Women like film-maker Lil Brookes, whose project with Paisley Disability Resource Centre on Renfrewshire’s own Jane Arthur, Mary Barbour and the ladies of the Coats thread dynasty was launched this year and is held by the National Library of Scotland’s Archive of Moving Images.

And now a visual artist, Mandy McIntosh, who like me has her roots in the town, will next week unveil a new public artwork inspired by May Donoghue in Paisley and, in doing so, will pay honour to the woman who until now has been practically invisible in the landmark world-renowned legal case The Paisley Snail and The Bottle, or Stevenson v Donoghue, from which the modern law of negligence was born.

For those not familiar with the case, back in August 1928 May Donaghue, a shop assistant from the Calton area of Glasgow, met up with a friend at the Wellmeadow Café in Paisley to enjoy a ginger beer float. However, she got a bit more than she bargained for when out from the bottle slithered the decomposing remains of a snail! She fell ill, and Glasgow solicitor Walter Leechman offered his services for nothing to raise an action for damages against the ginger beer manufacturer, Mr Stevenson. The matter was not easily settled. May was not by any means a wealthy woman and in fact had to declare as a pauper during the proceedings. She was ridiculed publicly for pursuing the case “just for the money”. But, she persevered.