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October 2015 Volume 1, No. 2 Irish Labour History News Editors: James Curry & Adrian Grant The FREE Bi-Annual Newsletter of the Irish Labour History Society
and Frank Cluskey from Jack McGinley at the launch of Cluskey: The Conscience 1967-80), Jack O’Con- Contents of Labour (Photograph by Helen McGinley). nor (SIPTU President), • Frank Cluskey Book and Cluskey’s daughter Siobhán, all of whom Launch- 1 contributed to the book.
• Saothar 39 Now During her touching Available - 1 and engaging speech Siobhán Cluskey recalled • Belfast Conference- 2 the ‘original love affair’ between her parents and • Dublin Dockers - 2 how as a teenager nuns at her secondary school • Fitzpatrick Lepracaun refused to teach her Launch- 3 after Frank Cluskey con- ferred the Freedom of the City of Dublin on two • ILHS Annual gay men (Micheál Mac Conference - 4 Liammóir and Hilton Edwards, founders of the • Rosie Hackett - 4 Gate Theatre) and sup- ported the introduction of contraception to Ire- land. She also expressed pride and gratitude at SAOTHAR 39 NOW the publication of a book AVAILABLE chronicling the life of her FRANK CLUSKEY BOOK ‘contrary and wonderful’ father. Cluskey: The Conscience of Labour, LAUNCH AT LIBERTY HALL which has its origins in a seminar Cluskey: The Conscience of Labour, event held at the 2014 ILHS AGM, a new book of essays and assorted is published by Umiskin Press, a materials concerning the life and not-for-profit publishing house career of Frank Cluskey, the late committed to bringing out limited Dublin socialist trade union official, edition works dealing predomi- Lord Mayor of Dublin and leader of nantly with labour history, labour the Irish Labour Party, was formally interest and trade union issues that launched at Liberty Hall on 1st July might otherwise not be consid- 2015 by An Tánaiste Joan Burton. ered for commercial publication. Previous Umiskin titles are Dear Former ILHS President and Madam: The Letters and Mails of Vice-President Francis Devine Dermot Sweeney (2012) and Eggs acted as Master of Ceremonies on and Rashers: Irish Socialist Memories of Matt Merrigan (2014). The latest issue of Saothar, the annual the evening, which was unsurpris- journal of the Irish Labour History ingly very well attended and also featured speeches from Brendan All three books can be purchased Society, is now available. Members Halligan (who served as general at the ILHS premises in Beggars receive a complimentary copy in secretary to the Labour Party under Bush or online at umiskinpress. December of each year. Copies can also the leadership of Brendan Corish wordpress.com. be purchased directly from the ILHS Musuem, Beggars Bush. ILHS Newsletter October 2015 1 ILHS: Latest News & Events Cross Currents in British & Irish Working Class Life at QUB Queen’s University Belfast hosted tutionalised racism in Liverpool, a one day conference by one of and a reassessment of the Peoples’ its most outward looking research Democracy. A number of ILHS groups on the 22nd May 2015. The members were invited to attend ‘Cross Currents in British & Irish and speak at the conference. Working Class Life’ group is made up of academics and activists inter- The day’s proceedings were record- ested in various disciplines across ed and can be listened to at the the humanities. This one-day following web address https://au- conference was a grand reflection dioboom.com/playlists/1279283- of that construction, with talks by cross-currents-in-british-irish-work- curators, academics, community ing-class-life-qub_humanities workers, trade union workers, mu- sicians and photographers. Northern Visions TV has also made a video documentary The large number of attendees where attendees speak about the heard about topics like British and themes of the conference. This is Irish Labour politics, oral histories available to view at https://vimeo. of the Belfast working class, insti- com/131871350
Above: Chris Burgess from the Peoples’ History Museum in Manchester. Below: DUBLIN DOCKERS PUBLIC EVENT ILHS committee member Adrian Grant speaking at the conference. Bottom: On 23rd May 2015 Irish Labour His- Matthews next focused on the life Adrian Grant, Michael Pierse and Matt tory Society committee members of ‘philanthropist, politician and Collins during a coffee break at the con- Ann Matthews and D. R. O’Connor leader of women’ Dr. Kathleen ference, which was held in the Brian Friel Lysaght, along with lifetime ILHS Lynn during the years 1912-20, a Theatre in the QFT, Belfast. member Pádraig Yeates, were the figure whom appears throughout three guest speakers at a public her 2014 book on the ICA pub- event which took place at the CHQ lished by Mercier Press. Building on Custom O’Connor House Lysaght Quay. The finished the event was afternoon organised of talks by by the discussing Dublin the 1915 Dock Steampacket Workers’ Company Preserva- strike and tion Soci- ‘its place in ety, which James Con- was set up nolly’s overall in 2011 Ann Matthews, Pádraig Yeates and D.R O’Connor Lysaght at the strategy’ as by former CHQ Building, Dublin Dockers event. (Photograph: James Curry) acting gen- Dublin dockers and local figures eral secretary of the Irish Transport interested in preserving the histo- and General Workers’ Union at the ry of Dublin Port. time. In 2014 O’Connor Lysaght edited and introduced a Socialist Yeates, whose latest book with Democracy published pamphlet Gill & MacMillan, A City in Civil War. comprising of Connolly’s Workers’ Dublin 1921-1924, was launched Republic 1915-16 articles dealing at Liberty Hall eleven days earlier, with the strike, copies of which discussed the formation of the can be obtained for €4 at the ILHS Irish Citizen Army in late 1913. premises in Beggars Bush Barracks.
2 ILHS Newsletter October 2015 Surrounded by 1913 Lockout Tapestry panels, James Curry presents Jim and Conánn ILHS: Recent Events Fitzpatrick with a framed set of photographs of their political cartoonist ancestor at the Dublin launch of Thomas Fitzpatrick and the Lepracaun Cartoon Monthly 1905-1915 (Photograph by Tara Doyle).
Thomas Fitzpatrick and the Lepra- caun Cartoon Monthly 1905-1915, a new book co-authored by ILHS THOMAS FITZPATRICK committee member James Curry and Ciarán Wallace of TCD, was & THE LEPRACAUN launched at the Dublin City Library and Archive on 19th February 2015. Published by Dublin City Public CARTOON MONTHLY Libraries as part of its ‘Decade of Centenaries’ series, the book BOOK LAUNCHES examines the life of renowned Irish political cartoonist Thomas Fitzpat- ries publication field, and its ‘novel, Lepracaun cartoons relating to the rick (1860-1912) and the Lepracaun interesting and lavishly produced’ 1913 Dublin Lockout see http:// Cartoon Monthly journal for which way of providing readers with a dublincitypubliclibraries.com/ he is best remembered. visual anthology of Ireland in the story/lepracaun-cartoon-monthly-
years 1905-15. and-1913-14-dublin-lockout Among the speakers at the launch were Irish artist Jim Fitzpatrick, A limited grandson of Thomas, and his son number Conánn, a lecturer in computer an- of copies imation and design at the Univer- of Thomas sity of Ulster. Both Jim and Conánn Fitzpatrick and contributed to the book, with the the Lepra- former writing its foreword and the caun Cartoon latter creating a frontispiece design Monthly 1905- which updates the original Lepra- 15 can still be caun cover designed by Thomas purchased Fitzpatrick in 1905. through all good book- A second launch of the book took shops for place on 5th March at NUI Gal- €19.95 and way, in an event organised by the via the Four Moore Institute’s Irish Centre for Courts Press the Histories of Labour and Class. website for It was launched by NUIG Visiting €17.95. Fellow John Gibney, who praised Ciarán Wallace and John Gibney at the NUI Galway launch of Thomas Fitzpatrick and the Lepracaun Cartoon Monthly 1905-15 the book’s ‘strikingly original’ con- For a digital (Photograph by James Curry). tribution to the decade of centena- gallery of ILHS Newsletter October 2015 3 Recent & Upcoming Labour History Events PRESIDENT HIGGINS TO OPEN 2015 ANNUAL CONFERENCE The ILHS is proud to announce that its next annual conference, a three-day event entitled ‘Labour in 1915 on the cusp of the Revolutionary Year’ and held in conjunction with the Women’s History Association of Ireland, SIPTU Equality, History Ireland magazine and the Young Workers Network, will be opened at Liberty Hall Theatre on Friday 9th October 2015 by President Michael D. Higgins. The president’s evening address will focus on Ireland in 1915 and the lessons to be drawn from the succeeding century.
A full programme of talks will take place at the same venue the following day, with panel sessions on James Connolly, the women of 1916, how the Easter Rising (Photograph: Eddie Soye) was viewed by the future Northern Ireland, and Ire- land in the year leading up to 1916. The day will then with a walking tour of the city centre by Dublin historian Donal conclude with the launch of a new collection of essays Fallon. on class and gender in twentieth century Ireland (ed- ited by Mary McAuliffe), which has been inspired by Full details of the conference can be viewed on the ILHS’s web- the recent naming of the newest bridge over the River site (www.irishlabourhistorysociety.com), with those planning to Liffey after Dublin trade unionist Rosie Hackett. attend urged to register for the event online via PayPal. A limited number of travel bursaries for Northern Ireland delegates wishing On Sunday morning a final panel session will reflect to attend the conference have been made available following a on how Ireland’s youth of today look upon Irish history grant from the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht. during the 1915-16 era, before the conference closes Interested parties are requested to contact the ILHS directly.
DONATION TO RELATIVES OF JOIN THE ILHS TODAY ROSIE HACKETT BY THE ILHS Join the Irish Labour History Society today and receive notice of upcom- ing events, a complimentary copy of Saothar, and the bi-annual ILHS News- letter.
You can download an application form at the web address below. Al- ternatively you can obtain a copy by email, phone or post:
Irish Labour History Society Museum & Archive Beggars Bush Haddington Road Dublin 4
+353 (0) 1 6681071
The ILHS was delighted to recently donate ten copies of Saothar 39 and other society publi- [email protected] cations to relatives of Rosie Hackett. This current issue of the society’s annual journal features a short biographical essay on Rosie’s life by James Curry. Saothar 39 also includes articles on www.irishlabourhistorysociety.com a range of subjects including, the life of Brendan Corish, the Catholic Workers’ College, and an oral history of working life at Independent Newspapers. (Above: Jack McGinley presents some ILHS publications to Rosie’s niece, Teresa Cashe. Photograph: James Curry)
4 ILHS Newsletter October 2015