The militancy of the postal workers 100 ago is an example to the Irish trade union movement of today and will act as an inspiration to postal workers in the north who have been engaged in strike action with their employer, the Royal Mail. The Provisional government had delayed the publication of a report it had commissioned into the pay and conditions of postal workers until it was ready to cope with a violent strike. In response to government cuts to bonus payments, 10,000 members of the Irish Postal Union (IPU) struck on September 9 1922, in defiance of government policy which refused to recognise the right of civil servants to strike and it was during this time that military repression spilled over into an attack on civil rights. Postmaster general, JJ Walsh, claimed erroneously the strike threat had little to do with wages and was designed to undermine the government. The government attempted to minimise the impact of the strike by the use of ‘scabs’, for whom it provided armed escorts, and made clear that it was determined to afford the fullest protection to those officers which continue to carry out their duties. Throughout the Free State, the postal service ground to a virtual halt and remained that way until the strike ended on September 29. In Kerry, as late as September 27, the Irish Times reported that ‘it was stated by an official that mails had been sent to Tralee, but that they had been returned, the men on the boats refused to handle them. Another factor when considering the impact of the postal strike was the attempt by the IRA to disrupt communications of the National Army by cutting telegraph wires. According to the Irish Independent: ‘telegraphic communications from Tralee ceased more than a fortnight ago owing to the continuous cutting of wires, so that the postal strike does not make matters very much worse as far as Kerry is concerned’. However, to a certain extent, the Irish Examiner contradicts this account by claiming that ‘the postal strike had added to the trouble’ in Kerry. The potential for a joint strategy by the labour and republican movements to overthrow the Free State government was a remote possibility. Cathal Brennan has perceptively noted that labour ‘was not ready to countenance’ such a scenario while the republicans ‘were slow to see the potential … that winning [the support of] the organised workers of Ireland would give them’. Ultimately the position of the postal staff was undermined by the failure of the Irish Labour Party & Trade Union Congress to encourage other unions to organise solidarity action weakened the potential bargaining power of the striking postal workers. In the end the IPU was forced to accept significant pay cuts, and in 1924 the Post Office Workers’ Union, the successor to IPU, under threat from the government to withdraw recognition, removed Rule 18 which allowed for strike action, from its rule book. The rule was not written back into the union’s rule book until the 1940s.
KIERAN McNULTY
Tralee, Co Kerry
Britannia unchained
On September 2012 five Tory MPs (Kwarteng, Patel, Raab, Skidmore and Truss) published ‘Britannia Unchained’. This asserted that the UK has a ‘bloated state, high taxes and excessive regulation’. I therefore wasn’t surprised with the ‘mini-budget’ recently announced by Kwarteng. In their ideology, instead of the state helping people who are experiencing difficulties, they will have to fend for themselves. Public services will be cut (needed to pay for the tax cuts for the richest in society) and, with regards to the removals of regulations, this will result in workers’ rights and environmental and animal welfare protections being diminished or abolished altogether.
A number of reasons have been put forward as to why people voted for Brexit. For some it was blatant xenophobia, others considered the EU to be an unelected bureaucracy (though one does wonder about the House of Lords which now includes Brexiteers Dodds, Hoey, Fox, Stewart and Frost). It’s been said here that some local Brexiteers hoped it would lead to the reintroduction of a hard border.
Then there are those from the left who believed that leaving the EU would enable the UK to become a socialist utopia (which I’m surmising is the group that columnist Patrick Murphy falls into). However, I fail to see how this group didn’t realise that Brexit was vociferously campaigned for by the ultra-right so that the UK envisaged in Britannia Unchained could be achieved. Many of the regulations to be ditched will be those introduced by the EU. In a recent column Mr Murphy referred to ‘America’s war in Ukraine’, so I’m also surmising that he is no fan of the US. I do wonder, therefore, why he can’t see that the Brexit project was to enable the UK to become more like the US, where workers can be fired at will and only 23 per cent of those working in private industries have access to paid maternity leave. Of these the average amount of leave given by companies is eight weeks, though this isn’t mandated by law. Of all the columns written by Mr Murphy regarding Brexit, I’ve yet to see one where he has outlined its benefits.
DANNY BOYD
Newtownabbey, Co Antrim
Delusional politics
Edwin Poots’ comments on ‘the funeral of the Good Friday Agreement’ are the words of a delusional politician. Who does he speak for?
The majority of the people of Northern Ireland voted for it by a massive margin. I voted against it but I, unlike Poots, accept the democratic vote. The days are long gone when the DUP could dictate with their own brand of unionism. He belongs to a party rife with splits and division.
No leadership – and we cannot forget he currently holds the record of the shortest serving leader of the DUP.
His party rejected him and now he thinks that he can tell the people the Good Friday Agreement has to go.
Those other delusional people within unionism, elected and self-appointed spokespersons are hopelessly living in the past believing in their own egotistical minds and personalities. The people decided to accept the Good Friday Agreement, like it or not, and Edwin and his tiny band of cohorts will never be allowed to tear up what the people voted for. The Good Friday Agreement is here for all our communities as it was our communities who voted for it. Edwin, accept that.
RAYMOND McCORD
Victims Campaigner,
North Belfast
Big thank you to nursing staff at RVH
I wish to express my grateful appreciation to the medical, nursing and indeed all the staff of the Acute Stroke Unit, Ward 6F RVH – and also the excellent diabetes team for all the care I received while I was a patient recently. The treatment and care given to me was second to none and was delivered with kindness and humour. They not only saved my life but they saved the quality of my life.
Thank you all once again.
EVELYN McKINNEY
Belfast BT11
