She came from a strongly unionist/loyalist background and until she was in her late teens she had never knowingly met a Catholic.

Indeed, her first encounter with anything radical came in 1968 when she took part in an anti-Vietnam rally in Grosvenor Square in London.

" That was my first awakening to the issues which were affecting the world," she recalls.

But it wasn't long before she became embroiled in issues closer to home.

She returned to Belfast just as the civil rights movement was taking off and she became involved through her then boyfriend - now her long-standing husband, Vincent, a psychology lecturer at the University of Ulster's Magee campus.

He was from Londonderry's Bogside and took part in the long march from Belfast to the Maiden City which was ambushed by loyalists at Burntollet.

Inez later was to recall how she saw groups of men gathering along the route armed with cudgels and was relieved when a lone policeman came along.

She felt sure he would raise the alarm, but instead stood chatting amicably to the armed men.

"At that time I was a young Protestant girl who didn't understand that there were grave issues of inequality, injustice and division in our society. It wasn't that Protestants didn't suffer deprivation, but there was systematic discrimination against Catholics. That march changed my life."

The rest, as they say, is history.

Virtually since then she has been deeply involved in trade unionism, mainly fighting the case of women members who were underpaid and unfairly treated.

And now her work is to be portrayed on stage. A documentary play entitled Seven opens in the Kaufmann Concert Hall, Lexington Avenue, New York today, capturing the life of Inez and six other women from around the world.

She describes her inclusion in the production as "humbling".

The production grew out of her involvement with the Vital Voices network established by Hillary Clinton nearly a decade ago. The idea of getting seven US playwrights to write pieces on seven women was mooted and then really took off when funding for the project was secured.

"I remember doing a lot of taped interviews and rambling on without thinking a great deal about it and then suddenly the project took shape," she says.

She finds herself in very good company. Mukhtar Mai, from Pakistan, was gang-raped for an alleged 'honour crime'. She brought her attackers to justice and began improving the condition of women in her homeland by building schools and campaign for greater educational opportunities.

Annabella De Leon, from Guatemala, is constantly surrounded by six bodyguards as she campaigns for greater rights for the poor and against corruption.

Mu Sochua is a former Minister of Women's Affairs in Cambodia who was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005 for her work against sex trafficking in her country. Farida Azizi is a founding member of the Afghan Women's Network and Hafsat Abiola founded and directed Kind, an organisation which aids women and fights for greater democracy in Nigeria.

Marina Pisklakova-Parker founded Anna, the first organisation in Russia to provide crisis and counselling services for women affected by domestic violence.

Inez describes her own career as "about enabling people to have rights and to speak for themselves".

After Burntollet, she worked for a short time as a social worker, starting in Ballymurphy in west Belfast.

"I was supposed to counsel these women, but in reality all I did was write out vouchers to make their lives a little easier. This didn't last too long as the spending in the area shot up and I was transferred to another part of the city."

Her work in the estate made a lasting impression on her. "I saw them as strong women fighting daily for the rights of their families. Yet later, when I became a trade unionist, I saw these same women working as cleaners in the local hospital. There they were regarded as weak women.

"It wasn't that they didn't have value, but negotiations on pay and conditions were carried out by male trade unionists and male bosses who didn't really take account of them.

She says: "I remember later one male trade union member joining in the campaign for better terms and conditions for female cleaners in the hospital. His argument was simple but compelling. He said he cleaned the grounds but the women cleaned the hospital theatres. Their job was more important and should be recognised. If they continued to be underpaid he could be replaced by two cheap labour women."

Inez had to break the mould in her own career. She was the first female full-time official of the National Union of Public Employees where she worked from 1976 to 1990, and became the first female regional secretary of Unison in 1993 and the first woman to hold the office of President of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) from 2000-2002.

She admits her campaigning did not always win her many friends professionally. "I was highly unpopular and can recall being booed off the platform at conferences and being ostracised by so-called colleagues.

"I remember being elected to the Executive Council of ICTU by something like 191-186 votes - hardly a ringing endorsement. Indeed my election only happened because one of the male delegates whose group had been instructed to vote against me took his other members out for a drink just before the votes were cast.

"Was there humiliation? Was there harassment? Was there bullying because I was trying to change things? The answer is 'yes'.

"However, I always put how I was treated in its context. I chose my battles. Those I campaigned for didn't. They were simply discriminated against."

Although now over 60 and a grandmother - "you must mention my amazing granddaughter Maisie" - her appetite for battle has not waned. In 1988, she led a successful campaign for inclusive equality and human rights to be included in the Good Friday Agreement.

But, she says, those provisions are not always adhered to.

She points to recent regeneration plans for the former Army base at Girdwood Barracks in North Belfast.

"Those proposals do nothing to tackle deprivation on the Shankill or New Lodge Road. Those people need to be brought into a room to discuss what impact the proposals will have on their lives and how they can make things better. The people have that right. They shouldn't have to beg a government department to give it to them."

She also fought a campaign on behalf of residents of tower blocks in North Belfast over proper housing maintenance plans. " It makes sense to have the people involved and not simply to impose a solution on them. Things work best when there is general agreement on the way forward. "

So how would she sum up her campaigning? "It is about legislating respect. It is about giving a voice to people who were invisible. It is about changing the way power is exercised."