JOURNAL OF THE IRISH LABOUR HISTORY SOCIETY

SOURCES 107NorthWest Archives and Labour History Project40,Shipquay Street. Derry. Telephone: 260630. Open 9-5. Monday to Friday. Director: DessieBaker.The North-West Archives and Labour History Project was setup in January 1986. The project issponsored by the Irish Labour History Society and funded by the Department of Economic Development.The two-fold purpose behind it's inception being to create an archive facility in the North-Westarea accessible to the public, and to carry out much needed research on the neglected subject of labourhistory·. . .. '. .The initial task was to find out what exactly was available in the way of relevant archive materialin our local area, which proved to be practically nil. There is no public record office in the Derry area,so we decided to employ a researcher to work solely in the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland(pRONI) in Belfast, to seek out all references to Derry and the North-West. The result of this was thatwe were able to computerise some 600 plus source records of a general nature, (from a photographiccopy of a drawing of Derry circa 1600, to papers relating to Derry Nationalist Party in 1970) and toprepare for computerisation hundreds more, covering such topics as school records, transportations toAustralia, Stormont Papers and Hansard Reports. We also transcribed the microfilmed OrdnanceSurvey Memoirs for the large parish of Clondermot, which we found to be a valuable source of social,economic and historical data.Computer print-outs of the material so far processed provide in chronological order a briefdescription of the contents of the material, the title and volume numbers of the collection/s from whichthe material comes and the references number/s: thus producing a free, easily readable and conciseguide to the material available. The print-outs have been given to the local libraries and other centresthroughout the area.The history of Derry as a major port and shipbuilding 'centre was another area which warranteddetailed research, for which we employed some of the documentary sources already gleaned fromPRONI, combined with new material from the local Customs House records which supplied us withdetails of the ships which called at Derry, cargoes, tonnages, etc. From this material we were able tocompile a computerised list of all ships registered in Derry from the mid-nineteenth century up untilthe run-down of the port, with owners' names, where the vessels were built and their type. Runningparallel with this documentary history of the port we began an oral history of work at the Derry docks,. relying heavily on the memories of retired dockers who recalled vividly the adverse workingconditions, the complicated 'button system', the berthing of captured German submarines duringWorld War II, along with the songs, myths and customs peculiar to their work, as well as therecollections of those who worked there in a 'white collar' capaCity.Another important topic covered by the oral history project is the genesis of the 'Troubles' in Derry.People who were involved in the Derry Housing Action Committee in the mid~sixties, who protestedagainst American involvement in Vietnam, who defended tenarits against eviction and who wereinvolved in the embryonic Civil Rights' Movement in Derry were interviewed. There are vivideyewitness accounts of the first Civil Rights march in Derry on 5 October, 1968, Bloody Sunday inJanuary 1972, and life in Crumlin Prison as a result of political activity. All aspects of the upsurge ofstreet protest leading up to the resurgence of the present IRA campaign are recalled.We received a request to carry out research regarding the history of May Day in Derry.Unfortunately we were unable to acquire the records of Derry Trades Council, which would of coursehave been invaluable, and so had to rely on contemporary newspaper reports in the local press, madeavailable to us on microfilm by the local library. Although only twenty demonstrations are reported(from the first May Day labour demonstration in 1892 to the mid 1970s) there is quite detailed reportageof the unions invol ved, the local marching bands who participated and vertabim reports of the speeches