PARTEEN to Organise Or P T

PARTEEN to organise or p t his year marks the 75th 10 branches and its headquarters, the Newmarket branch lapsed shortly anniversary of the lrish Liberty Hall, had been destroyed in the afterwards and was not revived until Transport and General Rising. August 29, 1919. Other centres in Workers' Union. On But the annual report for 1918 Clare were quick to introduce the un- January 4, 1909, at a claimed: "Easter week saved the Un- ion. Clonlara started its own branch meeting of dockers held in ion. It cancelled out the reaction from with Tom Molony as secretary; Cratloe the Trades Hall, Dublin, 1913, and removed bitter prejudices followed, with Tom Gleeson as Jim Larkin set up his new which had blocked its progress. It secretary; then O'Brien's Bridge with union. Up to then, all quay workers linked up the Labour Movement with Francis Duggan of Bridgetown as belonged to the National Union of Dock the age-long aspirations of the lrish secretary; Scariff had Martin Gildea as Labourers which was English-based, people for emancipation from political secretary. By 1920 union records show with its headquarters in Liverpool. The and social thraldom, and formed a that Clare had 22 branches - nine in newly-formed break-away union was national moratorium under cover of mid-Clare, nine in the east and four in to be markedly lrish and open to most which it was able to make a fresh start the west. Unfortunately, the typed grades of workers, but excluding on better terms with increased mem- membership list attached to the women. Tom Foran was the union's bership". manuscript in the National Library con- first president and Larkin was appoin- The years 19 17 and 19 18 were in- taining details of branches in Clare ted secretary. Headquarters were set spiring times for workers and a stirring has been lost. Without this list it is im- up in Beresford Place in the Northum- period for the union. The Rising had possible to reconstruct accurately the berland Hotel, later to be named given its own fillip to workers' spirits. early days of individual branches in the Liberty Hall. Then the Bolshevik Revolution in 19 17 county. The Dublin initiative in breaking acted as a global catalyst. Tom One may well ask why did a branch away from the NUDL was followed in Johnson, of the lrish Congress of Trade of the union appear in Parteen since it other parts of the country. Branches of Unions, and later to be leader of the was not an industrial area. In 1918, the ITGWU were set up in the port Labour Party, spelt out the message of Parteen had little to boast of apart from towns of Wexford, Waterford, Cork, that revolution: "It means that as the Lax Weir which employed a couple Sligo and Belfast. Membership grew society is based upon labour, labour of men from the village. Sadly, since rapidly, particularly in Dublin, and when shall rule". Some parts of the country then the weir has atrophied. But in the lock-out took place there in 19 13 it took that message more seriously than those days, the main employers in the was estimated that over 20,000 wage- others and set up workers' councils or locality were the few "big houses" earners were thrown idle by the em- soviets, based on the Russian model, which had their quota of coachmen, ployers in their attempt to smash the using physical force to do so if domestics and gardeners; agricultural Transport Union. Undoubtedly, the necessary. Clare had two of these labourers and tradesmen would also strike severely weakened the union, its councils, one in Broadford, the other in have been plentiful in and about the coffers were empty and shortly af- Kilfenora. village. The factories of nearby terwards Larkin, a sick man, left for The 87th branch of the lrish Limerick would have absorbed America on a fund-raising tour which Transport and General Workers' Union whatever spare labour there was, and was due to last for a year. The "tour" was set up in Parteen on June 8,191 8. even though the city was heavily un- lasted nine years. James Connolly took Patrick C. Clear, who ran the local post ionised as the general strike against over as acting general secretary even office, was registered as secretary. militarism of 1919 was to show, the though it was Larkin's wish that P.T. Meetings were held in the school near focus for employees activities would Daly fake the post. Putting it mildly, Parteen bridge and later moved to an have been the factory floor and not Larkin and Connolly seldom saw eye to old shed on a plot of ground known as their home area. Neither was there any eye, and the latter had grown tired of "No Man's Land". great land agitation in the place at the Larkin's ego-tripping, unpredictability The branch remittance to head of- time; the so-called "landless men" had and incoherent approach to the fice for its first year was £39-7-2 made no impact as yet. Nor is there problems of labour. In Connolly's short which would indicate a considerable any indication that Parteen had a term of office, before he was executed membership. In fact, folk memory has branch of the Trade and Labour Union on May 12, 1916, for his part in the it that-everyone was in "the Union". or its successors, the District Labour Rising, he bequeathed to the union a The Parteen branch was the second Association and the District Cottiers' socialist philosophical base to be used to be established in Clare. The first Association. The Shannon Scheme, - as the canon and cutting edge for it branch was founded at Newmarket-on- which was later to transform and even ever after. At the end of 19 16, the un- Fergus on May 25, 1918, a mere "transplant" the village, had not yet ion, sorely in debt, colsisted of just fortnight before the Parteen one. But been propos3d. Apart from a brief in- Parteen waterway dustrial dispute connected with fisher- branch in the parish could have been Byrne was shot during a rescue at- men on the Shannon early in the cen- that the trade union organisation and tempt at the Limerick Union Hospital, tury, there is no other record of in- structure provided an acceptable face and was brought by the rescue-party to dustrial action in the locality. So, why for other activities mainly of a a house in Knockalisheen, less than then was there a branch of the ITGWU republican nature. The local Volunteers two miles from Parteen, but died shor- established in Parteen? were quite active and came under the tly afterwards. On April 9, 1919, the It is very difficult to pin down a leadership of the famous Brennan British military authorities proclaimed specific reason. The end of World War brothers of the East Clare Brigade who the city of Limerick a special military 1 had brought demobilisation and the lived only a few short miles away in the area. The Trades' Council, urged on by fear of recession. Thousands of former neighbouring twin parish of Meelick. the republican forces, took immediate soldiers had crowded on to the job St. Thomas' Island, reportedly, was a and militant action. A general strike market causing greater unemployment favourite meeting place for the Volun- was declared which lasted for 11 days. and threatening those who already had teers and it was also used for hiding The same year Michael Brennan and jobs. The union offered some protec- caches of arms, as there were subterra- about twenty Volunteers raided the tion to workers, particularly as many nean passages there. A "Junior" ver- GPO in Limerick and got away with employers were inclined to favour the sion of the Volunteers also existed in £1,500; they needed the money for men who had given service to the Em- the parish in the form of the scouts arms and, as Brennan later reminisced, pire; in certain sectors it also gave the (Fianna Eireann), who were used in the he could see no objection to the British prospect of betterment. gathering of intelligence. There is no providing that money1 The raid was The anti-conscription campaign of doubt that the Transport Union, ever successful, primarily because of in- 1918 helped in its own way to since Connolly's time, had provided a telligence supplied to Brennan by Jack heighten consciousness against British vehicle for republican thought and ac- Coughlan, a post office employee; in rule. As a result of a meeting between tion; the main local link was the fact, Coughlan was an important wheel the delegation of the Mansion House Limerick branch, whose O'Connell in Brennan's very efficient machine. Conference, which included Dublin's Street premises also served as head- Most, if not all, of the credit for the Lord Mayor O'Neill, de Valera, Dillon, quarters for the IRA's mid-Limerick founding of a branch at Parteen must Healy and William O'Brien, and the Brigade. be attributed to Pat Clear, the Catholic Hierarchy, the bishops decided It is interesting to note that there secretary. "A man ahead of his time" is that an announcement would be made was a post office connection with how he is best remembered in the area. at public Masses, in every parish of the some of this activity. Sometimes one hears the qualification, country, of a meeting to be held for Pat Clear, the union secretary, was "In those days he was considered a the purpose of administering a pledge the Parteen postmaster.

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