MORNING STAR supporters in Yorkshire celebrated Burns Night at suppers over the weekend that also raised funds for our newspaper.

On Friday night, members of the Star’s Bradford supporters group gathered at the home of Bob Sproule and Ruth Charlton in Ilkley, on the edge of legendary Ilkley Moor, for their event.

The following day, workers’ stately home Wortley Hall, outside Sheffield, was the setting for our South Yorkshire supporters’ celebration in memory of radical Scottish poet Robbie Burns.

The event was also dedicated to the memories of Fighting Fund organiser Ivan Beavis and Morning Star worker Dawn Power.

In addition, it honoured Mary Shaw, one of the union activists who helped achieve the takeover of Wortley Hall in the early 1950s.

The stately home is owned co-operatively by members of the labour and trade union movement, who acquired the house from its aristocratic former occupiers and restored it.

Today it is a centre of labour and trade union activism, as well as a popular venue for social functions.

At both events, the traditional piping in of the haggis was done by Star supporter Peadar Long, a regular performer at fundraisers for the paper.