This is a work in progress! We hope to build a distance module in Labour History and this space will be the on-line support. While we’re working on it you can view some of the materials and links – not in any particular order and grouped according to whether they are:
Podcasts
Film
Text
Links
Enjoy!
Selection of RTÉ documentaries on labour history themes
available for download as podcasts –
with thanks to John Cunningham, NUI Galway for most of the suggestions
‘From the Miners to Posterity’
1972 documentary on mining in Arigna, Leitrim, in which miners talk about conditions in mines before unionisation, dangers including diseases & accidents & family tradition among miners
http://www.rte.ie/radio1/doconone/2009/1009/646220-miners/
‘Moles of Moneenroe’
1979 documentary on coalminers of Castlecomer
http://www.rte.ie/radio1/doconone/radio-documentary-podcast-coalmining-moles-of-moneenroe.html
‘Factory lives’.
Six part series covering factory closures over six decades: Lockes’ Distillery, Kilbeggan; Dundalk shoe factory; Ferenka, Limerick; Castlebar Bacon Factory, Digital, Galway, and Fruit of the Loom, Buncrana
http://www.rte.ie/radio1/doconone/factorylives.html
‘The Larkin way’.
Documentary on union leader and Labour politician, James Larkin Jr (son of ‘Big Jim’)
http://www.rte.ie/radio1/doconone/radio-documentary-the-larkin-way.html
‘When the bloom was in the flax’
1978 documentary on linen industry in Ireland
http://www.rte.ie/radio1/doconone/flax.html
‘The Green Jacket’
Feature from 1960 on the politician, revolutionary nationalist, sufragette and socialist, Countess Markievicz.
‘Sons of Molly’
1979 documentary on the Molly Maguires, a branch of an Irish agrarian secret society active in Pennsylvania coalfields in the 1870s
http://www.rte.ie/radio1/doconone/radio-documentary-podcast-sons-of-molly-pennsylvania-coalfields.html
‘Days of the servant boy’
1997 documentary dealing with hiring fairs and conditions of farm servants
http://www.rte.ie/radio1/doconone/radio-documentary-days-of-the-servant-boy.html
BBC Radio 4
A BBC Radio 4 series on British Socialism broadcast in early 2018 in handy 15 minute bites – the piece on the Chartists features Irishman Fergus O’Connor while those of you with an interest in industrial relations will appreciate the inclusion of Beatrice and Sidney Webb – British Socialism
A selection of readings on Irish labour history – enjoy!
18th Century
1. “The lessons of history” and “The working class” from James Connolly’s Labour in Ireland:
► Labour History James Connolly
2. “Trade unions in 18th century Ireland” in Andrew Boyd’s The rise of the Irish trade unions 1729 – 1970:
► Labour History Andrew Boyd Chapter 1
3. “Class war and demonstrations” in Andrew Boyd’s The rise of the Irish trade unions 1729 – 1970:
► Labour History Andrew Boyd Chapter 2
4. “Peasant rebellions” in Andrew Boyd’s The rise of the Irish trade unions 1729 – 1970:
► Labour History James Connolly Chapter 3
5. The Prologue in Emmet O’Connor’s A labour history of Ireland 1824 – 2000:
► Labour History Emmet O’Connor Prologue
19th Century
6. “O’Connell and the Irish Chartists” in Andrew Boyd’s The rise of the Irish trade unions 1729 – 1970:
► Labour History Andrew Boyd Chapter 5
7. “British trade unions in Ireland” in Andrew Boyd’s The rise of the Irish trade unions 1729 – 1970:
► Labour History Andrew Boyd Chapter 6
8. “Fenians, Parnell and the unions” in Andrew Boyd’s The rise of the Irish trade unions 1729-1970:
► Labour History Andrew Boyd Chapter 7
9. “Trade Unions in the 19th century” by Fergus Darcy in Nevin’s Trade Union Century:
► Labour History Fergus Darcy in Nevin 1994
10. “The Irish in Britain, United States and Australia” by John Belchem in The Irish in British Labour History:
► Labour History John Belchem
11. “Berehaven Mining District 1861 – 1900” by Michael O’Connell in Saothar 34:
► Labour History Michael O’Connell on Berehaven mining district
20th Century
12. “1913 – A brief history” by Francis Devine:
► Labour History Francis Devine 1913
13. “Worker and society in modern Ireland” by JJ Lee in Donal Nevin’s (1980) Trade unions and change in Irish society:
► Labour History JJ Lee
14. “The development of Irish trade unions” by Charles McCarthy in Donal Nevin’s (1980) Trade unions and change in Irish society:
► Labour History C McCarthy
15. “Changed Times” by James Plunkett in Donal Nevin’s (1980) Trade unions and change in Irish society:
► Labour History James Plunkett
16. “Liberalism and neo-liberalism 1987 – 2000” in Emmet O’Connor’s A labour history of Ireland 1824-2000:
► Labour History Emmet O’Connor
17. “Women and the trade union movement” by Mary Daly in Nevin (1994) Trade Union Century:
► Labour History Mary Daly
References
- Boyd, Andrew (1972) The rise of the Irish Trade Unions 1729-1970, Tralee: Anvil Books
- Connolly, James (1910) Labour in Irish History, Dublin: Sign of the Three Candles
- Nevin, D (1980) Trade unions and change in Irish society, Dublin: Mercer
- Nevin, D. (Ed.) (1994) Trade union century, Dublin: Oak Tree Press
- O’Connor, Emmet (2011) A labour history of Ireland 1824-2000, Dublin: UCD Press