Iris an Chumainn le Stair Lucht Saothair na hEireann Journal of the ...

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Iris an Chumainn
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Saothair na hEireann
Journal of the Irish
Labourl-!istory Society
1981

4 SAOTHAR 7
the labour movement are writing labour history - and as in the case of Charles Callan, they
may bring a very distinctive feeling for the material to bear on their work as well as
demonstrating that there is no good reason why labour history should be the exclusive
preserve of professional historians, An imaginative approach by the larger trade unions in
commissioning 'official' histories from impartial historians with full access to archives might
go some way to filling the large gaps in institutional labour history, And, of course, the vitally
important archival work carried out by the ILHS a,nd other bodies relies on fostering the
confidence and historical awareness of labour organisations.
Finally. one or two reflections present themselves on the overall development of labour
history in Ireland. Recent comments: not least in Saothar and its editorials, have suggested
the need to apply new techniques, approaches and even definitions ge.nerated by labour
history elsewhere to the subject here. This undoubtedly is necessary. as the current issue of
Saothar demonstrates in two respects, one negative, the other positive. On the negative side.
it has not proved possible to continue. for this year at least. the Oral History section; there is.
quite simply. very little being done in the field. More positively, the 'first steps' in women's
history in Ireland noted by Anna Davin in Saothar 6 (p.72) have been extended in the area of
lahour history by Mary Daly. who usesthe essay section to suggest a sketch of women's role in
the labour force since the 18th century.
Yet however vital the new questions. they should perhaps not deflect attention from the
need sim:tltaneo:tsly for the more traditional themes of labour history to be researched, given
the dearth of work on them in the past. Irish labour history. in other words. has its own
distinct history and cannot simply borrow wholesale the approaches of its near neighbours.
where the experiences of the discipline have been quite different. It must inevitably define its
own strategies of development - which as a first priority would seem to include basic
statistical series on wages. strikes: unemployment etc .. the history of the state's relations with
trade unions ('corporate liberalism' north and south). the crucial effects of nationalism of
different kinds in restricting the growth of a labour political culture(s) (with the application to
the south of the approaches adopted by historians of popular orange ism in the north). and the
histories of the principal organisations and individuals of the labour movement. "
Whatever the balance of approaches to emerge, theoretical self-awareness is esseritial. and
Saothar remains committed to keeping in touch with some of the major debates occurring
elsewhere. For this reason, it is particularly happy to present George Rude's assessment
(which few are in better position to make) of the controversy surrounding E. P. Thompson's
attack on the influence of the 'Althusserians' on British Marxist theory and intellectual
practice.
Many readers may have different views on what is relevant in. and necessary for. the
development of labour history in Ireland. The correspondence page and other sections of
Saothar are open to them; it is. after all. their journal.
Francis Devine and John Home
Errata
David Fitzpatrick - 'Strikes in Ireland, 1914-21', Saothar 6, p.29.
The last three lines should read: 'Even Irish Labour faced formidable difficulties in
accommodating nearly 150,000 returned fighters, a great proportion of whom had been :trban
labo:trers and trade :tnionists. British :tnion organisers hastened to take strike offensives
before the threat of disastrous unemployment was realised.' (italicised section omitted).
On p.38. in Table VI. the lower halfright hand column 'Ireland' (for 1914-1918) should read:
Wood - 2.407; Food- 2.388: Pub. Auth. -2.104; Other - 11.440

IRISH LABOUR HISTORY SOCIETY
substantial sum for the purchase and distribution abroad of copies of Saothar 6 to libraries
and universities designated by the Society.
Once again, the year's activities are a catalogue of considerable achievement but also of
unfulfilled ambitions. The essential fact that the Society is voluntary may make success all the
more worthy of comment, and failure perhaps readily explicable. But the Society is content to
accept neither response; what is needed is a continuation bfSolid work and the realisation by
ordinary members, actual or pot.entia\. that the Society is the reverse of exclusive, that it
welcomes fresh injections of ideas and effort, and thatthebest means of correcting observed
faults or inadequacies is to assist in the attemptsto right"them.
E. R. R. Green
The Irish Labour History Society lost an important friend in January 1981 with the death of
Professor E.R.R. Green. Others have written of his contribution to Irish history more
generally. 1 Even here, however, it must be said that his work on industrialisation in the Lagan
valley as well as his pioneering study of the Industrial Archaeology of County Down,
published in 1963, (see below, p.69), were of obvious and direct relevance to the labour
history of Northern Ireland. But it was in his capacity as Director throughout the 1970s of the
newly-established Institute of Irish Studies at Queen's University, Belfast, that Rodney
Green bccame an active supporter of the fledgeling ILHS. He interpreted his role as Director
of the lIS in a generous fashion so as to encourage many initiatives which came broadly within
the ambit of its interests. One such was the ILHS' first ever conference on Irish Labour
History. held in Belfast in May 1974, and sponsored by the Institute. One of its principal
organisers, the late Miriam Daly, paid tribute at the time, in the second issue of Saothar, to
the personal assistance of Rodney Green to the organising group' ... in every way', and
indeed. his generous grant towards publication of the proceedings helped that issue of
Saorhar to appear. Not the least important resuit of this decisive intervention in the affairs of
the Society at its origins was to ensure that it became implanted in Belfast and Dublin, in
north and south - thus establishing one of the Society's principal features which has helped
shape its evolution to the present day.
Having played such an important part, moral and material, in the infancy of Saothar,
Rodney Green maintained his support and commitment through successive issues as a
member of the Editorial Advisory Board. Only very recently he gave renewed evidence of his
active involvement by supporting the case of the journal before the Cultural Relations
Committee of the Department of Foreign Affairs, of which he was a member, for a special
grant to purchase and distribute a number of copies to libraries and academic institutions
abroad. in order to increase its scholarly standing and appeal. The ILHS records its sadness at
the death of Rodney Green knowing that it has lost a real friend, and one who in the very best
sense of the term used his positions creatively to help both Society and journal in their
academic growth.
Charles Callan, President, ILHS
I. See in particular the appreciation by Professor L. M. Cullen, in the Irish Times, 30 January. 1981, p.14.
Pat Gorman
When Patrick Emmet Gorman died on 3 September 1980, the Irish Labour History Society
lost a valued friend. Born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1892, Pat became active in the American
7

i:
SOCIETY FOR TIlE STUDY OF LABOUR HISTORY
EDITORIAL
Bulletin 42 Spring 1981
CONFERENCE REPORT
-Troops, Police and People in the South Wales Coalfield, 1910-39
The Army and Internal Security in Britain between the Wars
Security and the Northern Irish State, 1921-29
The Origins of the Public Order Act
LINZ CONFERENCE
LETTERS TO THE EDITORS
Twenty Years On
The General Strike of 1842
Business and History
Relations between National Labour Movements
COMMUNICATION
History Workshop: The Making of a Myth
NOTES AND QUERIES
The Strange Case of George Reed
DOCUMENTS
Food Riots in Devon, Somerset and Dorset, 1867: HO 45/7992·
Poor Law Catechism: Religious Parody and Social Protest
NOTES ON THE LABOUR PRESS
George Mudie and the Gazette of the Exchange Bazaars
David Smith
Keith J effery
Paul Bew
Nick Blake
Andrew Dawson,
Angela John,
Fred Lindop,
Paul Stignant and
Stephen Coltham
Mick Jenkins
John Kenefsky
Alan Purkiss
Harold Pollins
Fred Lindop
Pamela Horn
Fred Kaijage
ciregory Claeys
NOTES ON BIBLIOGRAPHY
Charles Pigott and Richard Lee: Radical PropagandistsEdmund and Ruth Frow
ESSA YS IN REVIEW
Labour History and the History of Wales
Scottish Capitalism and Working-Class History
Cotton Workers and Deference
The Workshop and tlie Rise of Labour
Popular Freethought
Sex, Violence and the Class Struggle
Towards Industrial Democracy?
SHORT NOTICES
BIBLIOGRAPHY 1980
AledJones
Kenneth Lunn
Neville Kirk
Joseph Melling
Bill Lancaster
James Hinton
TonyTopham
Membership application to John Field, The Northern College, Wentworth Castle,
5tainborough, Barnsley, 5753ET.
Subscription rate for residents of UK and the Republic of Ireland £6.00 by bankers
order. £7.00 cash.
11

14 SAOTHAR 7
Protestants, on the other hand, were considerably over-represented in the propertied and
professional categories, as among clerks and the industrial service occupations. They were
grossly under-represented among labourers, but amongst those working in manufacturing,
transport and dealing they were only slightly under-represented. In particular, they made up
over 18% of those in the traditional skilled trades: the artisans. There were, in fact, 4,700
Protestants and 21,058 Catholics in this group.
Table 2 shows the same figures in a different perspective, indicating the proportion of each
occupational group amongst Catholics and Protestants respectively. What stands out from
these figures is the disparity between the small proportion of Catholics in the professional and
mainly white-collar occupational groups (3, 4 and 8): 11.3%, compared with nearly 40% of
Protestants. Also that nearly one-fifth of occupied Catholics were labourers, compared with
less than 3% of Protestants. Of particular interest here, however, is the evidence that both
groups had relatively high proportions in the skiIled trades or artisan group: over one-third of
Catholics and over one-quarter of Protestants were artisans.
Table 2: Dublin city males, by religion and occupation, 1871.
No. (%) Roman Catholics (%) Protestants (% )
1. Property owning & independent 860 1.1 0.6 2.8
2. Agriculture, fishing 1,814 2.3 2.6 1.2
3. Public service & professional 10,717 13.6 8.4 31.8
4. Clerks 2,735 3.5 2.6 6.4
5. Manufacturing:
Traditional skilled trades 25,758 32.6 34.1 27.1
Other trades 1,152 1.5 1.6 0.9
6. Transport 10,380 13.1 14.1 9.7
7. Dealing 10,744 13.6 14.0 12.1
8. Industrial service 410 0.5 0.3 1.3
9. Domestic service 2,970 3.8 3.5 4.5
10. General labourers 11,488 14.5 18.0 2.3
11. Vagrants, paupers 2 0.0 0.0 0.0
Total 79,030 100.1 99.8 100.1
Source
As Table 1.
In 1871, then, it is clear that there was a Protestant element in the Dublin working classes.
One rather unexpected finding to emerge from the table is that domestic servants constituted
a higher proportion of occupied Protesants than of Catholics. Compared with the Catholic
pattern, however, the Protestant working classes were concentrated to a disproportionate
extent in the artisan and shopkeeping groups, with only a very small labouring class.
It is now necessary to analyse what data exists for the period under consideration: the 1830s
and 1840s. The 1841 census, which provided a detailed record of occupations (though not of
religious affiliation) indicates that the total number of artisans was very similar to that in
1871, at about 26,000 {see Table 3).7 Since the labour force was smaller in 1841 than in 1871
(even allowing for the fact that the 1841 census omitted those in the armed forces) this means
that the artisan element inDublin's occupational structure was larger in 1841 than in 1871.

16 SAOTHAR 7
Prominent among the causes of the depression was the effect of competition from factory-
, based industry in Britain and the absence of significant signs of an industrial revolution in
Dublin: textile workers, in particular, were hard hit. One result was to stimulate willingness
to emigrate. There is no doubt that Protestant artisans took part in the exodus: in a trade like
silk-weaving, for instance, traditionally identified with Protestants, there was great hardship
and under-employment during the 1830s. According to a Parliamentary CommiSSioner,
enqUIring into the condition of handlooin weavers, the Dublin silk weavers presented
'the deplorable spectacle of a body of able and skilful tradesmen with large families looking to them for
support, ... reduced to the necessity of depending for their supply of the necessaries of life on the bounty of
their friends, or on the unprofitable charity of the public. ,9
Accordingly, there were high levels of emigration to England by Dublin silk weavers from
1815 on. 10 So worried was the editor of the Warder (a newspaper which championed workingclass
Protestant interests) by emigration of Protestant artisans (especially weavers) from
Dublin in 1841 that he talked of the possible extinction of the Protestant artisan. ll As we
know from the 1871 census, this did not take place, but it does seem probable that the 1871
numbers represent some depletion from the total in the 1830s. There was, of course,
emigration by Catholic artisans as well, and the fact that the total number of artisans shows so
little -decline between 1841 and 1871 testifies to the way in which their numbers were
continually being replenished by migrants into the capital from other' parts of the country.
These migrants may have included Protestants, though it is unlikely that they were migrating
to Dublin in proportionately larger numbers than Catholics.
To sum up, it is suggested that the Protestant element among Dublin's artisans in the 1830s
and 1840s is unlikely to have been less than it was in 1871 (about 18%). This would give a
figure for 1841 of between 4,500 and 5,000Protestant artisans, and there were probably even
more in 183l.
In the period before the mid-nineteenth century, trade organisations in Dublin were
. confined to the skilled tradesmen or artisans. At this stage it is useful to remember that the
single term 'artisan' applied to both the wage-earning journeyman (who had served an
apprenticeship, usually for seven years, to become accepted by the body of the trade as
entitled to the full wage rates approved by the trade) and to the master, who had advanced
from the position of wage-earner to set up business on his own account, and who sometimes,
though not always, became an employer of labour. 12 Thus the one term could cover the two
categories of employer and employee: and this serves as a reminder that the distinction
between the two, crucial to Marxist analysis of social class, did not loom quite so large in the
consciousness of contemporaries. Indeed, the existence of small masters, employing perhaps
just one or two men, helped to blur this distinction. But b"efore proceeding to assess the
participation by Catholics and Protestants in Dublin trade organisations, it is necessary to
establish what kind of organisations existed to cater for trade.
Several different types of organisation on a trade or craft basis existed in the first half of the
nineteenth entury. The oldest of them were the guilds, of which there were twenty-five in
Dublin. 13 From an ideological point of view the guilds stood for a traditional corporate ideal,
representing both masters and men and attempting to reconcile their interests. However,
they also embodied a strong sense of hierarchy, which meant that in general it was the masters
who ran guild affairs; With the growth of capitalist industry the journeymen began to. find the
gUIlds inadequate to represent their interests, and in any case, by the late eighteenth century
the guilds' claim to represent the interests of trade had been considerably weakened.
This was partly due to their exclusion of Catholic tradesmen (notwithstanding the existence
of a growing Catholic business class) and partly because in some cases, persons had been

ARTISANS, SECTARIANISM AND POLITICS IN DUBLIN, 1829-48 21
of commitment for both sides. As the Mail put it 'The city of Dublin is the citadel - the
stronghold of the enemy,.47 The loss of the city to the repealers in 1832 provoked great efforts
on the Conservative side to win it back, efforts which were temporarily successful in 1836 and
again in 1841. The votes of the freemen, therefore, became far more important than in the
days before Catholic emancipation when the choice for a, representative was limited to a
Liberal or Tory Protestant. In these circumstances, itwas natural for O'Connellite supporters
to threaten 'exclusive dealing', and Protestant artisans who had voted for the Tories might
find themselves ostracised by their Catholic fellows. There was great resentment, for
instance. at the time of the 1841 election when it was discovered that the secretary of the
Operative Board of Trade, a Protestant silk weaver named Farrell, had voted for the Tories.
4R The Operative Board of Trade was a subsidiary of the Board of Trade for Irish
Manufacture. a body set up in 1840 to try to relieve the plight of Dublin tradesmen during the
acute depression which began in 1839. It aimed to help all tradesmen, regardless of creed, by
(amongst other things) encouraging the public to buy Irish-made goods, and it was run by a
Catholic priest. 49 The Board was meant to avoid politics, but when Farrell rose to read the
minutes at the meeting following the election he was met with loud groans, and was not
allowed to proceed; a substitute took his place at the next two meetings. 50
It was difficult,
therefore. for artisans to avoid a high degree of political awareness, and it was also difficult to
prevent politics from intruding even into those bodies, like the Board of Trade, which aimed
at keeping them out. But what kind of role did artisans play in politics? The most obvious way
they could make their political sentiments felt was through their various labour organisations.
On the LIberal and nationalist side, as early as 1830 the coopers and slaters began to levy their
members for funds to help the repeal cause,51 and this marked the. beginning of a long
tradition in which many trade unions aligned themselves behind the repeal campaign and
subscribed to its funds. The establishment of the Trades Political Union was a further
manifestation of the commitment to reform and repeal. 52 This commitment was, in fact,
steadier than that shown by O'Connell, so the cooperation between O'Connell and these
trade unions was occasionally interrupted, as during the period of the Whig alliance, from
1835. Cooperation was also harmed in'1837 and 1838, when O'Connell took an anti-union
stance over the issue of combination. 53 But when he set up the Repeal Association in 1840
Dublin trade unions were among his earliest supporters. By the end of the year forty-eight
trades had contributed over £300 (in a year of severe economic hardship) to the Association's
funds. 54 Down to 1845 subscriptions continued to flow in to the Association from this source,
but by then. it has been suggested, the Dublin trades unions were becoming disillusioned with
politics: they certainly played no significant part in the Irish Confederation, set up by the
Young Irelanders in 1847, though individual artisans played an important part in that
organisation. 55 .
The question which arises naturally from the involvement of trade unions in nationalist
politics is - did Protestant tradesmen share in this involvement? There is some evidence of
Protestant tradesmen contributing to the Repeal Association (all the examples dating from
1840): in June several Protestant silk weavers from the Liberties joined, together with some
factory workers, and certain other Protestant tradesmen joined in July and September. 56 This
must be seen in the light of the fact that the Association was still essentially a Dublin body in
1840. very much preoccupied with the plight of the tradesmen, at a time when no other
organisation, Catholic or Protestant, showed such concern. Although no evidence of
Protestant workers contributing to the Association's funds after 1840 has been found, it is
possible that this went on, via trade union subscriptions, on the part of those Protestants in
unions committed to the repeal cause.

22 SAOTHAR 7
On the question of unions whose religion or politics did not conform to those of the
majority, little is known. What, for instance, were the politics of the Friendly Society of
Operative Bricklayers, which had failed to subscribe to O'Connell's election fund? The
choice for such unions was between identifying with the Tories, or neutrality. Neutrality must
have been an attractive option for those who had doubts about repeal, yet feared to alienate
the nationalist majority among the artisans by coming down openly on the Tory side. For
instance. at a meeting of about one hundred Protestant operative silk weavers, on the eve of
the 1841 election, a decision was taken against identifying with either party, leaving the
choice to individual voters. S7 On the other hand, one case of open identification with the
Tories has been mentioned: the Protestant Carpenters Friendly Society and its subscription
to the Protestant Conservative Society. This latter body was pledged, in theory at least, to
defend the interests of lower-class Protestants; indeed, one of its main aims was to stiffen
Protestant morale in the face of economic depression and the progress of Catholicism. ss Its
popular appeal, however, may have been blunted by the express determination of one of its
leading lights to make it clear that 'the arbitrium popularis is not the preponderating influence
within our walls,.59
The other way in which artisans could participate in politics was in their individual capacity.
At first sight it does not appear that such a contribution was very important. At this period, in
Ireland as elsewhere, it was still very uncommon for tradesmen to take a leading public role in
political organisations. If the examination is confined to the activities at public meetings of
bodies like the Repeal Association, Irish Confederation, or, on the Tory side, the Protestant
Conservative Society, it would have to be concluded that artisans scarcely figured. The names
of any but middle or upper class attenders at such meetings were rarely recorded in the press.
Exceptions to this general rule may be found in the case of the Repeal Association, especially
in 1840. when it was little more than a Dublin organisation with tradesmens' grievances
particularly on its mind; and there were one or two artisans like silk-weaver Edward
Hollywood and shoemaker Michael Crean who served on the Council of the Irish
Confederation in 1847 and 1848. 60
Artisans could contribute, however, in other, no less important ways. For bodies like the
Repeal Association and Irish Confederation, which aimed at building up permanent
organisations of the masses, it was essential to have local contacts who would put in the hard
slog of collecting subscriptions, distributing literature, and generally keeping the
organisation alive. In the Repeal Association it was the 'Repeal Wardens' on whom this task
fell. Some of the trades appointed their own Wardens, as early as 1841,61 but in addition to
this, artisans were prominent, along with shopkeepers, amongst the general body of Wardens
(see Table 4). While this work suggests an essentially subordinate (though vital) role in the.
movement, tradesmen could at times show political initiative. In 1846, for instance, when the
national movement split following the secession from the Association of the Young
Irelanders, artisans were prominent among those who signed the Dublin Remonstrance.
urging the Association to accept a reunion. According to Gavan Duffy. 1.500 Dublin
tradesmen were dissatisfied with the Association's conduct over the secession, though in the
end rather less than one thousand signatures were collected. 62 The background of the
householders among them is indicated in Table 5. It was, in fact, the strength of feeling
among artisans and shopkeepers which induced the Young Irelanders to set up the Irish
Coflfederation in 1847 -a move which they had not contemplated at the time of the secession.
The move was made lest the tradesmen, tired of waiting for the Young Jrelanders to take the
initiative, should return to their old allegiance. 63 Accordingly, and in view of the

ARTISANS, SECTARIANISM AND POLITICS IN DUBLIN, 1829-48 23
\.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Table 4: Dublin city Repeal Wardens, by occupation, 1844.
No. No.
- '-
Property-owning, independent 4 6. Transport 4
Agriculture, fishing 0 7. Dealing 83
Public service, professional 10 8. Industrial service 0
Clerks 0 9. Domestic service 4
Manufacturing: 10. General labourers 0
Traditional skilled trades 68 1l. Occupation unidentified 140
Other trades 0 Total 313 1
Source
Report on the weekly collection of the repeal rent in the city of Dublin, read . .. at a meeting of the Loyal
National Repeal Association. on 26 November 1844. Royal Irish Academy, Haliday Pamphlets,
(1S44), vo!. 2017.
This figure is .slightly lower than the total numher of wardens named in the report because SOme wardens served for more than onc ward.
Note
Table 5: Dublin city Remonstrants, householders, by occupation, 1846.
No. No.
\. Property-owning, independent 3 6. Transport 3
2 .. Agriculture, fishing 0 7. Dealing 38
3. Public service, professional 3 8. Industrial service 2
4. Clerks 0 9. Domestic service 51
5. Manufacturing: 10. General labourers 0
Traditional skilled trades 54 11. Occupation unidentified 16
Other trades 0 Total 124
Source
Nation, \0, 17,24 & 31 October 1846, and Thom's Irish Almanac and Official Directory, .1844-50.
Note
1. All five were hairdressers.
Young Irelanders' limited appeal to other sections of the community, artisans and
shopkeepers represented the bulk of rank-and-file confederates.
To what extent djd Young Irelanders manage to attract Protestants as well as Catholics into
the confederate clubs? Certain contemporaries were interested in the answer to this question.
In July I R48 the Protestant Repeal Association - set up two months earlier, apparently on the
initiative of William Smith O'Brien - sent out a circular to the clubs asking them to indicate
the strength of their Protestant membership.M The replies to this circular (if any) are
unfortunately not extant. There is, however, some indirect evidence in the form of spies'
.'

24 SAOTHAR 7
reports to the Police Commissioners and to Colonel Phaire (associated with the Orange
Order), that at least two of the spies felt no need to disguise their Protestant faith, though one
passed himself off as a Catholic. This.strongly suggests that Protestants were not unknown
among the clubmen. A report from one spy that meetings of the Protestant Repeal
Association were filled 'as usual' with clubmen cannot be taken at its face value, since a later
report suggested that Catholics were passing themselves off as Protestants at such meetings. 65
Turning to Tory or Unionist political organisations, the role played by individual artisans in
the Protestant Conservative Society is obscure. During 1832 the Society decided to introduce
a 'Protestant Rent', and was apparently engaged in drawing up street lists containing details
of Protestant tradesmen whom Protestants should patronise, in retaliation for the 'exclusive
dealing' allegedly practised by their opponents. 06 All this should have provided plenty of
scope for Protestant artisansand retailers to take an active part at the local level : by the end of
July 1832 the Society was advertising for Protestant Rent collectors, and promising that a
premium would be allowed. 67 Yet, though subscriptions reached over £1,000 per week for a
time in the autumn, before the elections, these efforts were not sustained into 1833, and few
details of the process of collection were published.
Artisan involvement in perhaps the most important country-wide Protestant political
organisation - the Orange Order - is likewise obscure. For most of this period, from 1836
when the Grand Lodge of Ireland dissolved itself to avoid government prosecution. until
1846 when it was reconstituted, those lodges which continued meeting were not anxious to
publicise their activities. Only a systematic study of the Orange Order in Dublin would
indicate its social basis and the role played by different occupational groups. These
difficulties, however, are not so great in the case of the Dublin Protestant Operative
Association, established in 1841, designed to sustain Protestant morale in Dublin, especially
among the working classes. 68 It differed from predecessors like the Protestant Conservative
Society (which had ceased to meet in 1833) not only because its active support came chiefly
from the lower classes, but because of its evangelical purpose: to spread the Protestant faith,
and to agitate for the ending of state support for 'popery'. Throughout the period 1841 to 1848
(when it was dissolved, its members being urged to join the Orangemen) the Association
attracted considerable support from Dublin's Protestant working classes. Now that certain of
the Association's records have come to light, it is clear that an earlier estimate of the number
of enrolled members was too low;69 according to the secretary's report in February 1845 the
number of members was 3,130, of which some 435 were voters (the secretary believed the
actual number of voters might be twice that number).70 Although there is no full list of
members, there is a membership book for 1841, the first year of the Association's existence.
From this it appears that the majority of members were in artisan occupations (see Table 6).
The fact that many Protestant artisans displayed a preference for sectarian politics in the
1840s should not surprise us. Up until 1829 the Anglican element in Ireland (and this meant
the great majority of Dublin Protestants) enjoyed an extremely privileged position: in law. in
religion. in central and local government. Between 1829 and 1841 all these privileges came
under attack. Protestants of all classes felt threatened; most reacted defensively. including
the artisans. They had shared in the privileges of the Anglican community through such
means as membership of the guilds and participation in Dublin Corporation: some had even
had a parliamentary vote. They lacked the advantages of wealth and property with which
middle and upper class Protestants could, to some extent, cushion themselves against the loss
of privilege. Many of them, faced with the twin evils of loss of privilege and economic
depression, emigrated. Those who remained felt· abandoned by their social superiors and
were highly susceptible to apocalyptic interpretations of their plight. They were scarcely in

ARTISANS, SECTARIANISM AND POLITICS IN DUBLIN, 1829-48 25
Table 6: Members of the Dublin Protestant Operative Association, by occupation, 1841.
No. No.
I. Property-owning, independent 8 6. Transport 18
2. Agriculture, fishing 1 7. Dealing 22
3. Public service, professional 24 8. Industrial service 0
4. Clerks 17 ,';-.- 9" . p'0mestic service 15
5. Manufacturing: 10. General labourers
Traditional skilled trades 155 11. Occupation unidentified 1
Other trades 0 Total 262
Source
Dublin Protestant Operative Association, Membership Book (in possession of the late 1. A. McClelland).
the mood for cooperation with their fellow Catholic artisans in a national movement one of
whose chief aims was the further erosion of the Protestant ascendancy.
This article has attempted to reduce some of the obscurity which has surrounded the
Protestant element in Dublin's artisan class and labour organisations. All too often our view
of Dublin labour history in the first half of the nineteenth century has focussed on the
Catholic. liberal and nationalist artisans to the exclusion of Protestants, who, it has been
argued here. represented roughly one-fifth of the whole artisan group. It will be apparent that
many of the questions raised have received less than full answers. While some Protestants
doubtless participated in 'mainly Catholic' unions, it is impossible at present to say how
common this was. For one thing, we need to know much more about the religious
composition of the different trades: it is quite possible - indeed, probable, in a case like
silk-weaving - that Protestants represented a majority in certain trades and were therefore
represented by 'mainly Protestant' trade unions. There is also the question of unions
organised on sectarian lines. Some evidence ofthis has come to light, but much more research
is needed before its full extent can be measured. On the question of Protestant artisans and
politics. while there is some evidence of support for repeal, and of attempts to steer a neutral
course in politics. during the 1840s what stands out is the commitment, through the Protestant
Operative Association. to the restoration of a Protestant ascendancy.
Notes
Abbreviations used: DEM. Dublin Evening Mail; Fl. Freeman's lournal; PP. Parliamentary Paper.
I. See. for instance, P. Bew, P. Gibbon and H. Patterson, The State in Northern Ireland 1921-72: Political Forces
and Social Classes (Manchester. 1979), and Henry Patterson, Class Conflict and Sectarianism: The Protestant
Working Class and the Belfast Labour Movement, 1868-1920 (Belfast, 1980).
2. Sidney and Beatrice Webb. The History of Trade Unionism (London. 1894) pp. 13-14.
3. Historical Journal. lV. No. 2.1961, pp. 208-17.
4. For instance, 'Dublin Artisan Activity, Opinion and Organisation, 1820-50' (M.A. thesis, NUl (UCD). 1968)
and 'The artisans of Dublin and Daniel O'Connell, 1830-47: an unquiet liaison', Irish Historical Studies, XVll.
No. 66, September 1970, pp. 221-43.
5. O'Higgins, 'Irish Trade Unions', pp. 212-3; D'Arcy, 'The artisans of Dublin', pp. 222-4.

The Regular Operative House Painters' Trade Union
(Labour relations and working conditions in the Dublin housepainting trade, 1860-1890)
Charles Callan
Introduction
Workers in the skilled trade of painting in Dublin in the period 1860 to 1890 were organised
to a significant extent. Between 26% and 39% of 'journeymen' belonged to the Regular
Operative House Painters' Trade Union (ROHPTU) and the union's surviving records
provide an insight both into the aims and limits of that organisation and into conditions of
work in the trade generally.l
During this period the ROHPTU was the only union operating in the trade in the city.
Rates of pay in the trade were high when compared with those of other workers generally.
This was the case even when broken-time, through periodic unemployment or bad weather,
is taken into consideration. This article considers rates of pay, overtime rates, working hours
and unemployment, and it also considers the attitude of the union towards its members, to
those operating in the trade outside the union, and to employers. Finally, it examines
industrial relations within the trade, and the strategy and tactics used in industrial disputes.
Wages
The only direct references to wage rates in the minutes occur when complaints were made
against members for working 'short time' or under the standard rate. Furthermore, it appears
that different rates were paid in different shops. The union was not particularly interested in
the rates paid to non-members. The practice of 'classifying' men (that is paying different
rates) only interested the union when it affected a member. This issue occurs frequently in the
minutes from 1880 onwards. By that time the rate had, it appears, risen to 32/- per week. In
1882 for example, a member was investigated as to the rate he was receiving, following a
complaint. The member in defence stated 'he received for wages the recognised figure of
30/-'. At the end of the 1880s a similar complaint was investigated and it was recorded that
one member was in receipt of 30/- whilst 'another in the same shop doing the same work was
paid 32/6,.2
In relation to piece work and the wages paid to boy labour, there are few references in the
minutes. In 1881 it was recorded that a member was paid '5d per dozen' (that is a roll) for
hanging wallpaper. 3 On the same job a boy was paid between 8/- and 10/- per week. The
payment of wages by piece rates was restricted to paperhanging throughout the period,
although this may also have applied to sign painting and graining and other specialised
decora tive work. The general principle of pa yment on .the basis of piece rates was adamantly
resisted before 1860 and after 1890.
From the mid 1870s at least, journeymen expected by their employers to work extra hours
(overtime) were entitled to extra payment. The first two hours' overtime worked in any day
were paid at the rate of time and a half. The overtime rate was stal}dard for all subsequent
hours. By the 1890s the overtime premium had changed. Between 6 and 8 p.m. the rate
remained at time plus a half. After 11.30 p.m. and until 6 a.m. it was double time. Members
working in the country during the four short time months (November - February) were
entitled to full time.
28

30 SAOTHAR 7
and 12.45p. m. on Saturdays. Breakfast and lunch breaks remained the same at three quarters
of an hour each.
The seasonal worki'ng hours in the trade generally had also been rationalised by the 1890s.
Where there had been different hours in the slack winter months they became standard at 45
per week. The hours in the working day in this period were from 8a.m. to 5.30p.m. with one
meal break of half and hour during the week, and 8a.m. to lp.m. on Saturday.
Another feature of the improved working hours in the 1880s was that some shops did not
open until 8a.m. each morning, winter and summer. The quitting time remained the same
with the breakfast break excluded. This gave a working week of 48% hours. To a certain
extent, this must have been commonplace as it was written into the 'Working Rules' in the
1890s.
Travel to Work
The boundaries of the city during the period, as far as the union was concerned, were the
Grand and Royal Canals to the south and north and the Phoenix Park gates to the west of the
city. Journeymen working outside the boundaries, but less than two miles beyond the
boundary, were entitled to an extra 6d per day, provided they had to be on site at starting and
finishing time. This only applied in the latter end of the period. Before then, travelling time at
the rate of 15 minutes per mile was allowed. The time spent travelling was in the employer's
time. That meant that journeymen had to be at the city boundary at starting and quitting
time. Where a 'mode of conveyance' was supplied by the employer time spent travelling to
meet it was also in the employer'S time.
Where journeymen worked outside the two mile band beyond the boundary, they were
entitled to 'country money'. Country work entitled a journeyman to an extra 6d per day,
minimum working week of 60 hours, and the cost of lodgings had to be met by the employer.
Provision was commonly made for journeymen and apprentices to sleep on the job and to
cook for themselves. The union also submitted a claim for '1/6 refreshment money' for
journeymen obliged to travel for more than four hours. Not all the employers agreed to this.14
The Experience of Work
The journeyman painter of the period may have been relatively well off compared to many
workers, but he nonetheless faced considerable hardship by today's standards. Irrespective
of how long he had worked for the same employer, he was liable to be 'stood down' or laid off
any time through lack of work - because an employer did not know what work the immediate
future held, competing as he did with fellow employers using unorganised labour. The
materials of the period did not lend themselves to damp or very cold conditions, and this
contributed both to the busy period of the summer months, and to the 'idle months' of the late
autumn to early spring. Even if work was available at that time of the year, most of which
would have been public work, the short daylight hours reduced working hours and hence
earnings. For those who did work, it meant rising at between 4 and 5a.m. to be either at the
employer's 'shop' or on the site. Walking to work was the only way of getting there; cab fares
were prohibitive; bicycles were as yet uncommon; and the first trams did not operate until the
mid 1870s. As often as not this meant arriving at work wet through and working in the same
clothes all day: in the early 1860s 25% of all painters died of consumption. In the same period
nearly 3% of painters died of 'colic', 15 ('a disease peculiar to some of this class of person' as
the Special Sanitary Report of the City of Dublin put it), a disease related to the materials used
in the trade, which contained quantities of lead and in some cases arsenic. Having worked all
day he could expect to have walked home by 7 or 8p.m. that night. Union meetings, for

- -
34 SAOTHAR 7
'to ask the firm to confine their establishment to its present number of boys. After much opposition from (a
member) he eventually relapsed into a childlike slumber and through his nasal organ like the immortal
bottom snored like a sucking dove.' 34
Table I: Some disputes in the painting and decorating trade in Dublin, 1860-1890
Firm Address Date Type Cause Duration
J. Gibson 50 Mary Street Dec. 1861 strike non union labour eight weeks
J. Gibson 50 Mary Street 1877 strike non union labour unknown
E. Rounds 5 Henry Street Jan. 1878 strike unknown unknown
Archbold Unknown Jun. 1878 strike paying below rate unknown
Plunkett Brothers 30 Pembroke Street Aug. 1878 'blacked' unknown unknown
J. Dobson 50 Charlemont Street
W. Poland 169 Britain Street
T. Panter 126 Brunswick Street 1879 'blacked' working practices four years (?)
Cochrane Unknown
1. Leggett 21 Rutland Street
W. Poland 169 Britain Street Feb. 1879 strike unknown unknown
H. Sibthorpe 12 CorkHiIl Nov. 1880 strike non union labour unknown
T. DockreII 68 George's Street Jan. 1881 strike non union labour one week
T. Dockrell 68 George's Street May 1881 dispute boy labour days
J. F. Keatinge 42 Grafton Street Mar. 1882 strike non union labour unknown
H. Sibthorpe 12 CorkHiIl Nov. 1883 dispute non union labour unknown
1. McDermott 8 Haddington Road Apr. 1884 dispute working hours unknown
Trinity College, Dublin Apr. 1884 dispute unknown unknown
W. Martin 18 St. Stephen's Green Apr. 1884 dispute unknown unknown
Marks Brothers 13 Anne Street Apr. 1884 strike non union labour unknown
1. Fagan 7 Merchants' Quay Sept. 1889 'blacked' non union labour unknown
F. Q'Neill 11 Harcourt Street Jan. 1890 'blacked' unknown unknown
The whole issue engendered some contention amongst the membership. Some demanded
to know who had raised the issue in the first instance, with charges and counter accusations
being made. The reason for this was not long in coming to light, as it was further recorded;
That every man in charge of work there got a premium for doing it as cheaply as possible. (Another
member) stated that if they left the establishment their places would be filled by non-Society men, and
praised the system of compensating men in charge for finishing the work quickly, even with having a large
(number) of boys employed thereon. He was sneered at by men about the boys. He wished the remedy to be
pointed out and he was ready to act.'
The deputation that met the employer won what was regarded as a partial victory, the firm
undertaking to assign all public works contracts to adult union labour. However, they would
not undertake to reduce the number of boys in that section of the firm that dealt with private
work as they would not then be able to compete with other firms. Before this agreement was
reached there were 30 boys employed by the firm, almost as many as union journeymen. On
one site there was no less than 12 boys at one time. The whole matter took from January to
May to resolve. 35
'

HOUSE PAINTERS' TRADE UNION 35
Another well documented dispute involving the same firm at the same time, January 1881,
concerned the employment of a man who had been expelled from the union for working
during a strike in ,Messrs. Gibson in 1877. The si.te involved was the Imperial Hotel in
Sackville Street. The person involved sought employment on the site from the foreman and
was refused. He later returned and was taken on to the payroll. When questioned by the
union members involved the foreman stated 'it was the wish of the firm'. The members then
str.uck work. A meeting was summoned by the union of the members involved, 21 attended
and 14 were recorded as absent. The strike was declared official. The next move made by the
union was to seek an interview, not with the employer, but with the owner of the hotel, who
agreed with the union. The officers then sought an interview with the employers who stated
they would not keep anyone 'antagonistic to their employees'. The employers, however,
sought time to think the matter over. Dockrell urged that the ex-member 'be reconciled to the
Society'. The officers then went back to the hotel owner informing him they would not
readmit the expelled member. The person was subsequently dismissed after a strike of six
davs. 31i
Deputations, when sent to employers, always travelled by cab irrespective of the distance
involved. Presumably the intention in doing so was to underline the formality of the occasion.
'Waiting on an employer' was the term used to describe the deputations. ,
Although the actual rules of the union have not survived, it is clear from the minutes that
strikes had to be officially declared by the committee before strike pay was paid. The benefit
paid to strikers in the early 1880s was;
'the wages of the city to ,be paid in full for the' first week and two thirds of same for subsequent weeks,
whatever their respective wages may be. ,37
The above extract was prefaced by the condition 'providing the committee sanction such
strike'. But another entry related to strike benefit suggests that the union was not always in a
position to finance strikes.
Conclusion
Some general conclusions can be suggested on the achievements of the union during this
period. Without doubt the lot of the journeyman painter in the organised employments
improved substantially. The hourly rate of 6d was achieved and maintained. Working hours,
a It hough they increased from 58 per week in the 1860s to 60 in the 1870s, were reduced to 56
and in some cases 48% by 1890. Furthermore, the arrangement of working hours was
improved: Sa.m. was by then the usual starting time rather than 6a.m. What is not clear,
however. is whether earnings were reduced by the reduction in hours. Even if such were the
case. real income improved substantially, as the 1870s and 1880s were a period of falling
prices. In addition to shorter working hours and increased purchasing power, overtime
allowances had been improved and travelling time had been translated into a cash travelling
allowance. A major advance had also been made on the union's objective of reducing the
prevalence of boy or juvenile labour. 3R In the early 1860s, 19% of those engaged in the trade
were aged 20 years or under: by 1891 this figure had dropped to 14%.39 The union also won a
certain degree of recognition, for by the end of the period many employers had accepted the
principle of arbitration. They also accepted, moreover, the union's right to nominate
arhitrators on an equal footing with themselves.
On the face of the numerical evidence, however, it would appear that the union declined in
influence amongst journeymen, since membership fell from about 400 in the early 1860s to
225 in the late 1880s - a decline from 39% to 26% of the overall number of painters in the

38
Notes
Abbreviations used: ROHPTU: Regular Operative House Painters' Trade Union; min.: Minutes.
SAOTHAR 7
I. Public Records Office of Ireland. Irish National Painters' & Decorators' Trade Union records, accession No.
1017. This union has organised the trade in Dublin since the beginning of the last century at least and operated
under the following titles.
- Irish National Painters' & Decorators' Trade Union, since 1926.
- Irish National Painters' & Decorators' & Allied Trade Union, 1919-1926.
- Dublin Metropolitan House Painters' Trade Union, 1890-1919.
- Regular Operative House Painters' Trade Union, c.1875-1890.
- The St. Luke Benevolent Association of House Painters of the City of Dublin, 1860-1875.
- St. Luke Pension Fund/St. Luke Mortality Fund, c.1850-1860.
- St. Luke Society of Painters, c.1830-1850.
- Friendly Brothers ofSt. Luke of the City and County of Dublin, 1814-c.1830.
The union throughout this period has regarded itself as the successor of the Guild of St. Luke the
Evangelist, established in 1670. Controversy remains, however, as to the precise nature of the relationship
of the unions to the guilds. .
This article is primarily based on the earliest extant minutes of the union dating from 1877 and on two sets of
'Working Rules', the first undated (c.1875: see Appendix I), and the second dated May 1892. The earlier part of
the period is based on a partial survey of newspapers (also for the latter part) and other sources cited in the
footnotes.
The term 'journeyman', then as now is used to describe an employee or working craftsman as opposed to an
employer (known as a 'master'), and an apprentice or a supervisor who does not practice the craft in question.
The origin of the term is open to debate; some believe it arises from workers travelling in search of work, whilst
others believe it arises from the fact that they were paid by the day. In the painting trade travelling in search of
work was known as 'tramping'.
2. ROHPTU, min., November 1889.
3. ROHPTU, min., February 1881.
4. F. A. D'Arcy, Dublin Artisans- Organisation, Activity & Opinion, 1820-1850, M.A. thesis, NUl (UCD), 1968,
pp.168-172.
5. ibid.
6. Journal of Decorative Art, vol. lV, 1884.
Painters' & decorators' hourly wage rates in major British towns and cities:
Nottingham & South Shields 8d.
Sheffield, Sunderland & Preston 7'hd.
Liverpool & Newcastle-upon-Tyne 7%d.
Belfast & 20 other towns 7d.
Nine small to medium size towns 6%d.-6d.
7. G. Best, Mid-Victorian Britain, (London, 1973), pp.114-117.
8. Labour Statistics, (HMSO, London, 1968), pp.29-35.
9. F. A. D'Arcy, op. cif., p.lxxxii.
10. ROHPTU, 'WorkingRules',c.1875.
11. ROHPTU, min., 1876-1880, passim.
12. ROHPTU, min., November 1882.
13. Information from Laurence Callan & John Mulhall (general secretary of the union, 1943-1981).
14. Special Sanitary Report on the City of Dublin, Census of Ireland 1861, part Ill, p.71.
15. Journal of Decorative Art, vol. /, May 1881.
16. H. Sibthorpe & Sons Ltd., Salary Account Book for the years 1881-1886 inclusive. Established in 1747, this firm
was one of the major employers in the trade in the nineteenth century. It closed in 1969. (The firm's records, as
yet uncatalogued, are deposited in the Public Records Office of Ireland).
17. The Dublin Builder, May 1862.
18. The Irish Builder, 15 December 1868.
19. ROHPTU, min., 1889passim.
20. ROHPTU, min., January 1886.
21. ROHPTU, min., May & November 1885.

HOUSE PAINTERS' TRADE UNION
22. ROHPTU, min., October 1881.
23. British Parliamentary Papers, 1837-1838; Select Committee on Combinations of Work'!len. Evidence of Robert
Regin, Secretary of the Union. ,,'
24. ROHPTU, min., July 1878.
25. ROHPTU, min., November 1878
26. The Dublin Builder, September 1861.
27. ibid.
28. ROHPTU, min., November 1881.
29. Thorns Directory, 1861 & 1891. Journal of Decorative Art, 1881-1898;
30. ibid. 1899. .., .
31. ROHPTU, min., January 1881.
32. ROHPTU, min., May 1881.
33. ibid.
34. ROHPTU, min., January 1881.
35. ibid.
36. ROHPTU, min., May 1882.
37. Census of Ireland, 1861, 'General Report'.
38. Census of Ireland, 1891, 'General Report'.
39. Journal of Decorative Art, vol. XXIII. The 'Association of Master Painters in Ireland' was founded in 1898 or
1899. In 1919 it was reconstituted as the' Association of Master Painters & Decorators of Ireland', and registered
as a trade union.
40. C. Callan, 'Organisation in the Painting Trade in Dublin 1860-1890' (unpublished paper).
, .
CeAR'O-CUmAnn
IRISH NATIONAL PAINTERS and
DECORATORS' TRADE UNION
Established 1670
The Committee of Management express their fraternal greetings
to the Irish Labour History Society and commend their work of
recovering the history of Ireland's working people.
Gerard Fleming, General Secretary,
Irish National Painters and Decorators' Trade Union,
_ 76 Aungier Street, Dublin 2: telephone, 751720
39

British Based Unions in Ireland:
Building Workers and the Split in Congress
Ken Hannigan
The years during and immediately following the Great War saw a dramatic increase in trade
union membership both in Ireland and Great .Britain. Total membership of British trade
unions doubled between 1914 and 1920 in a period of rapidly rising prices and wages.! Many
of these unions amalgamated in the period between the end of the war and the early 1920s in
expectation of a general assault upon wages. Unions with members in the building industry
which were formed as a result of amalgamation during theseyears included the Amalgamated
Society of Woodworkers (ASW), the Amalgamated Union of Building Trade' Workers
(AUBTW) and the Transport and General.Workers' Union (A TGWU). All extended their
organising drives to Ireland.
The general rise in membership was also experienced by Irish unions most notably of
course by the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union (ITGWU) which, having
transformed the Irish labour movement in the period just before the war, was itself
transformed both in character and in size during and just after it, in large measure due to its
association with the Easter Rising and the Sinn Fein revival. The Irish Transport was not
alone, however, among the unions which catered for building workers in being radically
influenced by the Rising and War of Independence. Several of these unions lost secretaries or
prominent officials in the Rising. Among these were Richard O'Carroll of the Bricklayers,
Michael Mallin of the Stonemasons and Peadar Macken of the Painters. Many more were
interned or were active in the War of Independence. Within the unions, men who were
politicised by these events rose to office and it is not surprising that these unions began to
display markedly nationalist features. 2
With the revival of building in the 1920s, several Dublin based unions, including the
Bricklayers, the Painters and the Plasterers, prepared to organise nationally and to these, in
the same nationalist spectrum, can be added bodies such as the Cork Painters' Society and the
Irish National Union of Woodworkers (INUW) which had broken away from British based
organisations to form, for reasons of nationality, independent local unions. 3 Inevitably all
these unions soon found themselves atodds to a greater or lesser extent with the burgeoning
amalgamateds in the industry, and in the years to follow they both contributed to and were
influenced by the growth of feeling against them which eventually led to the split in Congress
in 1945.
Hostility to British based unions in Ireland during these years was based on many factors:
union rivalry, national sovereignty and even religion. In a pamphlet entitled The Church and
Trade Unions published in 1922, the Reverend L. McKenna. noted that some Irish workers
felt compelled to join 'English' unions: .
'This necessity - if it is a necessity - is to be deplored from the point of view of nationality, and not less from
the point of view ofreligion. It is to be feared that many of the great British Unions are deeply imbued with
Socialism, and that they hold principles and advocate courses of conduct of which Irish workmen cannot, as
good Catholics, approve ... They should realise the unnaturalness, the foolishness, and the unpatriotic
character of such alliances. It is to be hoped sincerely that whatever political changes are impending may
40

BRITISH BASED UNIONS IN IRELAND 43
demarcation disputes had been exaggerated, that there had been no stoppage of work among
the Dublin building trades in the previous six years over demarcation and that when such
disputes had occurred they had usually been settled within forty-eight hours. 20 In many
trades. however, peace prevailed only because of elaborate, often bizarre, arrangements.
Throughout the 19305, for instance, because of the existence of three painters' societies in
Dublin. painters employed by the Housing Department of Dublin Corporation had to be
chosen in equal numbers from each of the three unions. When painters were taken on, three
or multiples of three, had to be employed andsimilady laid off. 21 The existence of
amalgamateds alongside Irish unions increased the number of unions in the industry but was
not the sole reason for multiplicity. Even without the amalgamateds this would have existed.
A 11 three unions catering for builders' labourers in Dublin, the ITGWU, the United Builders'
Labourers' Union and the Workers' Union of Ireland (WUI), were Irish-based. Yet the
friction which existed between these at times far exceeded that ·between Irish and
amalgamated unions. The hostility which existed between the ITGWU and the WUI has
been well chronicled. 22 The United Builders' Labourers' Union ceased to function, however,
between October 1923 and September 1924 because, it claimed, the ITGWU refused to work
amicably with its members. 23 There were local craft societies in areas such as Cork and
Limerick which displayed greater hostility towards the Irish unions than towards the
amalgamateds. Many of the disputes between Irish and amalgamated unions had nothing to
do with nationality. One of the most bitter disputes in the industry was that which took place
following the 1937 strike between the Plumbers', Glaziers' and Domestic Engineers' Union,
an amalgamated, and the WUI concerning fitters in the Dublin Gas Company.24 The
Plumbers' Union, which accused the WUI of scabbing on its members, attempted in 1939 to
have the latter excluded from the Dublin Trades Council but was denied the support of other
building trade unions, not because it was an amalgamated, but.because these unions claimed
that the Plumbers' Union had broken with them during the 1937 strike. 25
Multiplicity and duplication of organisations also extended to representative bodies. From
1918 there existed a building trades group of unions within the Dublin Trades Council but
from 1919 to 1928 the council itself was split into the Dublin Trades Council and the Dublin
Workers' Council. Most of the bUilding trade unions were affiliated to the Workers' Council,
the INUW was affiliated to the Trades Council and the WUI and Builders' Labourers were in
neither. 26 Shortly after the split in the Trades Council was healed, another developed as a
branch of the National Federation of Building Trades Operatives (NFBTO) was formed in
Dublin. attracting all the amalgamated craft unions in the industry - carpenters, plumbers,
painters and slaters - and demanding that it, rather than the Building Trades Group in the
Trades Council, should negotiate in future on behalf of all the building trades in Dublin. The
split was patched up during the 1931 building strike by the establishment of a joint council but
this broke up again acrimoniously over the terms of settlement. 27 The bad feeling generated
by this split kept the amalgamateds out of the Building Trades Group for several years but
although a branch of the NFBTO continued to operate in Dublin during the 1930s, 1940s and
1950s. henceforth the Building Trades Group handled negotiations with the employers.
Outside Dublin, however, it was generally the NFBTO which handled group negotiations.
When the split in Congress occurred in 1945 it rapidly worked its way down to trades council
and group level. The withrawal of the CIU affiliates from the Dublin Trpdes Council in 1945
was followed by the formation of a group of Irish Building Unions. In Dublin, therefore,
building unions were grouped into the Building Trades Group in the Dublin Trades Council
and the Dublin Group ofIrish BuildingUnions. In practice both groups came together when
wage negotiations were in progress. 28

BRITISH BASED UNIONS IN IRELAND 47
left more and more to the same small group of officers. Owen Hynes, who became Secretary
in 1916. following the death of Richard O'Carroll, continued in this capacity until 1949.
During these years elections to the committee were rarely contested and changes in
committee membership were even rarer. Even though the union was small enough for every
member to participate at least twice a year, general meetings seldom attracted more than 200
of the 800 or so members in the Dublin area. Committee decisions or proposals were rarely
rejected by the rank and file even when these entailed withdrawal from Congress or
registration under the 1941 Trade Union Act. Proposals emanating from the committee
which were rejected by the members were invariably those concerning matters which directly
affected members' livelihood such as wage rates, the conduct of disputes, or the rate of strike
pay. One example stands out. The building strike of 1937 which, in terms of working days
lost, was the worst in the history of the state until recent times, was in large measure
precipitated by a revolt of the rank and file in the AGIBS against the negotiating tactics of
their officials. 52 This was in stark contrast to their apparent indifference when the Committee
withdrew the union from Congress without consulting them a few years later.
Apathy on the part of the rank and file about issues which dominated Congress during the
1930s and 1940s appears to have been widespread throughout the building trade unions.
Membership of a particular union was generally less a result of choice than of circumstance.
There is no reason to suppose that all the plumbers in Dublin were anglophiles or that all the
bricklayers were nationalists, yet at the time of the split in Congress all the unionised
bricklayers were in an Irish-based union and all the plumbers in an amalgamated. The ratio of
one to four which existed in the 1920s between the membership of the INUW and ASW was
perhaps a fair reflection of the extent to which carpenters in Dublin felt strongly enough
about the issue .to choose membership of an Irish union even if this involved financial
sacrifice. At a time when the leaders of the CIU were urging their members not to co-operate
with the unions affiliated to the ITUC, the building workers from both camps were working
amicably together on the sites and generally displaying great solidarity.s3
While most Irish building unions approached the matter of withrawal from the ITUC in a
more democratic manner than did the bricklayers, the result was by and large the same. Most
members accepted the guidance of their executives on the issue and supported their action. In
no union on either side of the divide was there sufficient strength of feeling against the policy
of the leaders on the matter to change it. Such apparent indifference may seem strange when
set against the intense craft loyalty of workers in the industry and the level of solidarity which
usually existed among them but it seems that most building workers did not see themselves
standing in the same relationship to Congress as they did to their own union or to their fellow
workers. Congress, and Congress politics, they regarded as being the business of their leaders
rather than their own.
Notes
I. H. Pelling, A History of British Trade Unionism, (London, 1969 ed.), p. 262.
2. An interesting though not perhaps a typical example was Gerald Doyle of the Dublin Operative Plasterers.
While still an apprentice he joined the Volunteers and participated in the 1916 Rising. Interned with de Valera,
he took part in the War of Independence and was interned again during the Civil War. During all this time he
held no office in the union and seems to have taken little part in union affairs. By the time of his release in 1924,
however, his exploits had made him well known in the union and he was elected almost immediately to the
executive. Two months later, following the death of the secretary, Doyle was appointed to take his place and
continued to hold this post for almost fifty years. (Irish Labour History Society interview with Gerald Doyle by
Fergus D'Arcy and Sean Mac Cormac, March 1974) ..

48 SAOTHAR 7
3. File WI/l2/9, Cork Painters' Society, Records of the Commission on Vocational Organisation, State Paper
Office, Dublin.
4. Rev. L. McKenna, S.J., The Church and TradeDnions, a series of Lenten Lectures delivered in the Church of the
Sacred Heart, Limerick, (Dublin, 1922).
5. ITUC, Forty-third Annual Report, 1937, p.173.
6. CIU, Report of the Proceedings of the Seventh Annual Meeting, 19'il, p.109.
7. ibid, pp.17-18, 22-23.
8. Papers relating to the Dublin Council of Irish Unions among the records of the Ancient Guild of Incorporated
Brick and Stonelayers.in the Public Record Office of !reland,1097/28/17. (In subsequent references, this
collection cited as PROI 1097 or PRO! 1034). List of contributors to 'The Workers' Gift to Mary', PROI
1097/14/4.
9. Minutes of special general meeting, 21 December 1952, PRO! 1034/1/3; minutes of committee meeting, 8
February 1954, PRO! 1097/17/20.
\0. Circular letter from Leo Crawford, secretary, CIU, to affiliated unions. 2 Dece'mber 1953, PROI 1097/28/17.
il. For government attitudes to the amalgamateds, see C. McCarthy, Trade Unions in Ireland 1894-1960, (Dublin,
1977) chs. 4 and 5.
i2. Evidence 25 F, Commission on Vocational Organisation: Minutes of Evidence, National Library of Ireland Ms.
926. In subsequent references this collection' cited as Comm. Voc. Org., NU Mss. 922-941.
i3. White Paper: Housinr; - Progress and Prospects, (Dublin, 1964), Appendix L p.36. Figures here refer to the
years i923-32 and 1933-42.
i4. Summary of Evidence of the Dublin Operative Plasterers' Trade Society and the Ancient Guild ofIncorporated
Brick and Stonelayers' Uhion to the Commission on Vocational Organisation, Doe: 118, NU Ms. 937.
IS. Census of Population, 1926, Vo!. VI, tables 1 and 5; Census of Population, 1936, Vo!. V!, tables 1 and 5.
16. Report of Inquiry into the Housing of the Working Classes of the City of Dublin 1939-43, (Dublin, 1944),
pp.i5-30.
17. ibid. The Building Trade Employers submitted elaborate charts comparing wage rates in the various centres,
reproduced as Appendices 3i and 31A, pp.264-265.
18. Rev. Cornelius Lucey, 'Conciliation and Arbitration in Labour Disputes', Studies XXIX, Dec. 1940, pp.497-
512. See also Rev. Cornelius Lucey, 'Strikes and Compulsory Arbitration', Studies XXV, June 1936, pp.177-
190. For James Larkin's somewhat different interpretation of the effects of the 1937 strike see Evidence 35 .
. Comm. Voc.Org.,NLIMs.928.
19. Commission on Vocational Organisation: Report, (Dublin, 1943), p.I72.
20. Dublin Housing Enquiry: Verbatim Report of Proceedings, (Dublin, 1946). p.332.
21. Typed memorandum re carpenters il) the Dublin Corporation, 3 May 1945, PRO! 1097/28/13.
22. See C. McCarthy, op.cit., and E. Larkin, lames Larkin, Irish Labour Leader, (London, 1965).
23. File 360T, United Builders' Labourers' Trade Union, Registry of Friendly Societies, Dublin. Though the union
re-formed in 1924, it was never admitted to the ITUC and was finally killed off apparently by a combination of
the slump in the building industry during the years of the Second World War and the effects of the 1941 Trade
Union Act.
24. A file concerning this dispute in the Dublin Gas Company is contained among the records of the Electrical,
Electronics, Telecommunications and Plumbing Trade Union, PRO! 1084.
25. Irish National Painters' and Decorators' Trade Union, minutes of committee meeting held on 20 Nov. 1939,
PRO! 1017/1/7.
26. Incoming correspondence, circulars, etc. from the Dublin Trades Council, Dublin Workers' Council and Dublin
Council of Trade Unions, PROI 1097/28/20.
27. Statement by the Dublin Building Trades Group in The Watchword, 25 April,. 1931; Reports of quarterly and
Committee meetings, Dublin Lodge, Plumbing Trade Union, 10 April- 21 June 1929. PRO! 1041/1/4; Typed
memorandum on relations between the ASW and the INUW·(n.d.). PRO! 1097/28/13; Minutes of the Building
Trades Group in the Dublin Trades Council, PROI 1084.
28. This account based on reports in PRO! 1097/28/17 and 20.
29. Minutes of Committee and quarterly meetings of Dublin Lodge. Plumbing Trade Union. 10 Nov. 1933 -26 Aug.
1935, PRO! 1041/1/4 and 5. . .
30. Typed memoranda on relations between ASW and INUW, PRO! 1097/28/13. See also Evidence 25A and 25B,
Comm. Voc. Org., NU Ms. 926.
31. Evidence 25B, Comm. Voc. Org., NU Ms; 926. When questioned by members of the Commission. the then
President of the ASW, E. M. McDermott, who himself came from Dublin, admitted that members of the union
who voted on the issue in the 1920s had not been informed that they would not forfeit benefits if a majority voted
for secession. The INUW claimed that had this been known. it would have resulted in a different vote.

.';.
Essays in Review
Connolly Reassessed
R. Faligot, James Connolly et· le mouvement revolutionnaire irlandais, (MasperQ, Paris,
1978), pp. 333, 59frs.
B. Ransom, Connolly's Marxism, (Pluto Press, London, 1980), pp. 126, £2.95.
" \
Roger Faligot, following Desmond Greaves, I proclaims himself to be in the Marxist tradition
and asks for lames Connolly to. be rediscovered, his example followed, ' ... and quite simply
to do what Connolly did in his own times' (p. 309). For the combat is not finished:
'Every week there die or "are imprisoned those who in Ireland hope to achieve today that to which Connolly
devoted his life and his intelligence: an Irish socialist Republic.' (p" 14)
Roger Faligot's book opens very logically with the end of Connolly's career, the
insurrection of Easter 1916. The account which he presents of it is essentially military, as are
the reasons for its defeat. A curious sentence ('Although the Irish population was far from
actively supporting the insurrection - except in the popular districts of Dublin ... ') shows that
an ignored reality always takes its revenge. The author's distinction between 'Irish
population' and the 'popular districts of Dublin' escapes me. But never mind the
contradiction. To resolve it,Faligot considers it sufficient to appeal piously to the great
forebears. 2
The Easter insurrection failed, but it was, despite everything, victorious;
'. " . the courageous effort and the martyrdoms which followed finally awoke the sleeping spirit of Ireland.'
(p.50)
We are in the heart of nationalist mythology. The struggles of the Irish people are nothing but
a long series of victories: the true victories, which are the adversary's defeats, and the false
defeats which 'awake' the masses from their torpor. Everything is thus blurred, 1917 in
t Russia and the Spartacist revolt in Germany, Cuba and Bolivia, 1789 in Paris, and the
Commune of 1871. When all is said and done, a defeat which awakens the masses is worth
more than a victory which sends them to sleep. The same blindness is apparent over the
evolution of social movements in Northern Ireland. When Protestant workers adopt unionist
slogans, it is enough to say that these slogans are' ... contrary to their class interest' (p. 64) to
slip this embarrassing problem into the dossier of questions which have been settled' and
solved.
lames Connolly is virtually unknown in France. Apart from several articles and some
translations in more generil collections, no study presents an overview of his life and work. 3
In this sense, Roger Faligot's book is useful. It is thus all the more regrettable that he limits
himself to the celebration of a revolutionary hero.
" Bernard Ransom's study has quite a different ambition. It aspires to be a critical study of
lames Connolly whom the author presents as a ' ... Marxist theoretician of major
importance' (p. 1). Against the background of an ossified Marxism which had become, at the
end of the 19th century, determinist and scientist, Connolly is seen as reintegt"ating into
historical materialism the values of the Catholic religion and of Gaelic Ireland.
50
"

66 SAOTHAR 7
and straight-forwardness of the People's History volume, with its forty or more contributions
collected together for the History Workshop by the indefatigable Raphael Samuel. Here is a
rich variety of short, mainly historical, essays grouped under a dozen themes, such as:
people's history, local history, oral tradition, peasant studies, the State, socialism and
capitalism, women's history and sexual politics, fascism and anti-fascism, cultural studies,
African history, Labour history, and a number classed as 'debates' - on political economy,
religion, and 'culturalism' (the latter concerned with the Thompson-Althusser controversy).
The contributions are of varying degrees of talent and sophistication but all are concerned
with problems and are vibrant with energy and life. Some interesting problems arise and most
of these become the subject of informal qebate. Ken Warpole points to the deep gulf
separating the academic historian from his intended public and deplores, in particular, the
evident 'retreat into a closed epistemology' which 'curiously comes at a time when
conteinporary class conflict is more pronounced than it has been for many years' (Samuel,
pp.23-24). Gareth Stedman lones opens a discussion on utopian socialism, which arouses a
spirited debate, notably on the 'utopians" attitude to women. But, curiously, nobody
contrasts (as G. D. H. Cole once noted) the decline of socialism after 1840 with its greater
flourishing in France. Nor is any mention made (among the French) of Cabet, Proudhon and
Louis Blanc (admittedly they come later than 1830), nor of the different attitudes dividing
them on the question of opting in or out of the new industrial system - with St. Simon, Owen
and Blanc most certainly opting 'in' and Fourier and Cabet most obviously opting 'out'. From
J acques Ranciere, an associate of Althusser, we learn of the French waning of interest in the
history of the working-class movement and even in the struggle in general and of the turn of
former Marxists like Le Roy Ladurie, the author of the famous (and to some notorious)
Montaillou, to 'static history', which is rich in descriptions of climate, population, eating
habits, epidemics, births and deaths but eschews the history of struggle of the workers and
others on the grounds that such history (wait for it!) is nothing but 'superstructural' illusion,
"ideology' (p.271). We come down to earth again with Sheila Rowbotham who argues against
the use of the a-historical concept of 'Patriarchy', much favoured in feminist literature, on the
grounds that it connotes a fixed, changeless structure unsusceptible either of motion or
protest. 'Within Marxism', she argues, 'there is at least a possibility of dialectical unity of
transience and moment ... the concept of "patriarchy" offers no such prospect'. And she
adds: There are times when class or race solidarity are much stronger than sex-gender
conflict and times when relations within the family are a source of unusual resistance to class
power.' I must confess that I found this argument far more convincing than her opponents'
contention that The concept of patriarchy points to a strategy which will eliminate not men,
but masculinity, and transform the whole web of psycho-social relations in which masculinity
and femininity are formed.' (pp.365, 372).
Other debates of almost equal importance discussed the boundaries separating 'popular'
history from socialist and working-class history and such related questions as, where does one
end and the other begin and, even, in this industrial age, are they all really necessary? Such
questions remained unresolved. Equally inconclusive were the lively discussions focussing on
popular culture opened in separate papers by Peter Burke and Stuart Hall. How far is it
appropriate to pin the label of 'popular' to a culture that is passively received by the common
people and imposed by the cultural hegemony of the ruling class? The question arises from
Peter Burke's revival of the controversy over the seventeenth century collection of popular
literature housed in the 'Blue Library' at Troyes, previously debated by R. Mandrou (1964)
and G. Bolleme (1971) in France. To Hall a major problem is the common. use of the term
"popular' divorced from the notion of class; without this link 'popular' culture can easily slip

ESSA YS IN REVIEW 67
into such fraudulent associations as in 'popular' journalism. On the other hand (and this
arises from Peter Burke's paper), 'popular' (as in 'popular classes') may be applied to a
culture that, feeding on tradition and experience of the common people,· becomes an
authentic popular culture of the exploited and oppressed. Curiously, however, Hall omits
from his 'Further Reading' Richard Hoggart's The Uses of Literacy which, though published
twenty-four years ago, is still relev

68 SAOTHAR 7
hostile. It seems, then, to the reader about these events that they ended, at least, on a
comparatively peaceful note. But the New Society correspondent would have none of it. 'All
this was delivered', he wrote in reference to Thompson's reply, 'with maximum theatrical
force. The result was that subsequent discussion was almost impossible ... The aftermath of
the Saturday night's fusillade hung like a pall of smoke over the rest of the conference'
(p.378).
Finally, a few observations of my own. For an empirically-minded reyiewer it has been no
easy matter to read and ponder over the philosophical-theoretical arguments of The Poverty
of Theory and to be subjected to frequent quotations from the Althusserian rhetoric of For
Marx and Reading Capital; and for making these more' or less intelligible to me I am indebted
to Edward Thompson. The greater debt, of course, that I and so many others owe him is to
have completed so magisterially the task begun by Pierre Vilar et al in demolishing this
monstrous structure that, in the name of Marxist theory, has hovered so oppressively over the
work of almost a generation of French and British scholars. In this sense, Thompson's chosen
epithet of 'ideological terrorism' is perhaps not out of place. Yet, however strong his personal
feelings about the traumas of 1956, I think his polemic zeal has carried him too far in adding
the further label of 'ideological Stalinism': this threatens to undermine his argument by
overstating his case. Similarly, I cannot but accept Stuart Hall's contention that this
enthusiasm leads Thompson on occasion'to inflate his accusations or to level them where they
are not due. I am thinking, in particular, of Althusser's Lenin and Philosophy - and maybe,
too, of his Politics and History - where the obsession with Theory and denunciation of
'empiricism' are not nearly so much in evidence as in For Marx and Reading Capital, from
which nearly all Thompson's selections are taken. It is in Lenin and Philosophy, for example,
that we find the following passage relating to the origins of Marx's theory of capitalism:
'Without the proletariat's class struggle. Marx could not have adopted the point of view of class exploitation
or carried out his scientific work, In this scientific work which bears the mark of all his culture and genius, he
has given back to the workers' movement in a theoretical way what he took from it in a political and
ideological form.' (Lenin imd Philosophy NLB, 1971, p,9),
Surely an 'empirical' aberration with a vengeance!
One final reflection. Are the many protesting voices justified in calling Thompson arrogant
and charging him with blistering his critics in 'manichean' tones? On the whole, I think they
are in view of the contempt with which he can brush aside the observations of Richard
J ohnson in the 'culturalist' debate and allow himself to be provoked into a state of spluttering
rage by the charge of being a 'culturalist' himself (so what the hell?): such antics are hardly
worthy of the author of The Making and of William Morris, or for that matter of the
demolisher of the structuralism of Louis Althusser. So, my dear Edward, why do you allow
yourself so easily to lose your cool?
George Rude

70
illustrations and descriptions of workplaces and working
practices which highlight both good and bad points
about 'traditional' technology. The account of the linen
industry righily emphasizes the nastiness of flax retting
and the dangers of breaking and scutching. Yet not all
was smelly or dusty: the beautifully-kept steam engines
in their elaborate houses show a pride shared by both
owners and operatives. It is to be hoped that an
important effect of this monumental work will be to
encourage Irish labour historians to lay more stress on
the work place and working practices in their studies.
JohnR.Hume
Donal Nevin (ed), Trade Unions and Change in Irish
Society, (Mercier/RTE, Dublin and Cork, 1980),
pp. 172, £2.35.
This collection of Thomas Davis lectures is misleadingly
titled. By confining itself to the Republic of Ireland, it
ignores a third of the Irish workforce and fails to
consider the very remarkable changes that have taken
place in Northern Ireland over the last decade,
particularly in the role of the trade union movement.
The introduction by Basil Chubb, chairman of the
Employer-Labour Conference, sets the tone of what
follows. Free collective bargaining is apparently an
historical phenomenon now replaced by the new system
of 'tripartism' (some might read 'corporatism') in which
the trade unions, having passed through the Wage
Rounds and National Wage Agreements, have entered
the promised land - the National Understanding. The
real task for the leadership is 'to play the role demanded'
of them by tripartism' in which they face 'the massive
task of modifying the ideological traditions of the
movement' (p.9). Harsh critics might suggest that this
volume is a part of that process.
Many of the analyses are nevertheless extremely
interesting and in some cases very useful. Kadar Asmal
points out that staff associations are committing a
criminal offence when they negotiate wages and
conditions for groups of workers (p.107). Joseph Lee
highlights the insidious role played by top civil servants
in the past. Excepting the Department of Posts and
Telegraphs, Lee suggests that all has now changed.
There are, however, many trade unionists dealing with
the Department of the Public Service who would find
that hard to swallow ..
Hugh MacNeill displays a better knowledge of the
working oftrade unions than many of his kind. He points
to the growing strength of shop stewards and their desire
to be more involved in the control of their wages and
conditions. But how can this be achieved under the
National Wage Agreement? MacNeill recognises the
contradictions for trade unions between their socialist
traditions and collaborative present policies. Firmly
committed to the collaborative approach, MacNeill
nevertheless confesses to the distortion of strike figures'.
The historic value of the book might be greater if it
were not interspersed with conclusions arid
SAOTHAR 7
interpretations from obviously biased viewpoints. On
this basis the book is most remarkable for what is not in
if, namely the viewpoint of the working trade unionist
who lives with the problems every day, who is on the
receiving end of a very inequitable society. The
comments of active shop stewards or even of the
unemployed would have brought more balance into
some of the argument. The book is summed up by
Chubb in his final remark:
'When it comes to practical solutions and
pragmatic advice as opposed to armchair
precepts, most of the contributors, even
those who speak from the depths of
professorial chairs, have not all that much
to offer'. .
I'll echo that. Brian Anderson
Andro Linklater, An Unhusbanded Life - Charlotte
Despard: Suffragette, Socialist and Sinn Feiner,
(Hutchinson, London, 1980), pp.271, £7.95.
This evocative title is particularly apt in the case of
Charlotte Despard (1844-1939): had it not been for her
husband's death, the poor of London, the suffragists,
international socialists, pacifists and Irish republicans
would have lost an indefatigable fighter. She was a
visionary whose beliefs - an eclectic mixture of
theosophism, christianity, communism, pacifism and
feminism - were moulded by her into a personal creed
whose essence was a realisation that human freedom
could only be achieved in a classless society.
Linklater's portrait of Despard succeeds in conveying
the force of her personality, but there are severe
limitations. Accuracy is sacrificed for readability.
Although he has consulted the Despard papers, his lack
of references to particular sources, coupled with
unattributable quotations, is frustrating for anyone
interested in pursuing some of the areas sketched out.
In 1890 she took up charitable work as a means of
assuaging her grief over her husband's death. She
bought a house in working class Battersea, was elected
Poor Law Guardian, and for the next 9 years conducted
an unremitting campaign against the iniquities of the
Poor Law system. As her political understanding
deepened she became less content to confine her
energies to alleviating the worst effects of poverty. She
became a socialist and by 1907 was the obvious choice
for the president of the Women's Freedom League,
formed as a result of a split within the ranks of the
Women's Social and Political Union, when many
militants left in protest over the undemocratic structure
of the WSPU with its increasingly conservative politics.
The core of the book centres around the work of the
WFL, whose conference reports are heavily relied upon.
It certainly deserves more recognition for its
achievements: the only major suffrage organisation to
campaign not only for the vote but for social and
economic changes. It continued in existence until 1961,
forging a link between one feminist generation and the
next.
When war broke out in 1914 Despard became convinced
that injustice would remain until militarism was
defeated. The instinct that led her to campaign for the

72
although many in Ireland tried to make a case for that
position.
According to the author, 'the Right in Spain did not
believe in liberal democracy and it is doubtful that much
of the Left did either'. Of course, it depends very much
how the term 'left' is defined but there was broadly
based support for parliamentary democracy among the
Spanish left. That cannot be gainsaid. Ryan left to
defend the Second Republic of the Popular Front.
Although he regarded the fight in Spain and in Ireland
as one and indivisible, Ryan's departure for the warfront
signified the political impasse into which the movement
had drifted at home. Victory in Spain would provide
Irish republicans with the moral and politici!l boost
sufficient to propel their movement onwards.
Ryan fought bravely. When captured by Italians he
refused to remove the officer insignia from his uniform '
despite the danger of summary execution. He spent over
two years in one of Franco's jails part ofthe time living in
the knowledge that he could be taken out and shot any
morning. From jail in Burgos; he wrote to his sister on 29
June 1938 in code: 'Best regards to all my friends and
especially Deviele, Baolbais and Silim. I thank each
one'. The Spanish censors could not be expected to
know Irish. The message read I am (Silim) in danger of
death (Baolbais), tell de Valera (Deviele).
Indeed, his life may have been spared thanks to the
personal intervention of de Valera who may have made
overtures either directly to Franco or through the Duke
of Alba in London. De Valera may also have sought the
help of the Vatican through the Papal Nuncio in Dublin,
Paschal Robinson. Inside Spain, Fr. Mulrean who had
been chaplain to O'Duffy's brigade, also helped as did
the Duchess of Tetuan. But it was Leopold Kerney - the
Irish envoy to Madrid who seemed to enjoy considerable
individual latitude from Iveagh House - who was most
active on Ryan's behalf.
The extraordinary correspondence between R yan and
the envoy, which is on file in the Department of Foreign
Affairs, gives a most interesting insight into the
workings of Irish diplomacy. Further access to
departmental files will give an even more complete
picture of the complex manoeuverings to get Ryan
released. In the end, a combination of public pressure,
• initiatives by de Valera through his own diplomatic
channels and through the Vatican coupled with the
lobbying of influential Spanards of Irish extraction
disposed Franco to show some flexibility in the case. But
the above influences on the caudillo may well have been
peripheral. An unlikely initiative from Berlin at a crucial
period in the summer of 1940 did most to melt Franco's
heart - and even then Ryan could not be simply
released. An arranged escape was staged on 14 luly
1940. Two days earlier, Kerney had visited Ryan and
reminded him he had been guilty of 'an error of
judgment in choosing to fight for the republic since
Madrid was the friend of England'. He warned him not to'
blunder again when in German hands. According to the
book, Kerney had sought a direction from Dublin and de
Valera told him that it was better for Ryan to be out of
prison than to rot there for the rest of his life. Kerney
believed that Ryan would go to America.
Unfortunately, no source is cited for either the Kerney­
Ryan meeting or the instructions from de Valera.
SAOTHAR 7
On 14 July Ryan left by car for the lrun-Hendaye
border. A Spanish police car drove in front. Ryan
travelled with Abwehr personnel, Behind that again
came the Spanish lawyer Champoucin who had been
hired by the Irish Government and had organised the
escapade and behind him drove Kerney at a safe
distance. Ryan, must have found the journey
bewildering. He arrived in occupied Paris courtesy of
German officials belonging to a regime which he, a
life-long anti-fascist, detested and loathed. The
remainder of his life was spent trying to come to terms
with a world which had been turned upside down. A
letter written by Ryan to Kerney on 14lanuary 1942 is a
combination of lucidity and uncharacteristic naivety. He
argued that 'in his neutrality policy, Dev should get
100% support' while those who 'disagreee with the
social and economic programme of Dev and those who
are suspicious of his political programme should
organise and fit ourselves to be eventually that
government which alone will succeed his-his own words
"a more extreme Republican government"'. But during
the war, he put country aboye party. Yet he could not
understand why his view was'not shared by fellow radical
republicans and why they did not play a key role in the
defence forces.
Ryan had been mellowed by his experiences,
Obviously, he was anxious to get back to Ireland. But
the sentiment of putting country before party was a long
way from those of the men who would not grant 'free
speech to traitors',
Dermot Keogh
Uinseann MacEoin, (comp,), Survivors, (Argenta
Publications, Dublin, 1980), pp. 466, £10, paperback
£5.95,
This is "a strange book, twenty three different
contributors, twenty three different styles, twenty three
different sets of standards, Some are excellent, some are
good, while some are inconsequential and rambling.
According to the author, or collector, Uinseann
MacEoin, it is the
' .... ,story of Ireland's Struggle as told
through some of her outstanding living
people recalling events from the days of
Davitt through lames Connolly, Brugha,
Collins, Liam Mellowes, and Rory
O'Connor, to the present time'. (cover)
In the preface Mr. MacEoin explains:
They (his survivors) are all from "one
side of the house", except for one pacifist
who took no part in tIle post 1922 conflict.
I chose them deliberately for that reason,
for the reason that if I had chosen people
who at the parting had gone Free State,
much of their story would undoubte'dly be
coloured to account for it'. (p, vii)
This paragraph points up the whole tone of the book;
all the Civil War Republicans were heroic and honest, all
others were self-seeking and insincere, There is one
exception, lohn SWiftl, ' .... thepacifist who took no
side in the post 1922 conflict'. If this leads you to believe

REVIEWS
that John took any side before 1922, let him reassure you
himself. I quote from his section of the book.
'I was there (working in 10hnston
Mooneys in Ballsbridge) until the
Rebellion of April 1916, when of course I
had to cease work. The rebellion was quite
a surprise to me. My own strongest feeling
was one of disbelief that this could
happen. I had not expected a minority to
persist in their idea of an insurrection. It
did not seem credible'. (p. 61)
Of the Black and Tan War, John says:
Things were very bad economically, and
showed no signs of improving. We had the
Black and Tans here, the War of
Independence was in full spate. But these
events largely passed me by. The Treaty
period came and went and the Civil War
then struck us. My sympathies were with
Eamon de Valera and what they called the
Irregulars. I was not greatly touched by
this struggle however; I had matured more
in my political views and had become
definitely a Socialist'. (pp. 71-2)
The events that brought about the change from
happy, middle class schoolboy to mature socialist are
described by John: the failure of his father's business in
Drogheda, poverty in a tenement house in.Clanbrassil
Street in nublin, living on Larkin's food parcels and St
Vincent de Paul vouchers. There was unemployment or
part time work for himself and his father, a journey to
England where he was eventually conscripted as a noncombatant,
service at the Front as a cook, a shrapnel
wound and eventual discharge and return to Dublin.
There is much more of course, and this is the best section
of the book.
The section on, or by, Frank Edwards is fine also,
particularly where he relates his experience of the
Spanish Civil War. It is not quite clear whether this was
written by Frank Edwards or by Mr. MacEoin, but it is
certainly important. So also is the section by Peadar
O'Donnell. His description of the execution of Liam
Mellowes, Rory O'Connor, Dick McKelvey and Joe
Barret is poignant indeed, and it is good to see'him clear
up the question of the Cabinet meeting at which the
executions were decided on. Both Sean MacBride and
Nora Connolly O'Brien make contributions of
importance and great interest. A pity Nora Connolly did
not write even more about her mother and their family
life after 1916. .
This is an important book. All of the 'Survivors' who
were, or became, political have important things to tell
us. The others, the seekers after the 'Dream', have no
message for us today. Their dream has become for many
of us a nightmare.
Paddy Bergin
Note
1. John Swift, General Secretary of the Irish Bakers,
Confectioners and Allied Workers' Union from
1942 to 1967; President of the Irish Trade Union
Congress, 1946-7; President of the International
foodworkers' Union at Stockholm in 1964; founder
member and President of the ILHS,' 1973-8, and
since then its Honorary President.
Short Notices
D. Bleakley, Saidie Patterson: Irish Peacemaker,
(BlackstaffPress, Belfast, 1980) pp.118, £3.95.
This book attempts to chart Saidie Patterson's
contribution to various causes throughout her life, and
to convey her dedication to peacemaking which remains
undiluted even to-day. It is of interest to students of the
labour movement chiefly for its accounts' of such
episodes in Belfast working class history as the 1940
strike at Ewart's linen mill, and also for the description
offered of life in a working class community, in this case
the Shankill Road, during the early years of this century.
The book cannot really be called a biography. It is
more 'of an . autobiography and an exercise in oral
history, relying as it does on Saidie's personal
reminiscences. Much space is afforded to Saidie to tell
her own story with linking passages of narrative supplied
by Bleakley who is arguably too non-critical an admirer
for his subject's good. In the early chapters which deal
with life on the Shankill and the working conditions in
Ewart's mill, the formula works tolerably well, but as the
book progresses to topics such as the 1940 strike and the
fortunes of the Northern Ireland Labour Party (NILP)
after the war, it suffers from a dearth of critical comment
and analysis.
Bleakley's treatment of the Ewart's strike is very
sketchy and is too narrowly-focussed to allow the reader
to assess for himself or herself the role played by Saidie
and the scale of her achievement in organising the
women workers of the mill. Similarly, her activities in
the NILP after 1945 are highlighted to such a degree that
the events in which she probably played an important
part are badly distorted. In addition, Bleakley is
sometimes glib to the point of being misleading. In
regard to NILP strategy during the 1950s he sums up the
whole approach of the party in the term 'bridgebuilding',
with no acknowledgement that the NILP had
opted for a unionist stance on the constitution and that
Catholic support was drifting to Republican Labour
candidates as a consequence. In short, there is no
examination of the intricacies ofthe party's position and
tactics.
Saidie Patterson is a worthy subject of study for labour
historians but it has to be said that this book does her and
labour history something of a disservice.
Grabam Walker,
Mary Corbally, Diamond Memories, (Inner Ward
Pub.lications, North Centre City Community Action
Project, 20 Summerhill, Dublin 1, 1980), pp.36, £0.50.
Anyone interested in local history will enjoy Mary
Corbally's account of life as she remembers it in the
Dublin of her youth. She tells her story with warmth and
wit. Particularly funny are her descriptions of some of
the old Dublin cures and the uses to which they were put.
But in spite of its lighthearted tone there is a great deal of
sadness and regret expressed towards the end at the
changes which have taken place in her area. Not
everyone will agree with her assessment that these were
the 'good, good days' and that people were 'never
hungry' but perhaps in doing what she has done she will
encourage others to pass on what they have
experienced.
All credit is due to the NCCCAP and to the ITGWU
for their combined efforts in getting the pamphlet
printed.
Mairfn Mooney.
73

Essay
Women in the Irish Workforce from Pre-industrial to Modern Times
This essay sketches in broad outline the changing place of women in the workforce over
approximately two centuries l It is presented as a tentative picture as many of the issues which
are raised require further research.
The Irish economy of the eighteenth century was predominantly a peasant economy with a
high volume 'of domestic production of food and other necessities. Both agriculture and
industry tended to be organised on the basis of the household. All household members, male
and female, contributed towards family income if not incapacitated by extreme youth, old
age or disability. There were traditional women's chores, mostly those carried out within the
house such as spinning or making butter, or those requiring less physical strength such as
weeding crops, but the distinction between male and female spheres of work was not, as
commonly in modern households, between non-income generating and income earning
activities. In fact in many pre-famine Irish households, the woman by her spinning provided
the family'S cash income while the husband through farming concentrated on providing the
food. During the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries Irish women experienced
increasing opportunities to earn money with the expansion of the butter trade and the spread
of the domestic linen industry. Domestic textiles increased the earning capacity of both
women and young men and permitted them to marry at an early age and form households
regardless of parental approval. The spread of domestic textiles and the increased earning
power of young women was therefore a factor in the frequency of early marriages in
pre-famine Ireland and made an important contribution to Ireland's popUlation increase.
The areas which displayed the greatest density of population and the earliest marriages in
1841 were those with a strong domestic textile industry2
This ability to earn money did not inevitably give women a greater status in the community.
In the majority of cases, women's earnings were used to pay the family rent' and a woman's
money was regarded as benefitting her family, either her parent's family or that formed with a
husband. Some of a woman's earnings was generally used as pin money. Thus Isaac Weld
writes of a parish in Co. Roscommon in the early 1830s.
The people dress in a style far superior to the line of life in which they are placed, particularly the females
who are fond of show, and comply with modern fashions as far as they can afford it. They are able to
indulge in this propensity by their industry in spinning and weaving coars:: linens; these they bring to
market, and when disposed of, they purchase ornamented clothing with a part of the profit'4,
The days of luxury for the young women of Roscommon were, however, short-lived. The
spread of the factory system gradually eroded traditional domestic industries and 'the impact
fell disproportionately on women because much of the early industrial revolution
concentrated on textiles. The 1841 Census counted over 600,000 textile and clothing workers,
many of these living in the west of Ireland. By 1841 many had already lost much of their
income and this trend accelerated in the following decades. In Britain the decline of domestic
textile employment was compensated by the emergence of factory employm'ent. In Ireland,
however, this did not happen to any extent outside of north-east Ulster. Post-famine Ireland
experienced a massive industrial decline and in 1891 manufacturing industry employed only
17% of the workforce compared with 27% in 184)0 The brunt of this fall in industrial
employment was borne by women.
By the end of the nineteenth century the pre-famine economic structure through which
women working in the home were able to contribute to family earnings survived only among
the craft workers of the congested districts and in the outworking clothing industry which
74

ESSAY 75
was predominately-located in north-west Ulster. It is perhaps no coincidence that these areas
where women still made a cash contribution to the family income were areas which resisted
the tendency towards later marriages. Margaret Irwin, author of a report on women
outworkers in Ulster noted, in 1909: .
'Marrying a skilled shirtmaker is for the casual labourer the equivalent of what marrying an heiress may be
in another rank of life' 6
Declining opportunities in domestic clothing and textiles were not compensated to any
great extent by growing job opportunities in other areas. The industrial revolution did open
some types of work to women, as in slioecmaking where the sewing machine and the division
of the process into simple repetitive tasks gave rise to jobs for women as finishers. The
printing industry, or rather its book-binding division, marks another industry where women
in the nineteenth century penetrated what had previously been a male-dominated trade.
Factory work nevertheless employed only a minority of women. The largest numbers were
employed in domestic service, or in agriculture. Opportunities in these areas,however,failed
to compensate for the loss of industrial jobs. The proportion of women who were recorded in
. the Census as occupied fell steadily from 29% in 1861 to 19.5% in 1911 and the 1861 level has
never been regained. 7
.
The Census returns, however, are an inadequate representation of the role of women in the
economy. Older daughters prematurely removed from school to assist their mothers in the
home, or the many unmarried women who acted as unpaid servants to parents or brothers are
all excluded from the number of domestic servants.
The economic role of women in agriculture is similarly under-recorded as only women
farmers or wage-earning farm labourers are recorded. The sons of farmers were regarded by
nineteenth century census officials as productive workers, farmers' daughters were not. But if
men and women are counted on the same basis, approximately one-third of the agricultural
work-force in 1871 were in fact women. The largest single group were farmers wives. 8 Within
agriculture it would appear that women's duties became more strictly defined and more
restricted in the post-famine period. Women labourers and the wives of labourers and small
farmers carried out certain field duties in the pre-famine decades, particularly at times of
peak demand such as harvest. The steady decline of tillage in the years after the famine
reduced total labouring needs, and in consequence the involvment of women in field work.
By the end of the century women's field work appears to have been restricted to remote parts
of the west of Ireland where tillage still remained of relatively greater importance and where
the numbers of available men may have been reduced by seasonal migration. Women in these
areas were also used as beasts of burden, carrying turf and stones,9 something not at this stage
found in more developed areas. By the 1930s the account of Arensberg and Kimball suggests
that women's duties were strictly limited to home and farmyard and involved the care of
calves, pigs, hens and dairying duties. to
The spread of creameries in the closing decades of the century meant the removal of yet a
further process from the domestic to the industrial sphere, where machines and men tended
to supplant women. Mrs. O'Brien, wife of a 200 acre Limerick dairy farmer in the midnineteenth
century supervised a large butter-making dairy with its team of dairy maids in
addition to her household duties.!! The creameries sharply reduced the responsibility of such
women with the disappearance of large-scale domestic butter manufacture.
The occupations open to women in post-famine agriculture dwindled as did their marriage
prospects. In response the number of women within the agricultural community fell much
more sharply than did the number of men. By 1912 they accounted for approximately
one-fifth of the total, compared to one-third in 1871.!2Paradoxically the decline in the

ESSAY
Louie Bennet! to the Irish Trade Union Congress (ITUC).
The modern tendency to draw women into industry in increasing numbers is dfno real ad'vantage to them,
I t has not raised their status as workers nor their wage standard. It is a menace to family life and in so far as
it has blocked the employment of men it has intensified poverty among the working class', 26
Many other female trade unionists saw married women in the labour force as a social evil
brought about by inadequate male wages and felt that the solution was to rempve married
women from the workforce by paying a higher wage to married, as opposed to single men. 27
This tendency to view women workers, notas individuals but as members of a family unit is
expressed as late as 1953 when an equal pay resolutionpr6posed at the annual conference of
the ITUC was supported by the IWWU with the rider, that they wished to 'debar the young
married woman and the single girl from equal pay'. 28 On the question of equal' access to work
for single and married women there was a strong belief among rank and file women trade
union members that priority should be given to employing widows and single women.
Even among the ranks of better paid women with jobs identical to men such as national
teachers, attitudes on women's status appear to have been confused. The place of women,
and particularly married women in the teaching profession was assaulted twice during the
1930s with the introduction of a ban on married women teachers and the premature
retirement of all women teachers at the age of sixty. These measures were opposed by the
Irish National Teachers Organisation, a body with a majority of women members,and they
succeeded in gaining concessions exempting teachers already in employment from the
provisions. 29 They never seem to have based their argument on the principle of a woman's
right to equal treatment in the workforce, however, adopting typically pragmatic trade union
arguments in limited defence of those already in employment. Other areas of discrimination
such as the ban on married women teachers in Catholic schools in the diocese of Down and
Connor, or in all convent schools, or the preference given to male teachers in filling school
principal positions were never challenged. 30
A major factor in the lack of assertion of their rights by working women was the harsh
reality of their position. Few worked in their particular jobs out of choice. The majority of
women continued to work in poorly paid domestic, industrial or service employment with few
expectations and virtually no chances of promotion. A campaign for the right of women to
work would have seemed somewhat cynical, given the poor pay and employment conditions
prevailing. The power of trade unions to better the working conditions of such women was
strictly limited. The Irish Women-Workers' Union performed amazing feats in organising
groups such as laundry workers, gaining the right to a.tea-break or fighting for holidays with
pay. Nurses in psychiatric hospitals seem to have gained superior conditions vis-a-vis their
counterparts in general nursing who refused to become involved in full-scale trade union
activity. The large numbers of women involved in domestic service, work on farms or in small
shops, were, however, not touched by their advances, while there is no evidence of any
narrowing of the differential between male and female wage rates until the 1970sY Before
the trade union movement or working women could achieve any dramatic change in their
position, Irish society itself had to change.
The factors which altered the attitudes and aspirations of women in the Irish workforce are
complex and can only be vaguely sketched in this paper. Economic growth with the
consequent rise in living standards, the example of international feminist movements are all
key influences. Of major importance also is the transformation of traditional Irish society.
Many of the changes first became obvious during the 1960s and it is in this decade that the
female membership in the trade union movement shows a significant growth and there is a
79

80 SAOTHAR 7
simultaneous increasing interest in equal pay and promotion possibilitjes. 32
Trade Union Membership in Republic, 1945-79
All Unions General White-collar Craft, Other Women Women as
Unions Unions Unions % or Total
1945 172,100 80,300 40,200 51,600 26,300 15.3
1950 285,300 163,000 48,700 73,500 57,000 17.5
1955 310,500 179,900 55,100 73,500 72,000 23.0
1960 318,600 180,600 61,800 76,200 77.000 24.5
1965 357,100 201,100 72,300 83,800 90,000 25.2
1970 398,800 217,500 91,100 89,200 100,000 26.0
1976 465,400 247,100 134,600 83,700
1979 498,900 246,100 156,000 96,800 158,400 31.7
Sources
ITUC, CIU and ICTU Annual Reports, Trade Union Information. The women's figures for 1965,1976 and 1979 are
official estimates, the other figures are approximations based on ITUC and CIU returns.
The initiative for these moves, and the rising trade union enrolment came on the whole
from women who had a higher level of education and held better-paid jobs. They were
frequently white-collar workers, many of them in the public service, and most important,
they frequently worked in close proximity to men. Thus the basis existed for analysing
comparative pay levels and promotion possibilities, a process which was more difficult in the
more traditional areas offemale employment.
The expansion of white-collar female employment was a consequence of the improved
economic conditions of the 'sixties. However there is some evidence to suggest that the
attitudes of Irish women had undergone a subtle change prior to this decade, during the
much-maligned 1950s. This decade is crucial to any analysis of Irish society as it marks the
decay and near collapse of the demographic system established in the post-famine period. For
the first time Irish farmers in large numbers found themselves without potential wives as
women left rural Ireland, particularly the western counties, in unprecedented numbers.
Emigration had always been a common experience for Irish rural women, to a greater extent
than in any other European country, but until the 1950s there had remained a substantial
surplus of potential wives for Irish farmers. During the post-war years, however, Irish women
increasingly refused to accept the subservient status and material poverty which was the lot of
many farmers' wives and their emigration threatened the very survival of countless family
farms. This same period also marks the disappearance of domestic servants as a regular
member of most middle-class homes. Girls chose emigration to England rather than accept
this menial occupation. The belated disappearance of domestic servants and the absence of
farmers' wives may seem minor changes, but they suggest that many women no longer found
traditional Irish living conditions and the status which they afforded tolerable. The rising
emigration of young women meant that they were placing their personal interest above those
of family and society: a change from a family-based value system to one which gave greater

84 SAOTHAR 7
After the repeal of the combination laws in 1824, Irish and British membership tokens in
the shape of modern union cards became more common; many of them ornately adorned
with craft or guild emblems, again invariably traced in origin to the charters of incorporation.
Used for membership control or to secure closed shop employments, the cards or 'blanks'
were also the essential passports in the travelling or tramping systems. IS Under this system,
gradually extended throughout the British Isles, unemployed tradesmen travelling in search
of work could, on arrival in a strange town, produce their cards at the local union premises
and in exchange receive cash benefits, hospitality, possibly even employment. The 1836 Irish
Poor Law Commission noted the case of the hatters' impressive organisation:
There is a benefit union established throughout the three kingdoms of Ireland, England and Scotland,
which enables all those out of work to be assisted with Is. 4d. per day. Each man travelling has a pass-book
and a ticket to show he belongs to the trade, and on producing them, he is relieved at every town he comes
to. Out of 5,000 journeymen, which is the whole amount in the three kingdoms, there is an average of 500
always on the tramp, who receive 9s. 4d. weekly from the fund.'16
The numbers being relieved by the Dublin Carpenters in 1838 were so numerous that they
began to build a special hall to accommodate meetings and travelling members. I? While not
always so lucrative as with the hatters, the system could easily be abused and required tight
supervision. It persisted until the late nineteenth century, although even now the transfer of
union members between branches is carefully regulated. 18 Guild arms often illustrated the
tramp cards, which were either engraved, painted in oils or simply printed black on white. 19
That of the Cork Glass Cutters' New Union Society is most appealing. The card depicts
examples of Cork glassware astride the shamrock, rose and thistle, in turn topped by the
familiar brotherly handshake and bearing the encouraging message, 'A pleasant road and
cheerful welcome to every tramp'. 20
The advent of new lithographic techniques enabled the 'model' amalgamated unions that
emerged in the second half of the nineteenth century to develop the established black and
white emblems of their predecessors, which emphasised their craft status. They produced
highly colourful and elaborate membership certificates that displayed fine examples o{skilled
workmanship and cameos of top-hatted officers administering union benefits to distraught
widows or incapacitated accident victims. 21 Irish unions imitated their English counterparts,
although nationalist imagery rather than work themes dominated design. 22 Once awarded,
the large certificates were often framed to adorn the parlour or living room. Though
cumbersome they were used in trade demonstrations. 23 Dispensation emblems issued by
union head offices in the fashion of licences enabling branches to function were more
frequently central features of lodge ritual and ceremonial functions, particularly for the
initiation of suitably awe-struck applicant members. The tabernacle-like doors and masonic
imagery of the magnificent Belfast Boilermakers' emblem is perhaps the best example of this,
almost religious, use of certificates. 24
Certificates also played their part in the central task of organisation. Many unions followed
the lead of the Amalgamated Society of Engineers and insisted on branch members attending
meetings to pay their contributions. This responsibility on the individual often resulted in
understandable arrears, particularly in depression periods or among those harrassed by
employers. To combat this, unions began to collect at the workplace and appointed branch
collectors or money stewards. 2s The membership card of functional design was the mos.t
effective means of administering workplace.collections. Cards gave a record of the receipt of
the member's contribution and provided all the relevant details concerning date of entry,
membership number and occupation, that could be transcribed into. branch ledgers and
registers. Still, a membership card is somewhat awkward to have to produce from one's

SOURCES 85
pocket for inspection by union official or steward on a wet and windy morning at factory or
dock gate. Thus certificates and cards were gradually replaced by the badge or 'button'.
Loftus mentions the badge wearing craze that swept America and Europe at the turn of the
century, the demand being fuelled and supplied by new mass production techniques. So, as
others wore royal portraits or those of war heroes, trade unionists began to display their
union membership in daily life by wearing the badge. Some of the earliest Irish badges appear
to be those made for a special occasion, such as those issued by the Amalgamated Society of
Engineers to commemorate the holding of the Trades Union Congress in Belfast in 1893.
Badges as a means of membership control were,. however, developed not by the craft
unions but by the 'new' unions facing the difficult task of 'extending labour organisation
among the casual unskilled of the waterfronts. The National Union of Dock Labourers
(NUDL) successfully used the 'dockers' button' in the 1890s. 26 The button was worn in place
of a member's jacket or waistcoat button. It was a simple method of identification of one
union member to another. NUDL rules indicate how the union tried to deal with the fierce
problem of maintaining membership among casual workers in a glutted labour market:
'Each member of the union shall be supplied with a badge. He shall when seeking employment prominently
display his badge, and on demand of any member of the branch or district produce it for inspection. m
The NUDL sought to qualify the position for branches experiencing difficulty, where wearing
the badge might prove too provocative to a hostile management:
' ... the enforcement of this clause is not compulsory on branches as in the cases where branches are
comparatively weak and it could not safely be enforced. But where a branch adopts the clause it is then
compulsory on the members of such branch.,28
Nevertheless the NUDL attempted to introduce the system to all branches in their
recruitment drives, especially in Ireland and Scotland.
Unlike the purely decorative or celebratory use of a badge, where the badge was presented
to the member by the union, the NUDL badge remained clearly the property of the union.
Rule 12 Clause 4 stated that the badge was:
' ... during the current quarter the property of the Union and shall be issued to new members and all
members clear on the books at the end of the financial quarter ... At the end of the quarter the old badge
shall become the property of the Union Branch. '
The NUDL gained recognition from most firms at the South End of Liverpool docks from
about 1890 onwards. Union men, that is those displaying the correct quarterly badge, were
employed at the stands ahead of non-union men. An NUDL delegate attended the stands
where the men were grouped, union and non-union. NUDL members, although preferred in
this manner, frequently had to remove or hide the all important button once inside the dock
gate. 2Y NUDL organisation gradually extended along the whole Liverpool dock, Birkenhead,
Weston Point, Runcorn and Warrington, the badge being the central element in the
achievement of this virtual closed shop. The correct quarterly badge did not always guarantee
employment, however, and neither did it always meet the labour demand at a particular
stand. It was often the case that an abundance of union men at one point would result in
disappointment for some, whilst non-union men were being engaged at the next stand down
the road. James Sexton, NUDL General Secretary, long campaigned for a telephone system
between stands to minimise the underemployment of union members. 30
. .
The impact of the quarterly control system was appreciated by other unions who quickly
adopted the same or similar practices. Quay porters, members of the Amalgamated
Warehouse Workers' Union, operated the system until. 1921. 31 The Mersey Quay and

88 SAOTHAR 7
small of the back when lifting and carrying weighty cargoes. The belt, studded with the
appropriate union badge, was thus immediate evidence of benefit membership and ready
identification for money collector, dock checker or union official. 46 The Kinsella belt is
remarkable. It has an NUDL badge, an ITWU badge of similar design, later ITGWU badges
and those of the Irish Seamen's and Port Workers' Union. Kinsella's career involved all these
unions, although he was a founder member of the ITWU .47 Glasgow dockers maintained the
same tradition, handing down studded belts within dockfront families, the badges being those
of the NUDL, Scottish Union of Dock Labourers and Scottish Transport and General
Workers' Union. 48
ITWU/ITGWU badges over the years have carried lames Connolly's portrait, a horse's
head, (allegedly for the carters' section), and other items, but the central identity, even to the
present, is the Red Hand of O'Neill, the Ulster provincial emblem. 49 The accepted
explanation for this choice, despite the fact that the union is Dublin based with a minority
membership in Ulster, i,s again rooted in the quarterly control system. The ITWU replaced
the NUDL designs, with the four provincial emblems, but whereas the harp of Leinster
badges are known no other emblems have survived or are recorded. 50 The emblem in August
1913, the third quarter of the year, when the lock out and strike began, was the Red Hand. As
a permanent tribute to the men and women of that struggle the badge has thus remained with
the Ulster emblem. 51 The Workers' Union of Ireland took and kept the same motif from their
foundation and it still decorates the badge today, despite the union's amalgamation with the
Federation of Rural Workers. 52
The quarterly control system was abandoned by the ITGWU fairly soon after its formation
and the members became obliged to buy a badge, if they wanted one. The 1915 rules stated:
, 'The Entrance Fee from any district or locality shall be fixed by the General Secretary and Executive in
consultation with the local branch, who may raise or lower the fee as they deem necessary for the
betterment of the Union, Penny each shall be charged for contribution card and rule book, and 3d, for
badge, ,53
This rule remained more or less until recent times when new members were relieved of the
obligation to buy the badge, Most unions today either do not charge or put a cost on badges,
This was not always so and the Irish Automobile Drivers' and Mechanics' Trade Union
(IADMTU) certainly impressed upon members the value and importance attached to the
wearing of the badge, still in one sense union property, even if not used for quarterly control:
'A member can hire a Badge of the Union for which he shall pay the sum of2/6, The Committee can at any
time call on a Member to hand up same, ,54 .
The attractive IADMTU badge featuring a standing, cap wearing chauffeur in front of a '
shamrock, with the union name around the edge, was later replaced by a similar badge with
the brotherly handshake rather than the driver. This same design is used by the IADMTU's
contemporary equivalent, the Automobile, General Engineering and Mechanical
Operatives' Union. 55 A badge also exists for the Irish Society of Automobile Mechanics, an
IADMTU forerunner, which shows an automobile above the clasped hands of comradeship
and encircled by the union name,56
The Irish Stationary Engine Drivers', Cranemen, Firemen and Motormen's Union
(ISEDCFMU) were another union to adopt the quarterly system, possibly even the belt stud
method of display too as their 'buttons' feature the four provincial emblems, union initials
encircled by a belt.57 Hard evidence again is scarce, but it is probably fair to assume that other
waterfront unions operated in similar style, Certainly badges have retained a greater
importa'nce in this work area than elsewhere, Casual and over supplied labour markets were

SOURCES 89
persistent problems for dockers' unions and they continued to use badges in the task of
organisation and job control. The ITGWU ,for example, has, in addition to the standard
badges issued to the general membership, issued a variety of special dockers' badges.
Differing shapes, colours and designs suggest some method of periodic check or control, if
not exactly on a quarterly basis. 58 All the badges bear the ITGWU initials and some the
emblem, but all are distinguished by the word 'Docker' and usually the port. Cork's is the
most attractive. A green circle carries the city crest and the word 'Cork' in silver relief, whilst
'ITGWU' and'Docker' are em blazoned in navy and silver above and below.
The Irish Seamen's and Port Workers' Union (ISPWU) had a number of highly decorative
badges. A large, circular button depicts a dockyard scene and anchor; another, four leaf
clover style, shows a steer's head and the words 'Live Stock Section'; and a third has a crude
facsimile of the Dublin city arms,. union initials and the words 'Deep Sea Checkers',
apparently worn by those acting as a sort of docks' checkweighman. 59 The ISPWU successor,
the Marine, Port and General Workers' Union (MPGWU) has just one badge of splendid
visual impact. The triple-knot of St. Brendan the Navigator and the Starry Plough are etched
in silver against a deep blue background in classic representation of the maritime and labour
brotherhood of the union. 60 The ISPWU and MPGWU both also issued badges with their
member's docks' or branch registration numbers stamped on them. The Kilrush Dockers'
and General Workers' Union appears to have used their large, shamrock button purely as
decoration with no control significance. 61 Completing the picture of Irish waterside unions,
the Seamen's Union of Ireland have a sky blue circle with chain and anchor design and the old·
Dublin Coal Factors' Association not surprisingly have a black shield and belI recalIing their
local title of the 'beIlmen'.
Apart from dockworkers, did any other Irish unions operate the quarterly control? The
only union known to do so was the Tipperary Workingmen's Protective and Benefit Society
(TWPBS). The round badge is fiIled by the portrait of founding secretary, Michael
O'Callaghan, perhaps more famous for his exploits in Easter Week, the union name and the
quarterly numbers, 1, 2, 3, 4. 62 Dating from around 1912, the union coIlapsed soon
afterwards, possibly because of O'CaIlaghan's disappearance. The TWPBS was, however,
re-formed in 1931 as by far the most successful of a plethora of local societies in the county.
It was finaIly forced to merge with the ITGWU in 1943 because of its inability to meet the
financial demands of the 1941 Trade Union Act. 63 The relationship with the ITGWU was
not a new one and indeed dual membership may have existed on occasion. This relationship
may explain the adoption of the quarterly system, apparently abandoned in the 1930s, and
it was certainly an advantageous method in the face of the difficulties of recruiting the
largely casual and seasonally employed county council workmen, agricultural and general
labourers, road scavengers and shop assistants that formed the membership. The task
quickly proved too great for all the other local unions in the period. 64
No longer used for reasons of membership control, particularly now that the 'check off'
or deduction at source of membership contributions is so widespread, badges have
nevertheless enjoyed something of a revival in recent years. Inter-union rivalry usually
produces an ostentatious display as anyone traveIling Dublin buses wiIl attest. The National.
Busworkers' Union badge is a highly effective design, more subtle than a casual glance
would suspect. What firstly appears as a simple ring divided threefold to bear the union
initials, is in fact an elegant representation of a bus driver's steering wheel in blue and
silver."5 Another version in white, silver and green is also known to have been struck,
although strongly denied by union activists from the union's foundation in 1963 as the
Dublin Busmen's Union. 66

90
SAOTHAR 7

SOURCES 95
35. The Bolton Carters and NUDL in 1923, and the MQRC not until 1947, by which time they were known as the
Liverpool and District Carters' and Motormen's Union. Badges, CCL. For those interested in TGWU history
see The Story of the T.G. W. U, London, 1975, with colour pictures of badges, banners and sashes, pp.25-32.
36. Badges, SCM.
37. The SCM features badges of the National Union of Dock, Wharf, Riverside and General Workers' Union for
Liverpool, Salford and Newcastle; the Glasgow Dockers' Union and the Scottish Transport and General
Workers' Union, both with NUDL origins; and the Associated Shipwrights and Shipconstructors' Association,
who issued badges from 1932-1936 in attempts to improve membership in the depression years. Scottish badges
are in the Began Collection, see B. Began, Come Comrades Come, catalogue of the exhibition in the Star Social
Club, Glasgow, 29 January-ll February, 1981, pp.28. .
38. SCM for badges, for tactics and policy see Lancashire and Cheshire Miners' Federation Minutes, 1904-1914.
39. North Gawber Lodge of the Yorkshire Miners' Association had six different, alternating designs and South
Kirkby Lodge had eight. Badges, SCM. Other examples were exhibited in the Grass Market, Edinburgh, 1979.
40. See particularly Brynellys Lodge, South Wales Miners' Library Collection, Swansea. .
41. Emmet Larkin, lames Larkin, Irish Labour Leader, 1876-1947, London, 1965, see particularly chapters 2 and 3.
42. ibid., p.51.
43. ibid., p.56.
44. The ITGWU itself has rule books dating from 1915 only and the Registry of Friendly Societies in Dublin, despite
requests from the union and questioris in Dail Eireann, cannot locate the ITGWU File, T275, for the crucial
period,1909-1919.
45. Cathal O'Shannon (ed). Fifty Years of Liberty Hall, Dublin, 1959 ..
46. Information from Alex Mooney, Dublin.
47. ITWU membership cards and belt in the possession of Elizabeth Mooney (Sexton).
48 .. Information from B. Began, Glasgow.
49. The Red Hand of O'Neill, viewed head on, is a right hand. From 1919, however, the ITGWU has carried a left
hand. The WUI and FWUI also feature left hands. Badges, DCD.
50. Illustrations in O'Shannon, op. cit.; badges, DCD.
51. Information from Fintan Kennedy, ITGWU General Secretary, 1959-1969 and General President, 1969-1981. A
badge in the DCD shows a large red head with the initials ITGWU and the number 3.
52. Badges, DCD.
53. Rules of the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union, 1915, No. 4.
54. Rules of the Irish Automobile Drivers' and Mechanics' Trade Union, 1918, No. 5, Section 10.
55. Badges BCG, DCD, SCM and on the lapel of Char lie Mooney, AGEMOU.
56. Badge, BCG.
57. Badges, DCD. Evidence in Registrar of Friendly Societies, Dublin, file 277 T.
58. Badges, DCD.
59. Information from Alex Mooney, Dublin.
60. Badges, DCD. Information from Seamus Redmond and in an explanatory leaflet supplied to MPGWU
members.
61. Badge, DCD, Registrar of Friendly Societies, Dublin, File 388 T.
62. Michael O'Callaghan, Greenane, Tipperary, was active in the IRB and Gaelic League. He shot dead two RIC
members at Moanrow, Kilross, Co. Tipperary, in the early hours of Easter Tuesday, 1916, the only such
fatalities outside of Dublin. He escaped to the USA. See Padraic O'Farrell, Who's Who in the Irish War of
Independence, 1916-21, Dublin and Cork, 1980, p.119, and W. P. Ryan, The Complete Story of Easter Week,
Dublin, 1966, p.241. Badges, DCD.
63. Registrar of Friendly Societies, Dublin, file 391 T. Additional information from Patrick Cummins and Brian
O'Donnell, Tipperary Town.
64. Other Protective and Benefit Societies briefly flourished in Bansha, Cahir, Cashel, Clerihan, KiIross,
Knockgraffon, Lattin and New Inn. In addition, two craft unions attempted organisation in Tipperary Town. No
badges have been recovered, if they were ever issued.
65. Badge, DCD.
66. Badge, SCM. Information from Eddie Mulhall, Dublin. For a brief description of the DBU formation see
Charles McCarthy, The Decade of Upheaval, Dublin, 1973, chapter 2. .
67. Loftus, op. cit., pp.90-92.
68. Correspondence with George Bell, NIPSA. Badge, DCD, SCM.
69. NIPSA: the Northern Ireland Civil Service Association; the Civil Service Professional Officers' Association;
Public Officers' Division; and Health and Social Services Boards' Division.
70. Information from Harold O'SulIivan; badge, DCD, SCM.

96 SAOTHAR 7
71. Information from Frank Canavan; badge, DCD, SCM.
72. Information from Terry Quinlan, POWU. The PTTI is the International Trade Secretariat for postal and
telecommunications workers. The Irish Railwaymen's Union, Cum ann Fostudhach Iarannr6d, was another
badge adopting the Irish language title. Badges, DCD.
73. Information from Sean Redmond; Badge, DCD.
74. Again a missing Registrar of Friendly Spcieties File, 371 T; badge, DCD.
75. Badge, BCG.
76. Current badges are being produced by the NUWWM, BWTU/AIGBS and the Irish Sheetmetal Workers' Union.
77. The ISLWU merged with the ITGWU in 1977; badges, DCD.
78. The Federation of Rural Workers joined with the WUI to form the Federated Workers' Union of Ireland;
badges, DCD.
79. Badges, DCD.
80. For detail see Emmet Larkin, op. cit., and C. Desmond Greaves forthcoming history of the ITGWU.
81. Badges, DCD. Information from Paddy Bergin.
82. Badges, DCD.
83. S. Higenbotham, Our Society's History, Manchester, 1939, pp.I35-I39. The Dublin union, known as the
Regular Carpenters of the City of Dublin, claimed direct guild origins and was in existence from 1824. It
amalgamated with the United Brothers of SI. Joseph in 1881, another body claiming establishment in 1458. The
Cork carpenters were entitled the Ancient Corporation of Carpenters of the City of Cork.
84. Badge, BCG.
85. A delegate conference for the ITGWU, 1923, is in the DCD. Other badges, also DCD. The NATE have
produced a shield type badge for their Taxi and Hackney section with a wheel embellished on a white
background with the letters in gold and royal blue, SCM.
86. Loftus, op. cit., p.77.
87. Swift, op. cit., p.265. The chimney cleaners were never apparently numerous as they mustered only 60 members
in the 1864 Dublin trades procession, see Mac Giolla Choille, op. cit. Charlie Monks, a chimney cleaner from
Ballyfermot, Dublin, first drew attention to the badge, DCD.
The Irish Labour History Society Archive
The ILHS Archive is housed in the Archives Department,University College, Dublin, 82
St. Stephen's Green, Dublin 2 (Tel.: 752440). Open Monday to Friday, 9.30-1.00; 2.00-5.30.
Enquiries regarding access or information about more extensive lists should be directed to
the Convenor, ILHS Archives Sub-Committee at the Society address.
The Archives Sub-Committee (ASC) of the Irish Labour History Society is primarily
concerned with the Society's constitutional obligation to promote: 'the preservation of all
records and reminiscences, oral and written, relating to the current and past experiences of
the Irish working class and its organisations'. Material collected during the year is listed
below, but the ASC has been highly active in other areas.
The ASC continued its efforts to define an archives policy for the ILHS and particularly in
the area of a possible museum or archive for the Irish labour movement. To this end it was
encouraging to discover that advances had been made with regard to the possible
appointment of a Surveyor of Labour Records. The wider policy considerations, referred
back by the AGM, await further investigation. Problems continue to mount, however, not
least because of the knowledge that only the tip of the iceberg of record preservation is being
tackled.
The Belfast branch have also been active in the archival area. A sub-committee has been
established to contact trade unions and individuals to commence the task of location,

I
I
I
SOURCES 99
Government Reports
The Constructive Work of Dail Eireann No. '1. The National Police and Courts of lustice
(Ministry of Home Affairs) 1921. Report of the Commission on TechnicillEdu;cation, Saorstat
Eireann 1927. Report of the Tribunal on Prices 1927. The Labour Cou'rt First Annual Report,
September 1946 to September 1947. Rf!port of Inquiry into the Housing of the Working Classes
of the City of Dublin 1939-1943. Report of Commission on Youth Unemployment 1951.
Pamphlets
,.
Professor Alfred O'Rahilly, Our Daily Bread: The Case for a Flour Tariff, (1930, 89pp).
Rev. P. Coffey, The Social Question in Ireland, (Irish Messenger, 1930, 31pp). Staid an
Lucht Saothair (Irish translation of Rerum Novarum) , trans. Professor Cormac 0
Cadhlaigh, (55pp). Professor Michael Tierney, Some Aspects of the Social Siructure of a
Corporative State, (Fine Gael Policy Series No. 3.1934, 18pp). Rev. Kelleher, The Rights
,and Duties of Labour, (Catholic Truth Society, 1935). Professor Alfred O'Rahilly,
Thoughts on the Constitution, (1936', 75pp). James E. O'Mahony O.M., Reform or
Revolution, (University and Labour Series, No. 1, Cork, 1938, 60pp). Professor James
Hogan, Modern Democracy, (University and Labour Series, No. 2, Cork, 1938, 96pp).
Aodh de Blacam, For God and Spain: The Truth about the Spanish War,(Irish Messenger,
1939, 6th. edition 32pp). Rev. M. Connolly, lames ConrlOlly, Socialist and Patriot,
(Studies, December 1953). Rev. T. Hamilton, Training for Trade Unionists, (Irish
Messenger, 1960, 116pp) and The Challenge of Collective Bargaining, (Irish Messenger,
1963.) Connolly Centenary - Trade Union Commemoration, Programme of Events, ICTU,
1968. Defend Democracy, Proportional Representation Committee, Irish Congress of
Trade Unions, n.d. Dublin Trades Union and Labour Council, lames Connolly
Commemoration Souvenir, May Day Celebration, 12 May 1929 (32pp, lacking pp.7-12).
Dublin L'abour Yearbook: lames Connolly Commemoration Souvenir, 11 May 1930,
(64pp, two copies, one complete). Belfast Trades and Labour Council, Souvenir of the
TradesUnion Congress, Belfast, September 1929, (144pp). Short History of the Belfast and
District Trades Union Council; 1897-1951, (1951, 24pp).
Newspapers, lournals, Magazines
Forward: cutting of articles by James Connolly, April-June 1914. The Irish Worker: May
1914, November 1914, December 1914. Voice of Labour: vo!. IV, 1921, nos. 2,3,5,6; vo!.
VI, 1924, nos. 19,38,39. The Labour Leader, organ of the Independent Labour Party: 'The
Irish Problem', (editorial), 20 January, 1920. The Irishman: 15 December 1927; 5 April, 17
May, 24 May, 28 June, 23 August, 1930; fifty miscellaneous cuttings 1928-30 issues. The
Watchword, official organ of the ITUC & LP: vo!. 1, nos. 1 (two copies), 2, (1930),34,35
(1931); six miscellaneous cuttings from 1930 issues. The Irish People, official organ of the
Labour Party: fifty-five issues, 1944-45. Irish Workers' Weekly Review: no. 2, May 1945. The
Torch (Dublin Constituencies Council of the Labour Party): vo!. 3 (1941), nos. 28,31,32,33,
35,36; vo!. 4, nos. 19-24,28-36,38-39,41-43,45-47,51; vo!. 5, nos. 13, 14, 18 (editorial
cutting, no. 37), 39, 44, 45, 47; vo!. 6, nos. 1, 3, 5, 6, 13, 15, 16, 18 (last issue). Unity,
Communist Party weekly, Belfast: thirteen issues, 18 January-13 December 1945. The
Citizen (Dublin): vo!. 1 (1949), nos. 1-7 (complete). Christus Rex-lrish Quarterlylournal of
Sociology: vo!. III (1949), no. 1. Impact: lournal of Labour Opinion: 1951, nos. 3,4. Labour,
Dublin Regional Couhcil Labour Party: vo!. 2 (1954), nos. 1,3-7,9,11,12; vo!. 3 (1955), no.
15.· Labour, official organ of the Labour Party: 1958-60, incomplete. The Plough,
independent socialist organ: vo!. 1 (1958), no. 9; vo!. 2, nos. 2, 4; vo!. 3,no. 4; vo!. 4, no. 1;

102 SAOTHAR 7
unions within a 12 mile radius of Belfast but on a number of issues such as housing, domestic
fuel etc. it saw itself as having, in tenns of NorthernIreland; a national brief. 01050/6
Flax and other Textile Workers' Trade Union: records, 1894-1958, including minute books
and accounts. 01050/7
Amalgamated Society of Engineers, Belfast Branch: records 1824-1920s including copy of
'Rules of the Mechanics Friendly Institution', convened at Leeds 1824 with a Belfast
representative as vice-president; 2 registration books 1846-76; photograph of ILP rally on
Cavehill, Belfast, 1911, etc. 01050/8
Public Service Alliance: files of union's journal 1927 -50 and other papers up to 1973. 01050/9
Belfast Operative House Painters' Trade Union: printed rules, 1887-1936; and County
Armaghand District National Painters' Society: rules, 1926. 01050/10
Coleraine (Co. Derry) and District United Trades and Labour Council: rules 1920. 01050/11
Ulster Farmers' Union: files of union's journal 1920-71. 01050/13
National Association of Schoolmasters, Northern Ireland Federation: records 1971-73,
including minutes, circulars and correspondence. 01050/14
Journeymen Cabinet Makers of Belfast: records1788-1885, including minute books, accounts
and work rates book. 01050/15 .
Belfast Master Plumbers' Association: minutes 1890-1912.01050/16
An additional number of other unions are represented in deposits accessioned from private
sources, usually from an individual who was associated with a union in an active capacity and
involved in the custody of records. A minute book, 1911-1920, of the Irish Protestant
National Teachers' Union 7 and two similar volumes of the Irish National Teachers'
Organisation, Belfast branch 1911-1928,8 were early deposits in the Public Record Office of
Northern Ireland. There are also papers of associations of mill operatives, in particular the
Lisburn Cotton Operatives' Relief Fund 1863-65 9 , and an 1872 rule book of the Ulster
Operative Damask Weavers' Association in Lurgan, County Armagh. 10
(b) Employers' Associations' Records
Belfast Chamber of Commerce was established in 1783 partly as a response to that set up.in
Dublin in the same year. Records of the Belfast Chamber from ,its inception are available ll
although, until 1890s, their irregularity would appear to coincide with the lengthy periods of
quiescence it experienced. From 1890s there is a period, until 1914, for which the letter books
especially record the intense activity of employers in Belfast and their self-consciousness as a
pressure-group on issues relating to the improvement of trade and the establishment of
relations with kindred Chambers in northern English towns, Glasgow and Dublin.
As with the records of the Dublin Chamber of Commerce, this archive is of general interest
to the labour historian l2 , particularly the records of the various specialist manufacturers' and

104 SAOTHAR 7
(d) Other Sources of Labour History Records
(i) Business Records
The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland has one of the largest collections of business
records held by a European repository. There is, therefore, a massive amount of material of
general labour interest since it relates to employment in factories, manufactories,
commercial and professional business. It might be argued, indeed, that there is in those
collections more than in any other class of records evidence which is directly related to the
work experience. 2o
The most obvious research potential is in wage rates of the work forces, but there are also
several collections with information on nominal, at least, working conditions. For Harland
and Wolff,21 and forCharley's linen mill near Lisburn 22 there are 'rules for employees' notices
(1888 and 1851 respectively) to be observed in their daily routine. And it is in business records
that evidence of women at work can be located. Two of the most common classes of records
which permit this are wages books and photographs. In the archives of a number offirms such
as spinning factories, shirt factories and handkerchief manufactories are photographs of
women employees at work.23 Wages books in many cases record the hours worked per day,
piece-work rates etc., and so a working pattern for women can be traced.
Wages books are, in the eyes of archivists, the poor relations of business archives being
bulky and repetitive. And, generally, they can be sampled if much of the detail they contain,
on wage rates in the more common industries at least, can be obtained from parliamentary
reports pre-1922. However, they have been used to compile details on the infra-structure of
an industry, particularly the comparison of urban and provincial wage rates within the same
industry.24 They also record the extent of half-time labour, the ratio of male and female
labour in different parts of, say, the linen process and piece-work rates for which other, more
standard, sources might be less helpful. They have recently acquired a contemporary as well
as historical labour value in helping to determine the length and nature of employment of
claimants in industrial injury courts for compensation for disabilities such as byssinosis
contracted in linen factories.
(ii) Farm Account Books
Farm account books can fill the gap in source materials for the study of rural labour. In the
Public Record Office of Northern Ireland there is a considerable number of examples of this
type of source. They are, however, fairly disparate since they can have as their provenance
small hill farms, substantial holdings or large estates. The following two examples should,
therefore,. be regarded as specific rather than exemplary but they do serve to illustrate
something of the genre. A single volume 26 kept from 1731 to 1860s by the Orr family of
Glasdrumman, Annalong, Co. Down records details of labour for farm work hired at fairs,
and money expended in essentials such as shoes and apparel supplied to farm and domestic
workers. A set of 6 account books for a small estate in the north of Co. Antrim for the period
1860-9827 has a weekly record of the men employed, hours worked, type of labour performed
and rates paid for outdoor work. There is also an'overlapping set of general household
accounts which include summary accounts for the farm work and details of domestic labour.
These two aspects of rural labour - farm and domestic - feature not only in individual
volumes and small sets of account books but also in the more extensive estate collections in
the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland. 28
(iii) Agricultural and Dairy Co-operative Records
The Agricultural and Dairy Co-operative )Tlovement which extended to all parts of rural

SOURCES 105
Ireland after 1898 is another source ofrecords on labour history in the rural community. In
1942 in Northern Ireland the extensive network of main and auxiliary creameries was
rationalised and no more than 40 of the original creameries remained. By the mid 1970s less
than 20 creameries were still in existence and a determined fieldwork and cataloguing
exercise by the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland has located and accessioned the
records of 11 co-operative creameries. 29 In general the records take the form of minute books,
accounting records, share ledgers, milk production figures, etc. All of thecreameries have
pre-1942 material and the majority have records from their inception. They are thus"a source
for the study of co-operation, albeit'6ircumstarifial;tiriaertaken by pastoral farming
communities in the form of co-operatives to meet the challenge of agricultural depression and
foreign competition in late nineteenth and early twentieth century Ireland. 30
.
(iv) Workers'Memoirs
The exploiting by labour historians of oral history and the recording of workers'
reminiscences has a corollary in that written evidence of this nature is also available, but
sometimes overlooked. Iri the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland are two first-class
examples of workers' memoirs. Robert McElborough was a Belfast trade unionist who
worked on the trams of Belfast Corporation and then as a fitter in Belfast Gasworks. He
wrote his memoirs in 1940s initially as a record of his trade union experiences but later he
re-wrote them to include more detail of his early working Iife. 31 William Topping was a linen
damask weaver in the York Street F1ax Spinning Co. in Belfast from 1903 with breaks till it
was destroyed in the air-raids of 1941. His memoirs were written in 1970s with scarcely any
reference to unionised labour but with observations from a worker's viewpoint on
management and practice in the linen industry.32 .
This survey has concentrated on series of records which might recommend themselves to
labour history researchers as being useful for studies from a number of angles - social,
political, union, rural, industrial et al. It has, necessarily therefore, had to ignore individual
items which are in themselves no less worthy of reference, such as a series of photographs in
the 1907 Belfast Dock Strike,33 records of the Belfast Left' Book Club 1937-39,34 a minute
book 1924-32 of the Northern Ireland Labour Party, Central Women's Section,35 and a
minute book of Downpatrick Mechanics' Institute 1864-79. 36 The range of records
represented in this article is indicative of the scope and extent of the holdings of the Public
Record Office of Northern Ireland which can contribute to labour historical research in the
north; and, by the same token, the scale of appropriate material calls for the attention of
"specialist research. 3 ?
Notes
1. See K. Hannigan, 'Labour Records in the Public Record Office of Ireland' in Saothar 6, 1980, pp.93-99, and K.
Hannigan, 'Trade Union Records in Ireland', Archivum vol. XXVII, 1980, pp.73-79.
2. See 'Survey of Business Records in Dublin' in Irish Archives Bulletin Ill, 2, Winter 1973, pp. 10-13.
3. A. Boyd, The Rise of the Irish Trade Unions 1729-1970, (Tra\ee, 1972), p.24. .
4. See Trade Union and Related Records (revised and enlarged 2nd edition), compiled by John Bennett and edited
by R. Storey, Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick, 1981.
5. PRONI, D1050/6. For access to these records, application must be made to the donors, 4 Waring Street, Belfast.
6. The minute books, 1885-1947, ofthe Belfast and District Trades Union Council are on microfilm, reference MIC
193.
7. PRONI, D517.
8. PRONI, D1285/1-2.

106 SAOTHAR 7
9: PRONI, D2928.
10. PRONI;03179/l.
11. PRONI, D1857.
12. See K. Hannigan, op. cit., Saothar6, 1980.
13. See especially D2717 and D2088.
14. See list ofD2088.
15. COM76/1 for Northern Ireland registered unions; COM76/2 for Dublin registered unions; COM76/3 for unions
registered in G.B.
16. PRONI, COM62.
17. PRONI, EDl.
18. See K. Hannigan, op. cit., Saothar6, 1980, for material in PROI.
19. PRONI, TRANS 2A.
20. For fuller details of part of PRONI's business records holdings, see The Ulster Textile Industry, a catalogue of
business records in PRONI mostly relating to the textile industry in Ulster, PRONI 1978.
21. PRONI, D291O/l.
22. PRONI, D2242/7/19.
23. See, for instance D3080/A/1-8, photographs of handkerchief manufacturing in Dublin Road, Belfast.
24. See E. Boyle, 'Economic Development of the Irish Linen Industry, 1825-1913' unpub. Ph.D. thesis, QUB 1979,
ch. 8.
25. For further details offarm account books, see Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Records 1954-59 (Cmd 490) and
1960-65 (Cmd 521), pub. by HMSO, Belfast.
26. PRONI, T330l.
27. PRONI, D1672/1-6.
28. For further details see op. cit. footnote 24.
29. Those include co-operative creameries at Augher, County Tyrone (D3057); Ballyrashane, County Antrim
(T3132); Brackey, County Tyrone (D3506); Deerpark, County Antrim (D3076); DerrygonnelIy, County
Fermanagh (D3046); Irvinestown, County Tyrone (D3089); Killen; County Tyrone (D3101); Killyman, County
Tyrone (D3109); Leckpatrick, County Tyrone (D3164); Moneymore, County Derry (D3059); Springfield,
County Fermanagh (D3055). A summary list of these deposits, including details of volumes, is available from
Business Records section in PRONI. '
30. See C. 0 Gnida, 'The Beginnings of the Irish Creamery System 1880-1914', Economic History Review, 2nd
series, vol. 30 no. 2 pp.284-305. .
31. PRONI, D778; also published as Memoirs ofa Belfast Working Man by PRONI, 1974 (out of print).
32. PRONI,03134.
33. PRONI, D21Ol/1O-23.
34. PRONI,03353.
35. PRONI, D3267.
36. PRONI, D3960.
37. These records have also a wide range of provenance and, since they are from private, official, business and mlion
sources, prospective readers should be aware that conditions of access vary greatly. PRONI will be glad to advise
on individual cases.
The Rising in Song
C. Desmond Greaves, The Easter Rising in Song and Ballad, (Kahn and A verill, for the
Workers' Music Association, London, 1980), pp.92, n.p.
During the past thirty years Desmond Greaves has on many occasions placed students of Irish
labour history firmly in his debt. Indeed, it is probably true to say that even those who would
most passionately contest his interpretation of the relationship between labour and the
national question in modem Ireland, would be slow to deny his familiarity with an impressive
range of sources for Irish labour history, his admirable industry, and his generous sympathy

110 SAOTHAR 7
(e) Tools and Implements
Rural and urban industry are represented in this part of the museum's collection. From the
rural areas come a number of wooden implements - flail, thistle-pulling tongs, scutcher,
beetle, etc. - as well as some stone hand-querns and a sizeable collection of butter-making
equipment; churn barrels, separators, milk pans. The city's industry is represented by the
Cork Butter Market collectiori which includes a number of coopers' tools (adze, hammer,
stocks, etc.)3 and brands used on the butter casks in the great butter export trade of the early
nineteenth century.
(t) Manuscript Material
The Minute Book of the Cork Branch of the United Operative Plumbers' Association
(1868-96) provides data on union membership and on the local plumbers' strike of.1894.
Information on rural wage rates is available in the wage books from Ballyedmond House,
Midleton, Co. Cork. The wage books of 1809-11 give details of wages paid to building
workers during the construction of Ballyedmond House, while the wages of agricultural
labourers appear in the wage books of 1853.
Some urban wage rates are recorded in the Cork Butter Market collection, which contains
the Butter Exchange Attendance Roll, details of the wages of workers for 1866, and gratuities
paid to those who worked during the strike of 1881. 4 In the Minute Books for the Cork
Committee of Merchants (which controlled the Cork Butter Market until the late nineteenth
century) there is much valuable information not only on the administration of the market, but
also on the labour relations between Committee, butter merchants and buyers, and master
coopers and journeymen.
Though not specifically a labour history museum, the Cork Museum has a considerable
collection of labour-related items. A separate room is set aside for trade union banners,
documents and photographs, while two other rooms contain the Cork Butter Market
Collection and the rural and urban working implements collection. Items are displayed
effectively and without clutter, but the trade union banners need more space for effective
display. Lack of funds prevents the adequate repair and conservation of the banners: the
Cork Society of Painters' and Paperhangers' banner, for example, is not on display as it is in
need of extensive repairs - for which funds are not forthcoming. Manuscript material is in
very good condition, and is on ready access to the researcher.
Notes
Mlmra M urpby
1. William O'Sullivan, The Economic History of Cork City from the Earliest Times to the Act of Union, (Cork,
1937), PP .. 154-170, 229-240, 256-279. For details of the records of the Cork Butter Market, see Journal of the
Cork Historical and Archaeological Society, lxvi, 1961, pp.117-125. '
2. Belinda Loftus, Marching Workers: An Exhibition of Trade Union Banners and Regalia, (Arts Council of
Ireland, Belfast, 1978), p.77.
3. For details OIi the tools and craft of coopering, see Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society,
xlix, 1944, pp.79-89.
4. Cork Examiner, 7 November 1881.

I, I
i i
SOURCES
Archives and Library of the Swedish Labour Movement
Arbetarrorelsens Arkiv och Bibliotek; Upplandsgaten 5, Box 1124, S-11181 Stockholm.
Founded in 1902, as a section of the Stockholm Workers' Library,the Institute developed as
both a library and an archive for research into the history of the labour movement while
retaining its character as a socio-politicallibrary with popular works. The interconnection of
trade unionism and the political struggle has always been·a distinguishing feature of the
labour movement in Sweden. This is reflected in the objectives of the Institute and in the
success it has achieved in building up a collection that documents the labour movement on
both national and international levels.
The Statutes of the Institute established its primary objective as being:
To collect, arrange and preserve both important minutes and other material from the Swedish labour
organisations and literature and other material on the history and ideological development of the labour
movement' (Statutes, 1)
The Library holds more than 100,000 books, pamphlets, newspapers, etc., over half of them
in foreign languages, mainly English and German (due to the early growth of the German
labour movement with the resulting extensive range of published works, and also tu the
special rescue activities of the Institute directed to German material threatened before the
Second World War). Material of interest about Ireland includes the established biographies
of Connolly and Larkin and more recent acquisitions relating to the Northern Ireland crisis.
The Archive consists fundamentally of the records of various organisations (trade unions,
the Social Democratic Party and other allied mass organisations), personal archives, and
special collections of posters, banners, photographs and sound tapes. It also includes
scattered items from other countries, as well as the papers of German labour figures who
migrated to Sweden after 1933: The personal collections ofGunnar and Alva Myrdal indicate
the strong contacts maintained with other countries by prominent individuals in the Swedish
labour movement.
Pressure upon the resources of the Institute stimulated decentralisation during the Second
World War. The fifty or so local archive centres throughout the country also reflect the
concern among local and regional labour movements to keep collections in their immediate
area, close to the 'live' sources and the local researchers. The Stockholm Institute plays a
co-ordinating and consultant role vis-a.-vis these local centres.
In addition to providing a national ·archive and library for the labour movement, the
Institute is also required 'to promote studies in the history of the labour movement', and it
sponsors seminars on special research topics. A further characteristic of the Institute is its
concern for the management and preservation of records as they are produced and before
they become historical archives. To this endpersonnel from the Institute help educate those
in trade union and other offices in library and archive techniques.
What lessons can be learned from the Swedish experience? Clearly the establishment of the
Institute in the formative period of the Swedish labour movement provided a unique
opportunity to tap the documentary and oral testimony of the pioneers themselves. More
relevant to us, however, is the recognition and support given by the trade unions and the
political wing of the labour movement at local and national levels. The recovery of labour
history is seen as a practical task involving a variety of labour and popular organisations,
111

,
i
I
1
I
,I
"
11
I
11 SOURCES 113
The main newspapers referred to in the years 1896-1903 are Shan Van Vocht, the Workers
Republic and L'lrlande libre. A reading of the Weekly People, New York, for these years
reveals new material. The issue of 20 December, 1896, for example, printed an ISRP (Irish
Socialist Republican Party) manifesto written by James Connolly. The issue of 30 May,
Ifl97 contains a reprint of an ISRP statement on the Diamond Jubilee. The issue of 18 July,
Ifl97 contains an important article, unsigned, but for a variety of literary reasons most likely
to have heen written by Connolly. This article gives a detailed account, by an ISRP member,
of the demonstration against Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee, the most significant protest
organised by James Connolly in his early years in Ireland. The November, 1902 issue of the
Scottish paper, the Socialist, contains an article by Connolly dealing with his recent trip to the
United States. Another omission for these years is Connolly's introduction to the '98
Readings, published by the ISRP to celebrate the centenary of the 1798 uprising. Connolly
a Iso wrote a brief introduction to a reprint of Faith of a Felon, by J ames Fintan Lalor, in either
I fl97 or I fl98, which does not appear in the list.
Tomo Horikoshi lists places in which Connol\y's political writings have been republished.
But this literature is given scant treatment in his list, and he omits such important reprints as
P. J. Musgrove (ed.), A Socialist and War (London 1941), which contains many ofConnolly's
major writings on the First World War, various reprints by the British and Irish Communist
Organisation such as the New Evangel, and Yellow Unions in Ireland; reprints by New Books
such as Revolutionary Warfare; and more recent reprints by the Cork Workers' Club. The
National Library of Ireland's General Author Catalogue has a fairly comprehensive list of
Connolly's writings, and would be worth consulting for reprints of his work.
One must wish Horikoshi well in his work and hope that he continues to expand his list, in
consu Ita tion with other scholars. Major work needs to be done on listing Connol\y's letters as
well as primary sources which record his political thought. It is tobe hoped that this research
may lay the basis for the publication of a complete, authoritative collection of al\ of
Connolly's writings.
CONTEMPORARY IRISH STUDIES
Fintan Cronin
Contemporary Irish Studies is a new journal which will appear twice a year from 1983 onwards. It is
multi-disciplinary in scope and will explore the twentieth century Irish experience, paying' close
attention to the social, economic and political developments that underlay the emergence and
consolidation of two separate states from the 1920s onwards. The journal will also provide a forum for
contributions of all-Ireland dimension as well as articles on the Irish diaspora in modern times.
Contributions are invited from academics and non-academics alike. News about conferences past and
forthcoming will be welcomed as will information on current research. .
The first two issues for 1983 will include articles on:
Ireland's Entry into the United Nations
Territory and Party Development in Northern Ireland
Workers' Participation in Industry in the Republic ofIreland
I reland and the Glasgow Socialist Movement
and a major article on:
The Nature and Extent of Discrimination against the Northern Ireland Minority
Subscription enquiries should be addressed to: Contemporary Irish Studies, Manchester University
Press. Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PL, England.
Articles, news and correspondence should be sent to: The Editors, Contemporary Irish Studies, The
School of Peace Studies, Bradford University. Bradford, BD7 lOP, England.

114 SAOTHAR 7
ElIen Hazelkorn, Karl Marx and Frederick Engels:
The Irish Dimension, D.Phil., University of Kent, .
Canterbury, 1981.
Karl Marx and Frederick Engels wrote upwards of
fifty books and articles, and many letters concerning
economic and political developments in Ireland after
the Great Famine of 1845-49. For the most part,
these writings have been ignored, in preference for
attention to their more famous economic and
philosophical works. In contrast, this study seeks to
set the record straight; examining in detail their
appraisal of the relationship between Irish
nationalism and English socialism, the thesis finds
that Marx and Engels' concern was primarily
focussed in the direction of the latter. Support for
Irish self-determination was significant principally in
adding to their re-evaluation of Chartism, the
English labour movement, and the potential for
socialist revolution generally. Moreover, they were
not enthusiastic defenders of the Fenians, but quietly
sheltered various misgivings concerning their
actions, and limited political horizon and
effectiveness, which came to light in their applause
for Charles Stewart Parnell by mid-1870.
The thesis seeks to place Marx and Engels' support
for Irish independence within a framework of .
capitalist development as sketched by Karl Marx in
Capital. Therein, he discussed the effects of capitalist
accumulation upon Ireland, pronouncing that the
particular mode of production was responsible for the
manner in which English industry reciprocated Irish
agriculture. It is claimed in the thesis that Marx's
development of the mechanism of capitalist
accumulation is an invaluable analysis of that
relationship.
Nevertheless, one cannot read through Marx and
Engels' varied writings without being aware of the
many inconsistencies and omissions that abound.
Their general ignorance of industrial growth,
particularly in Belfast, of great opposition to Home
Rule, and of the conservative strength of the tenantry
movement are among the most obvious of these. The
,thesis continually draws attention to these problems,
citing data on political and economic developments of
the time as evidence of the drawbacks to their analysis.
This method purports to consider how well Marx and
Engels understood the Irish question. On the other
hand, some of their inaccuracies, especially Engels'
almost emotional attention to communal, pre-English
Ireland. compares favourably with contemporary
opinion.
In conclusion, then, the thesis ends by glancing at
how Marx and Engels' ideas compared with their
contemporaries, suggesting that in many ways, they
were trapped in their historical time.
Thesis Abstracts
Dan McDermott, The British Labour Movement and
'ireland 1905-1925, MA, NUl, University College,
Galway, 1979.
The period covered by this thesis was one of upheaval
and turbulent change for both Great Britain and
Ireland. In common with the other social and political
groupings in the two countries, the British Labour
movement was also in a state of flux. Not surprisingly
the birth and development of both British Labour
movement and Irish national and labour selfconsciousness
interacted on one another. The period
in Irish history was one of high political activity. Six of
the eight chapters treat of the attitude of British
, Labour in its various elements - parliamentary party,
trade unions, radical socialist societies - to the
changing Irish scene.
British Labour professed support for Home Rule
(Chapter 1). Yet they mattered little to Redmond in
the Liberal landslide of 1906. When they listened to
their Irish comrades - rarely - they realised that the
Ireland waiting for the panacea of Home Rule was also
a land of poverty, long hours and native sweaters.
British Labour, like many European labour
movements was split by the Great War. Its response to
the 1916 Rising and the 1917 Conscription Crisis
(Chapter 4) was weak, divided and indecisive.
A greater response was forthcoming to events of the
Anglo-Irish war (Chapter 5). Commissions of inquiry
were sent over, regional strikes and blockades
initiated protest meeting and conferences held.
Sympathy for Ireland was strong; the problem arose
when sympathy had to be translated into action. Could
parliamentarians with an eye to office, and mild trade
union officials, countenance unconstitutional
protests?
The British Labourparty and the unions supported
the various British attempts to conclude an Irish
settlement between 1921 and 1924 (Chapter 6). The
radical left, however, especially communist societies,
was often critical of the two new bourgeois Irish states.
When Labour formed a minority government in
November 1923 both Belfast and Dublin were soon to
find that Labour had little new, and certainly nothing
radical, to offer on the boundary question. '
Irish labour consciousness grew during this period,
especially in Dublin and Belfast. The attitude of the
British Labour movement to the Belfast strike of 1907
(Chapter 2) and the Dublin lock-out of 1913 (Chapter
3) is also treated. Once again, although unanimous in
sympathy, great differences emerged when attempting
to provide aid.
Finally some attention is given to Labour's claim on
the Irish voters in Britain during the period. By 1924
Irish voters overwhelmingly suported Labour, but
more for class than nationalist reasons.
Overall the thesis finds that Labour's response to
the Irish problems revealed, more clearly than either
its response to the great war or the Russian revolution,
that the movement was essentially and unshakeably
non-revolutionary, humariitarian, and patriotic in
character. '

Document Study
Labour and the 1922 General Election
Charles McCarthy
On January 7,1922 the Dail, by a slender majority, ratified the Treaty. De Valera, resigning
his presidency of the Republic in the circumstances, offered himself immediately for reelection
and was defeated by an even more slender majority. The Southern Ireland
Parliament, elected under the Government of Ireland Act, 1 met on January 14 in accordance
with Articles 17 and 18 of the Treaty to approve the Treaty and accept the surrender.
Ominously Mr. de Valera did not attend this parliament. The army was deeply divided and
there were insistent calls for an Army Convention. This fragile political situation with a
provisional government on the one hand and a very limited Southern Ireland Parliament on
the other was to be resolved by a general election which was expected to take place within
four or five weeks. 2
But what was to be the position of the Irish Labour Party and Trade Union Congress? They
had abstained in the 1918 general election. Were they to abstain now? If they were not to
abstain, and if, on election, their representatives were to hold the ha lance of power, how
should they conduct themselves? Were they to support Mr. Griffith and the Treaty or Mr. de
Valera and the anti-Treaty forces? How much division was there among them on this very
crucial issue and how did they deal with it?
The document we examine here, it is suggested, might shed some light on these questions.
I t is a pull or a proof of a memorandum from the National Executive to the Special Congress
of the Irish Labour Party and Trade Union Congress which was held on February 21, 1922 to
consider election policy. Mr. Barry Desmond deposited the document recently in the
archives of the Irish Labour History Society. It consists of two long galleys. There were
originally three, but the second galley is missing, so that we have now merely the first and the
third. The galleys have a number of blue pencil marks, but since no handwriting appears we
cannot identify their author.
This document becomes interesting when it is compared with the recommendations which
were circulated in printed form to the delegates at the Special Congress. 3 At least one copy of
this document is extant in the WiIliam O'Brien papers in the National Libmry. There are a
number of differences between the galleys and the final text as circulated to the delegates and
these form the area of our inquiry.
Largely they are omissions which were heralded by blue pencil in the proof and which were
effected in the final text. Three are of importance. 4
The first omission from the finill text was blue pencilled in the first galley. In a reference to
.the Treaty, the sentence read:
'We may regret that a better issue was not forthcoming, but we are'reminded of the peace signed by the
Russians at Brest-Litovsk,- a peace which, though humiliating to the pride of an unvanquished people, was
accepted by those who knew the true position in regard to the country's powers of resistance, in order to
give them a chance to recuperate their' economic and military strength' and to spread the virus of
revolutionary propaganda in the ranks of the enemy,'
In the third galley a paragraph readsasfollows:
115

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SAOTHAR 7
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Some Recent Works in German Labour History
From the 1890s to the advent of Nazism, Germany was the home of one of the most politically advanced labour
movements in Europe. The SPD (Social Democratric Party of Germany) was the centre of the Second International:
after World War I the KPD (Communist Party of Germany) was the largest communist party in Western Europe.
One common explanation for this radicalness is the form of German industrialisation: not only did Germany
industrialise fast and late, but German capitalists',so it is claimed, behaved more like feudal lords than modern
industrialists. Accordingly, so the argument runs, German workers were propelled into radical politics by the
authoritarian and outdated attitudes of their masters. German 'culture', in other words, explains German socialism.
This conventional wisdom is challenged by David Crew's study of the relations between workers and employers in
Town in the Ruhr: A Social History of Bochum, 1860 -1914 (New York: Columbia UP, 1979). Crew argues that the
'traditional paternalism' of the employers can be explained, not by their inherited values, but by their need to create
and control a suitable workforce. Equally, whereas Barrington Moore's overview of much of German labour history
in his Injustice: The Social Bases of Obedience and Revolt (London: Macmillan, 1978) explains the militancy of the
Ruhr miners through the threat which rapid industrialisation posed to their inherited rights, Crew's detailed analysis
stresses not the workers' 'culture' but their common situation in work and in the community,
Even more than elsewhere, until very recently labour history in Germany has meant not the history of labour (i.e.
the work of women and men), but the history of those institutions (political parties, trade unions, etc.) which have
claimed to represent 'labour'. A welcome departure is therefore the studit;s of everyday working class life in Imperial
Germany in the collection edited by Jiirgen Reulecke and Wolfhard Weber, Fabrik, Familie, Feierabend:
Beitriige zur Sozialgeschichte des Alltags im'fndustriezeitalter. (Factory, Family, Free-time: Contributions to the
Social History of Everyday Life in the Industrial Epoch) (Wuppertal: Peter Hammer Verlag, 1978). Whereas this
volume, despite much novel material, tends to treat social history as life with the politics left out, this is not the case in
Erhard Lucas' now classic work, Zwei Formen von Radikalismus in der deutschen Arbeiterbewegung, (Two Forms
of Radicalism in the German Working Class Movement) ( Frankfurt/M: Veriag Roter Stern, 1976). Here Lucas
examines the course of the first wave of the German revolution of 1918/19 (the 'Riite' or 'workers council'
revolution) in the two towns of Remscheid and Hamborn. He shows how the difference between the nationally
orientated but conventionally political movement in Remscheid and the more 'spontaneous' but local mass
movement in Hamborn was also a difference between two divergent working class experiences. Lucas' study is
pathbreaking because he examines not only workers' experience of wage-work, bUt also of all aspects of everyday
life, including of crime and sexuality. .
Such a broad focus is missing in Eva-Cornelia Schock's Arbeitslosigkeit und Rationalisierung, (Unemployment
and Rationalisation) (New York & Frankfurt/M: Campus Veriag, '1977), However, Schock's work is important
because, unlike earlier histories of the KPD, she relates the emergence of its disastrous 'ultra left' policies in the late
1920s (above all the theory of 'social fascism' which defined the SPD as being as bad as the Nazis) to the new
unemployment of the 1920s. The rationalisation of German industry, so she shows, destroyed the economic basis for

136 SAOTHAR 7
Notes on Contributors
Brian Anderson is Divisional Organiser, Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers (Technical and Supervisory
Section) in Dublin.
Paddy Bergin is a founding member and trustee of the ILHS. He was national organiser for the Labour Party and
Labour Senator during the term of the second inter-party government. A fitter by trade, he was employed until
recently as maintenance fitter in the IVeagh Trust. He is now retired.
Charles Callan is President of the ILHS. He is also Administrative Assistant to the General Secretary of the FWUI.
A painter by trade, he spent a number of years with AnCo as an instructor. His research interests include Peadar
Macken, Robert Tressell and Dublin painters in the 19th century.
Paul Cullen is a civil servant. A member of the ILHS since its foundation, he has served on the committee as
Treasurer and Assistant Secretary, and is currently International Secretary.
Fintan Cronin is a researcher in RTE. A graduate of University College, Dublin, he also obtained his MA there in
political science in 1975. He was a founder member of the ILHS, has subsequently served on the committee, and
also contributed papers to Society events.
Mary E. Daly lectures in modern Irish history at University College, Dublin. She is author of An Economic and Social
History of Ireland since 1800, (Dublin 1981), and is currently completing a social history of Dublin 1860-1914.
Joe Deasy, a transport executive with CIE, is active with the Transport Salaried Staffs' Association and the Dublin
Council of Trade Unions.
Maurice Goldring lectures on Irish affairs at the University of Paris (Vincennes-Saint-Denis). He has published Le
Drame de l'Irlande (1972), and Irlande, ideologie d'une revolution nationale .(\975, to be published in
translation shortly by Repsol). . "
Ken Hannigan is a founder member of the ILHS, archivist in the Public Record Office of Ireland and State Paper
Office, and is currently researching the history of the Dublin bricklayers.
Jacqueline Hill graduated and received her Ph.D. from Leeds University. Her particular interest is 19th century Irish
nationalism, and she lectures in history at St. Patrick's College, Maynooth.
Bert Hogenkamp is an international telephonist in Amsterdam. He has studied workers' cultural movements in the
1920s and 1930s in a number of west European countries, translated texts by S.M. Eisenstein, the Soviet film
maker, into Dutch, and is a member of the editorial board of the Historical Journal of Film, Radio and
Television. He is currently preparing a special event on Miners and the Cinema for the 1982 Oberhausen film
festival.
John Hume lectures in history at the University of Strathclyde. He has published widely on the industrial
archaeology of Scotland, is director of the Scottish Industrial Archaeology Survey, and is Chairman of the
Scottish Society for the Preservation of Historical Machinery.
Roderick Kedward teaches French history at the University of Sussex. He specialises in problems of collaboration
and resistance during the Second World War, with an additional interest in oral history. His most recent book is
Resistance in Vichy France (1978).
Doris Kelly is Assistant Secretary of the ILHS and shop steward for the ITGWU Dublin no. 2 Branch, Irish Times
Clerical Section.
Dermot Keogh lectures in modern history at University College, Cork. He obtained his MA from University
College, Dublin, for a dissertation on 'The Dublin Trade Union Movement and Labour Leaders, 1907 - 1914',
and his Ph. D from the European University Institute, Florence, on 'Ireland, the Vatican, and Catholic Europe,
1919 - 39'. He specialises in church-state relations and will shortly be publishing a book on the rise of Catholic
nationalism in 20th. century Ireland.
Charles McCarthy is Professor of Industrial Relations and Head of the School of Business and Administrative
Studies at Trinity College, Dublin. He is the author of several studies oftrade unions, including Trade Unions in
Ireland, 1894 - 1960 (\977).
Terry McCarthy is Curator of the National Museum of Labour History, London.
Mairin Mooney was born and reared in the Liberties and last year delivered a paper to the Dublin History Workshop
on 'Growing up in Pimlico'. She was one of the founder members of the Irish Women's Liberation Movement.
Austin Morgan graduated from Bristol University and obtained his Ph. D. for a thesis on Belfast working class
politics from Queen's University, Belfast. He has taught at Queen'ss Warwick University, and is currently
Visiting Academic in the Department of Sociology, Trinity College, Dublin. He was joint editor of Ireland
Divided Nation and Divided Class (1980) and his study James Connolly; Marxist and Irish Nationalist, will
appear shortly.
Maura Murphy graduated from University College, Cork and received her Ph. D. from the University of Leicester
on trade unionism and political involvement among the artisans of 19th century Cork. She currently teaches at
Mary Immaculate College, Limerick.
Deirdre O'Connell is a librarian at University College Dublin, specialising in the social sciences.
Gear6id 6 Tuathaigh is a lecturer in modern Irish history at University College, Galway.

138
"UNITY AND SELF-RELIANCE"
Ceardchumann Oibrithe Imdhala agus Cleireach na h.Eireann
THE IRISIIUNION OF DISTRIBUTIVE
WORKERS AND CLERKS
Established in 1901
To promote the Welfare and Protect the Interests of Workers in the Distributive Trades and Clerical
Employments.
Head Office:
CA VEND ISH' HOUSE DUBLIN 1.
70 Branches, 21,000 Members in cities and towns throughout the country
Affiliated to the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Local Trades Councils and FIET --International
Federation of Commercial, Clerical and Technical Employees.
Sales - Clerical - Supervisory - Buyers - Managers - Travellers - Agents - Pharmacists - Insurance,
all Grades - Technicians - Operatives.
All specially catered for
Enquiries to:
General Secretary, Cavendish House,
9 Cavendish Row, Dublin 1
or to Local Secretary, Telephone 746321/2/3.
". .... . .
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affiliated to
IRISH CONGRESS OF TRADE UNIONS
THE LABOUR PARTY and
POSTAL TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE
INTERNATIONAL
o fftdal Monthly Organ:
"The Postal Worker"
HEAD OFFICES:
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The Irish lVational Teachers' Organisation
was founded in 1868 to organise the
teachers of Ireland, to provide a means for
the expression of their opinion on professional
matters, to promote the interests '0 f
education, and to raise educational standards.
Civil Service Executive Union
The Executive Committee conveys fraternal
greetings to the Irish Labour History Society
and commends the Society on its valuable
work in the field of Labour History
where the Society fulfills a long-standing
need in Historical Research and Discussion.
Daniel Murpby
General Secretary,
109, Lower 8aggot Street, Dublin, 2
Tel. 767271/2 764315/6
139

Electrical Trades Union
ESTABLISHED 1923
The Executive Council extends good wishes to the Irish Labour History Society
on the valuable work it performs in recording and preserving Labour History.
Thomas Heery
General Secretary
THE ELECTRICAL TRADES UNION CATERS FOR ALL WORKERS
IN THE ELECTRICAL INDUSTRY.
Head Office: 5 Cavendish Row, Dublin 1.
Telephone 747047/8.
No. 1 Branch
G. Swan
No. 4 Branch
M. Keogh.
J. Henson,
Box No. 19,
Athlone Post Office,
Co. Westmeath.
K. O'Hanlon,
33 Roundwood Estate,
Rosbrien,
Limerick,
No. I Branch
M. Guerin,
Clieveragh,
Listowel,
Co. Kerry.
B. Dolan,
Ballyboy,
Gort,
Co. Galway.
Frank O'Reilly
5 Cavendish Row,
Dublin I.
DUBLIN BRANCH SECRET ARIES
No. 2 Branch
R. Browne
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B. Convery
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C. Kidd
PROVINCIAL BRANCH SECRET ARIES
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ETU P.O. Box,
G.P.O.
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E.S.B. Staff Houses,
Ardnacrusha,
Limerick,
No. 2 Branch
1. Coyle,
64 Chord Road,
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Co. Louth.
P. McEvoy,
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Co. Laoise.
Robert Sills,
Murrintown,
Wexford.
.. OFFICIALS
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Moylish, Limerick.
No. 3 Branch
D. Naughton
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P. MulIen
P. V. O'Keeffe,
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Co. Kerry:
P. Wall,
'Avondale',
Greenwood Estate,
Togher,
Cork City.
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Dundalk,
Co. Louth.
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Waterford.
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5 Cavendish Row,
Dublin 1.

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