Jack O'Connor calls for Social Solidarity to underpin the rebuilding of the Republic, One Hundred Years on
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Delivering the opening address at the weekend event “From Lockout to Bailout” in Nenagh, Co. Tipperary, at the end of September, Jack O’Connor, SIPTU General President, challenged the myth that the Lockout was the opening salvo of a decade of rebellion against the British oppressor. He said that the accurate historical context for the Lockout was what he called the remarkable mobilisation of working people both in Britain and in the USA in the preceding years, paralleled in Ireland by the emergence of the Irish Transport and General Workers Union, and that the Lockout was the response of a privileged class against the workers and the poor in Dublin, against the background of the drive towards Home Rule in Ireland.
The way in which the Lockout must be understood, he said, was that the privileged and wealthy merchant classes of Dublin were determined that the poor and workers would not have any mechanism to inform the shape of Home Rule Ireland, and that it was to be carved out by their interests exclusively.
“The outlook and value system which informed public policy-making in the new Ireland which emerged after the Civil War was not informed by the egalitarian aspirations which informed Larkin and those around him” said O’Connor.
“Rather it was informed by the outlook and value system of the William Martin Murphys. The decade of rebellion ultimately descended into the oppressive theocracy characterised by unemployment, emigration and misery. It was the Ireland of the industrial schools and the Magdalen laundries and gave way to the Ireland which prioritised one’s capacity to prosper by taking advantage of others rather than a commitment to the public good, an Ireland which venerated the exploiter, that confused three-card-trickery with genuine entrepreneurship and that took us directly to a decision five years ago, to socialise the debts of private banks and expose the country to between E100bn and E400bn in liabilities”.
Commending the organisers, Gerry Coffey, a community activist in Nenagh and Kathleen O’Meara, former Labour Senator, now a leading advocate in civil society, Jack O’Connor said that events such as the weekend of conversations in Nenagh created an engagement around the issues which is necessary as we rebuild the Republic, an engagement which is critical in laying the foundations for a more sustainable Ireland, built on the values of egalitarianism and social solidarity which informed Larkin, Connolly and others in 1913.
“From Lockout to Bailout” was supported by SIPTU and took place in Nenagh Arts Centre on September 27, 28 and 29th last.
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