JOURNAL OF THE IRISH LABOUR HISTORY SOCIETY

60tions of recruitment to the IRA and how it operated inBelfast during the 1930s would not be available fromcontemporary written sources.The oral data, which include three life historiesdescribing a shipyard worker's life, a republican's life,and a young worker's gradual conversion to socialism,are so fascinating that it seems almost petty to questionthe method by which they were collected. However, inthe last short chapter of the book, the authors deal withsome deeper problems raised by oral history. Someright wing phenomenologists in the social scienceshave dismissed the possibility of historical data beingextracted from an oral account. The account maycontain such data, they argue, but it can only be understoodas part of a communication between teller andlistener, which expresses their ongoing social relationship.Munck and Rolston would agree that the oralaccount is part of a living social relationship betweenteller and listener, but they also stress the relationshipbetween past and present. They see these connectionsas a strength rather than a weakness of the method, andpresumably expect their book to operate in the sameway. It is about the past, but it is given its meaning bythe present, and itmay have relevance for planning thefuture. The problems of oral history are in the end theproblems of any attempt at human understanding. Weare all in it up to the neck. We cannot detach ourselvesfrom life, or even bracket parts of it off except as a verytemporary stage in analysis.This is a very stimulating book. Many readers willbe arguing with it even while reading it. They shouldcertainly be arguing after they have finished it. Whetheror not the authors have achieved one of their centralaims, to debunk the 'myth' that 1932 was a transcendentmoment for the Belfast working class is problematic.They are certainly convincing when they arguethat most participants in the ODR strike did not seethemselves as part of a pre-revolutionary, anti-imperialiststruggle, and that sectarianism was only partiallyin abeyance even during the strike. However, to paraphraseE.P. Thompson, to say that something is a mythis not to say that it is all false. 1932 should remain asan inspiration. The events were remarkable, and thepreviously unsung heroes, who are now on recordthanks to this fine book, set us all an example by theirgenerosity of spirit, and sheer courage.Jonathan BellJim Cooke, Technical Education and the Foundationof the Dublin United Trades Council, 1886-1986. (feachers' Union of Ireland, Dublin, 1987), pp.64, no priceJohn Cunningham, with introduction by Michael D.Higgins, Mayday! Galway and the Origins ofInternationalLabour Day, (Galway West ConstituencySAOTHAR 13Council of the Labour Party, Galway, 1987), pp. 12, nopriceMichael Enright, Men of Iron: Wexford FoundryDisputes, 1890-1911. (Wexford Council of TradeUnions, Wexford, 19~7), pp. 68, illustrated, £2.00It is good that the current upsurge of interest in localhistory is not without its fair share of studies in labourand trade union affairs. Indeed, the investigation of thelabour movement at local level affords a tremendousscope to the aspiring historian, not merely because solittle has as yet been done, but also because the subjectitself is so diverse, a point well illustrated by the threepamphlets under review.John Cunningham takes Mayday! Galway and theorigins of International Labour Day as his theme andshows how an event with its origins in the evolution ofthe American trade union movement assumed an internationaldimension as labour's struggles became morepoliticised; especially in the aftermath of the BolshevikRevolution, when Red Flags came to plague the peaceof-mindof Galway's employers in 1919. He tells hisstory briefly but well, and one has but to close one'seyes to visualise milling workers outside the town hallat GoTt, lustily singing the 'Red Flag', to get a rareglimpse of what is the very guts of labour's story.Technical Education and the Foundation of theDublin United Trades' Council, 1886-1986, by JimCooke of the Teachers' Union of Ireland, undertakesthe far more ambitious task of portraying the contributionsof trade unionism to the establishment of technicaleducation. In a work of some 60 odd pages he givesan outline of the Capital's trade union heritage, evolvingfrom the medieval guild system, surviving thecombination laws of the 18th century, and anti-tradeunion laws of the 19th century, to the founding of theUnited Dublin Trades Council in 1886. Along the waythe author outlines the haphazard fashion in which theinstitutionalisation of technical education evolved inthe city, from its origins in the Mechanics' Institutemovement of 1825, to the establishment of a municipaltechnical school at Kevin Street in 1887, the first of itskind in the country. A study such as this invariablyprovides a bountiful supply of new and interestinginformation. I wonder how many today appreciate theimportance of the role played by the trade unions in thefounding of Kevin Street technical school. I certainlydidn't when, years ago, I trudged through its doors atnight to fulfil my apprenticeship obligations.The Pierce foundry in Wexford town was a longways from Kevin Street in more ways than one, and thisis well depicted by Michael Enright, whose bookletMen of Iron I enjoyed immensely. It is a wellresearchedand tightly written story of strife, of defeatsand of victory, as Wexford's iron workers came to gripswith the bread and butter aspects of industrial relations.The centre piece of the pamphlet is the lockout of 1911,