Christina Noble

Christina Noble
OBE
Born (1944-12-23) 23 December 1944 (age 80)
Dublin, Ireland
OrganizationChristina Noble Children's Foundation
Known forFounder of the Christina Noble Children's Foundation, Noble and helping children in the Vietnam War
Children4
Relatives4 siblings and a step-sister

Christina Noble OBE is an Irish children's rights campaigner, charity worker and writer, who founded the Christina Noble Children's Foundation in 1989.[1][2]

Biography

Noble was born on 23 December 1944, in The Liberties section of Dublin, Ireland.[3] Her mother died when she was ten. She was sent to an orphanage and dishonestly told that her three siblings were dead.[1][3] She escaped and lived rough in Dublin, where she was gang-raped, which left her pregnant.[3] Her baby son was adopted, against her will.[3] After discovering the state had lied about the death of her siblings, Noble located her brother in England and moved there to live with him after she reached 18. This is where she met and married her husband and had three children. She was a victim of domestic violence.[1][3]

In 1989, after her own children were adult, she visited Vietnam and began to care for homeless children. This action was inspired by a recurring dream she had during the Vietnam War.[3][2] This eventually led her to create the Christina Noble Children's Foundation.[3][1] To date, she and the Foundation have helped over 700,000 children in Vietnam and Mongolia.[1][3]

In film, TV, and radio productions

She appeared as a castaway on the BBC Radio programme Desert Island Discs on 15 June 1997.[4]

She was the subject of the British TV series This Is Your Life in 2002 when she was surprised by Michael Aspel at a fundraising fashion show and auction in central London.[citation needed]

Noble was the subject of a 2014 documentary, In A House that Ceased to Be. It charts her reunion with her remaining siblings after fifty-three years, one brother and two sisters, from whom she had been separated as a child.[5]

The 2014 feature film about her life, Noble, was directed by Stephen Bradley.[2] In an interview for the film with The Irish Times she said, "I loved God and Jesus so much. I still do."[2]

Awards

Despite being from Ireland, she was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE).[3][6]

She is a recipient of the 2014 Women of the Year Prudential Lifetime Achievement Award.[7]

Bibliography

  • —— (1994). Nobody's Child. Grove. ISBN 978-0802115515.
  • —— (1994). Bridge Across My Sorrows. John Murray. ISBN 978-0719553615.
  • —— (1998). Mama Tina. John Murray. ISBN 978-0719556357.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Moorhead, Joanna. "Christina Noble: the woman who transformed the lives of 700,000 children." London, England: The Guardian, February 13, 2016.
  2. ^ a b c d Chonchúir, Sharon Ní. "Mama Tina: The Story of Christina Noble." New York, New York: Irish America, June/July 2015.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Christina Noble". Women's Museum of Ireland. Retrieved 20 August 2014.
  4. ^ "Desert Island Discs - Castaway : Christina Noble". BBC Online. BBC. Retrieved 18 August 2014.
  5. ^ "Soul Sisters – Three remarkable women, Christina Noble and her two sisters, talk loss, family and love". HerFamily.ie. Retrieved 22 February 2023.
  6. ^ O'Neill, Luke (1 August 2011). "Christina Noble to mark 10th year of charity". Irish Echo. Archived from the original on 21 August 2014. Retrieved 20 August 2014.
  7. ^ "2014 - Women of the Year". Archived from the original on 8 July 2017.