Edward Lee

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In contrast, unusually for him, his tone to the workers is more in keeping here with the employer class, saying the workers ‘must’. He was treading a fine line, trying to find a middle ground, reaching out to the workers while not alienating himself from the chamber. James Connolly was interviewed by the Freeman’s Journal the next day about Edward Lee’s suggestion for a conference to break the deadlock. He did not agree. ‘My complaint about Mr Lee’s letter is that he appears to wish both sides to give way at the outset on the very points that are alleged by both sides to be in dispute. We are quite willing to let things remain as they are both sides in a state of armed neutrality as it were, towards each other and to discuss these points and any other points that may be brought up’. 24 Ironically perhaps, the employers also disagreed. J. Doyle writing to The Irish Independent on 30 th Sept stated, ‘Can Mr Lee or any other person tell us how, without such an assurance, any employer can be reasonably expected to continue to invest his capital in a business the fate of which is practically at the mercy of the insolent and unscrupulous strike boss who has recently enunciated the doctrine: ‘Do away with the employer and there is no need for a strike’. 25 But Professor Tom Kettle, one time Member of Parliament for East Tyrone and Home Rule supporter, was in agreement with Edward Lee. In the Freeman’s Journal, 24 th September 1913, he wrote, 'It seems to me the time has come to call a truce. That is the desire of every Dublin man who loves Dublin. The letter yesterday of that model employer Mr Edward Lee, the common tenor of conversation lead us hopefully to that haven. A middle course must and shall be found. Mr. Lee has spoken for the business world of Dublin, facts accumulate upon the facts in the direction of peace’. 26 (Kettle died not long afterwards at the Battle of the Somme, September 1916.) ‘Employers ought rather to seek to elevate those whom they employ than to inflict an indignity on them.’ A man of strong principles, Edward Lee joined the Dublin Industrial Peace Committee. He was the only employer to do so. The committee, 24 Freeman’s Journal. 24/9/1913 25 Irish Independent. 30/9/1913 26 Tom Kettle, Freeman’s Journal. 24/9/1913 40 Edward Lee
under the chairmanship of Tom Kettle, included writer Pádraig Colum and future 1916 Rebellion leaders, Thomas MacDonagh and Joseph Plunkett. In 1966, Plunkett’s sister Geraldine, was interviewed by RTÉ television about her brother and his political and revolutionary activities during The Rising. She also spoke about Joseph’s 1913 involvement with the Peace Committee. ‘He took no part in anything until the 1913 strike. There was a Peace Committee got up by Tom Kettle and he got all sorts of other people into it. Frank Skeffington and Willie Yeats was in it and the Dean of St. Patrick’s and one employer, Edward Lee. They were exactly the kind of people as you would find in such a thing today. They tried to make peace between the two sides and of course the employers immediately labelled the Peace Committee as pro labour and refused to have anything to do with it’. 27 At a meeting of the Peace Committee in the Mansion House on Tuesday 7 th October, 1913, a resolution was put by Professor. E.P. Culverwell. It stated that it was time for a truce to be declared between the employers and workers so as to save the trade of the city of Dublin from ruin and its inhabitants from starvation. 28 Edward Lee supported the resolution saying, ‘Fortunately or unfortunately he represented the employing class and, of course, they would give him credit for saying that he was not going to say anything prejudicial to that class that night. He was glad to notice that there were some other employers also and a good many of the employed. We came here as brothers in the City of Dublin. We are not going to go into the merits of the case. What the resolution means, I suppose, is that terms will be suggested from this meeting that may be brought to both employers and employed to try to bring them together to settle the dispute in a manner that may leave no feelings of animosity behind. I am prepared to work night and day to give all assistance I possibly can, so that this unfortunate dispute may be brought to an end’. 29 ‘Men of Capital ought to be ashamed to have it go out to the ends of the earth that so many families were living each in one room.’ 27 On behalf of the Provisional Government – Joseph Plunkett RTÉ 1966 28 Irish Times. 11/10/1913 29 Irish Times. 8/10/1913 Model Employer and Man of Moral Courage 41
Page 1 and 2: Edward Lee Model Employer and Man o
Page 7 and 8: Contents Foreword by Pádraig Yeate
Page 9 and 10: accommodation for his own employees
Page 11 and 12: are gradually piecing the family st
Page 13 and 14: ook by far on the 1913 Dublin Locko
Page 15 and 16: Jane, who would become Countess of
Page 17 and 18: Tyrrellspass Green 1900s. Photo was
Page 19 and 20: Edward Lee and Co Ltd Dún Laoghair
Page 21 and 22: Social Conscience Edward Lee was an
Page 23 and 24: at Dargan Street in Little Bray and
Page 25 and 26: The Grange By the early 1900s, the
Page 27 and 28: Silver Wedding Illuminated scroll 1
Page 29 and 30: America and Canada 17 which he publ
Page 31 and 32: paragraph in the next day’s issue
Page 33 and 34: his nephew Robert H. Gilbert 19 to
Page 35 and 36: Cluster of skyscrapers, New York. C
Page 37 and 38: certainly, as such, has no rival in
Page 39: dismissed. The employers held out,
Page 43 and 44: influence those of the metropolis
Page 45 and 46: the controversy. Ironically perhaps
Page 47 and 48: ‘Bellevue’, Cross Avenue, Black
Page 49 and 50: laid his broken body in its last re
Page 51 and 52: Unknown newspaper cutting from 1915
Page 53 and 54: kind to them, Edward and Annie must
Page 55 and 56: sister. It is possible that they me
Page 57 and 58: profit for the capitalists, as some
Page 59 and 60: that any firm advertising in certai
Page 61 and 62: Annie Lee and Tennyson Lee 1930s. E
Page 63 and 64: Deansgrange Cemetery, alongside his
Page 65 and 66: Model Employer and Man of Moral Cou
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Model Employer and Man of Moral Cou
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Edward Lee

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