Meryl Streep to play Inez McCormack in NY play

Inez McCormack will be played by Oscar-winner Meryl Streep

She has been decorated for her political and industrial activism but Belfast trade unionist Inez McCormack will receive the ultimate theatrical tribute when Meryl Streep portrays her on the New York stage later this month.

Oscar-winner Streep will be taking a leading role in a special reading of documentary play "Seven", which captures the lives of female leaders from around the world.

Ms McCormack, who began her trade union career in the late 1960s before rising to become president of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, said she was honoured to be featured in the play.

She added: "It is very humbling to have your life story represented in this way and a privilege to have an Oscar-winning actress and strong female character like Meryl Streep involved in the dramatisation.

"I have had the privilege of spending a lifetime at the service of warm strong women, who challenged injustice not just for themselves but for the people and communities they cared for and whose only affirmation has been that of their own conscience."

Brainchildren

The play is being staged on the first night of a three-day festival called "Women in the World" organised by the blog The Daily Beast.

The blog - and the festival - are the brainchildren of former Vanity Fair editor and socialite, Tina Brown.

Among the other women portrayed in the play at the Hudson Theatre are Annabella De Leon, a Guatemalan congresswoman and the former minister for women's affairs in Cambodia, Mu Sochua.

The summit will be attended by over 1,000 women pioneers in government, media, social activism, business and the arts, including Queen Rania of Jordan, the former US Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright and French finance minister Christine Lagarde.