within the NI team for her quirky humour, her ability to articulate her passion for real change for children, her determined insistence on holding government to account for children and families, and her support for her colleagues. She is well known across policy circles, academia, government and the political spectrum.
Anne’s absolute uniqueness is her networking ability, if she does not know you, she will know someone who knows you, she is a go to and reference point for her knowledge and networks both for the team and across the sector. She is brave, impartial and resilient, she will always make a stand and express a view even if it is unpopular in a way that maintains her neutrality, a rare and valuable gift within the context of Northern Ireland. But above all she is engaging. Anne holds the self-titled role of resident ‘pedant’ in NI, in part channelling her background in teaching. She has a keen editors eye and is the champion of correct grammar, in particular her defence of the apostrophe to say nothing of her renowned dancing queen status (there are stories for another day) and fearless year round salt water swimmer.
When Anne told the team of her diagnosis, we communicated to a range of key partners with whom Anne has worked, what was notable was a commonly shared view that Anne is a genuinely good person, and it is that goodness that people appreciate so much and which shines through in how she engages with colleagues and partners.
Over the past months I know Anne has received a lot of love from colleagues past and present within and without Save, she has never been far from our thoughts and that in a way is the measure of the person she was. She was a draw for those who grew to know her ways, unavoidable, often uncompromising, to laugh with her was a joy, she seemed to use laughter as her punctuation in conversation, she gave far more than there was to forgive, she will be missed and remembered for the good, the weird and the extraordinary.
