Life of murdered MP Jo Cox celebrated at Dublin event

Friends and former colleagues of the murdered Labour Party MP Jo Cox attended a memorial gathering on Wednesday in Dublin to remember her and to celebrate all that she stood for.

Wednesday would have been her 42nd birthday. Some of those who gathered by the Ha’penny Bridge brought single stem white roses with them in her memory.

"Her legacy will the way she conducted her life," said Jamie Drummond, executive director ofOne.org, the anti-global inequality group he co-founded with U2's Bono.

Ms Cox was stabbed and shot to death near Leeds on June 16th as she left a constituency clinic. Her alleged assailant, who shouted "Britain first", has since been charged with murder. Campaigning in Britain's referendum on membership the European Union was paused as a mark of respect.

Ms Cox was a former director of policy for Oxfam UK and spent most of her working life campaigning for the global underprivileged. One of those who worked with her at Oxfam, Doug Keatinge, attended the memorial and spoke affectionately of Ms Cox.

“She was genuinely one of those people who stands out from the crowd,” said Mr Keatinge, who is now with Murray Consultants in Dublin. “Sometimes when a person dies, you think people over egg the tributes but with Jo, they’re all true. Who knows what she would have gone on to achieve. She would have been a great minister.”

About 50 people, among them Labour Party senator Ivana Bacik, and Martin Mackin of Q4 public relations, attended the Wednesday evening gathering on the Millennium Boardwalk on the Liffey Street side of the footbridge. Many carried posters saying "Love and Solidarity" and promoting the hashtag #LikeLikeJo.

Mr Drummond struck up his friendship with Ms Cox over a decade ago when they both worked at Data, a forerunner campaigning organisation to One.org. After her time in Data, Ms Cox went to work for Sarah Browne, wife of the former British Labour leader, Gordon Browne.

Mr Drummond's fiancée, Roxanne Philson, was one of Ms Cox's best friends.

“Jo was incredibly hard working and passionate and she had the biggest dimples I’ve ever seen. She was always smiling,” said Mr Drummond.

He said that fewer people in public life had been clearer than Ms Cox as to what they stood for. With her, it was compassion for those in need, an aspect of her beliefs that came to the fore in the House of Commons when she spoke passionately for generosity to be shown to Syrian refugees.

Ms Cox was also campaigning for the Remain side in today’s British referendum on European Union membership.

“It’s clear what she stood for and her husband Brendan what he would like from the referendum,” said Mr Drummond.