The Working Class Movement Library, famous for its Irish collection, plays host on Saturday 13 October to a talk on ‘Ireland’s forgotten revolutionary’. Even for those who consider themselves reasonably well-versed in the history of the Irish rising of 1916 and of the tumultuous events of the years which followed, there’s every possibility that […]
Dublin Council of Trade Union is proposing a re-enactment of Bloody Sunday on September 1st, 2013. Hopefully we have full universal health insurance by then. Meanwhile here is a link to a clip from RTE on the 90th anniversary with Jer O’Leary as Jim Larkin. Thanks to Jim Curry, author of ‘Artist of the Revolution: […]
Matthew Connolly was the younger brother of Sean Connolly, the Irish Citizen Army officer who was among the earliest rebel casualties on Easter Monday. His Witness Statement is interesting because it shows the ICA had a youth group and suggests at least one other ICA member was killed before his brother at City Hall. It is […]
A fresh start for Clery’s on its historic site in Dublin’s O’Connell Street is very welcome, not to mention saving around 350 jobs. The site has hosted a department store since 1853. Jim Larkin made a brief appearance at the window below the clock to make the briefest speech of his career. The police reaction […]
Frank Robbins joined the Irish Transport and General Workers Union when he was 15 and was a life long member of that Union and the Irish Labour Party. He joined the Irish Citizen Army in 1914. His Witness Statement gives an insider’s view of the labour movement in the lead up to the Easter Rising. […]
The 1913 Alternative Visions Oral History Training Course got off to a great start on Saturday (September 15th), with the 20 participants engaging in a lively session at the TEEU training rooms in Gardiner Place. Course leaders Mary Muldowney and Ida Milne are delighted with the energetic response. If anyone is interested in taking part […]
John Hanratty was an oven hand at Jacob’s biscuit factory and on the local union branch committee. He was an officer in the Irish Citizen Army and became Commandant during the Civil War. This brief Witness Statement conveys something of the atmosphere in the early days of the union, the Lockout and formation of the […]
Our thanks to Tom Duke for pointing out the following links below to the Labour Party’s Centenary picture archives. They are well worth a visit. http://www.labour.ie/centenary http://www.labour.ie/centenary/timelinefullscreen/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/labourparty/sets/72157629408133039/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/labourparty/6876152854/in/set-72157629408133039 http://www.flickr.com/photos/labourparty/7022287297/in/set-72157629408133039
Henry Banks was a storeman with Dublin Corporation. This short Witness Statement is probably indicative of the attitude of many Dublin Volunteers. They did not like Larkin or ‘internationalism’ but were more accommodating of hostility from within the nationalist establishment, including the Catholic Church. Banks’s job security probably reinforced his natural conservatism on most issues […]
Conor McCabe wrote the first blog on this website on March 11th, 2011, as a guest contributor. Now anyone who reads his regular blogs on the Dublin Opinion website can hear him in person next Friday, September 14th, when he gives a talk on the Great Railway Strike of 1911 and its unusual impact in […]