2022 Year 6 Third Prize
What if it was me?
by Sofia Lomax-Barranco
Don’t you know about the match girls, and all the pain they suffered.
Have you ever wondered, if that was me?
Well, I am a girl, she was a girl,
I live in East London,
We are still treated unfairly because we are girls, but not all-out,
They were the ones that got treated unfairly and no-one,
Really knew about them until the strike…
But have you ever wondered, the different things about us?
I am treated equally, they weren’t.
Terrified, horrified, distressed,
I can eat and learn in a safe environment, they couldn’t,
They had to eat with phosphorus and hear the,
Sizzling and scoring of the matchsticks.
I get to choose what I can do, they didn’t. No
They COULDN’T.
Infuriated, outraged, incensed, they strike.
What if that was me though? would I still be alive?
Would I get the courage to strike?
This is why we need to remember The MATCH GIRLS.
On 5th July 2022, a new English Heritage Blue Plaque was unveiled at Bow Quarter (the old Bryant and May Factory) to commemorate the Matchgirls Strike of 1888.
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The Matchgirls Memorial ran a schools poetry competition to celebrate the unveiling.
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Judges were Alice Trickey-Roberts, English Heritage Education Visits Officer, Tanya Landman, Author, Emma Purshouse, Writer and and Poet.
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Sofia Lomax-Barranco from St Agnes Catholic Primary School won Third prize in the Year 6 category with the poem, 'What if it was me?'.