"I trust I shall have the Conference with me when I say that we of the RCA in Great Britain earnestly hope that neither the recent rising, nor anything resulting therefrom, will in any way weaken the bond of union between ourselves and our members in all parts of Ireland.
H. G. Romeril
President RCA, 1916 Annual Conference.
From the turn of the century to the end of 1904 the union's membership had trebled to 4,666, but although branches had been established throughout Britain, there was little progress in Ireland, despite the fact that there had been members there from the earliest days, scattered across the country and unable to form a branch. The first contact had been made in December 1898, when Frank Parrish, as General Secretary, received a letter from Ireland requesting particulars of the NAGRC with a view to amalgamation.1 This almost certainly came from the Irish Railway Officers' Association, an unregistered union of clerks and stationmasters which, like the NAGRC was pledged to non-aggressive methods.2 No further correspondence took place but later as it experienced organisational problems, some of its members joined the RCA.
The first attempt to form an Irish branch occurred in the latter part of 1904, when John Stopford-Challener was invited to Belfast by J. Jones, one of the RCA's earliest members. This led to the opening of the Belfast branch on 22nd November 1904 by Samuel Lomax,3 A.J. Weaver and W.H. Baraclough (Dudley), who helped to establish the early Irish branches. The branch was mainly composed of clerical workers employed by the railway companies in their steamer offices, and Jones was elected as its first branch secretary. As soon as the branch was established Jones set out to form the second branch - Londonderry - which was eventually opened in March 1906. Assistance in developing the Londonderry branch came from W. P. O'Doherty4 who had joined the RCA in 1904 and was well known in the area. Little did he realise when he joined the RCA that he would be elected as Chairman of the Irish Council on numerous occasions and be Chairman of the Londonderry branch for twenty-five years!
It was as a result of these developments that, in 1905, the RCA changed its name to the Railway Clerks' Association of Great Britain and Ireland. It was also in 1905 that there were expectations that a branch would be opened in Dublin, but this failed to take place until 16th July 1908. The Dublin branch, inaugurated at Moran's Hotel, Talbot Street, was composed initially of those employed at North Wall, and then substantial recruits were made on the Midland Great Western Railway. By 1909, 50 Irish Clearing House clerks had been recruited and in April, Dublin set an Association record by recruiting 60 clerks in one month. During 1909 and 1910, it enrolled more members than any branch in the Association. Some of the new members came from the Railway Officers' Association of Ireland which had been formed in 1907 and was of a similar character to that of the RCA. It may have been a successor to the earlier Irish Railway Officers' Association and if so, by the time it held its annual meeting at Cork in 1909, it also had virtually collapsed. William E. Hill (Dublin) was invited to attend the meeting and suggested that as the Officers' Association was in such a bad way, the remaining members should consider joining the RCA. They took up the offer, disbanded the organisation and encouraged all their members to join.
The Irish branches had been from their inception part of the Lancashire and Cheshire Divisional Council, and at the 1909 Annual Conference the EC proposed that as soon as Ireland and Wales achieved a membership of 500 they should have their own Divisional Council and EC member. The Irish delegation had other ideas, and an amendment from W.E. Hill, stating that Ireland should have its own seat immediately, was carried against the Executive by 55 votes to 15. This led to the formation of the Irish Divisional Council on 5th February 1910 bringing the number of RCA Councils up to ten. The first Irish Council had a membership of 242 contained within three branches, with an Officer of the Council from each branch. The chairman was P.T. Morris (Belfast), the treasurer G. Maxwell, (Londonderry) and the secretary was W.E. Hill (Dublin). The Council quickly proved its value and just prior to the end of the year, new branches were opened in Cork, Limerick and Waterford along with a Central Irish Branch. The first RCA Irish Conference took place on the 21st August 1910.
In the same year, on account of his outstanding work, W.E. Hill was elected as the first EC member for Ireland. Hill, who had joined the RCA as a result of Joseph St. Clair Halfpenny's first recruiting tour to Ireland in 1909, had an interesting political background. Born in Dublin in 1875 he grew up in an ultra-conservative family and in his early years he was an ardent Orangeman, his father being a prominent official in the Orange Institution. Hill became Deputy Grand Secretary of the City of Dublin Grand Lodge, but he came to oppose some Orange policies and after expressing his point of view to all the Lodges in Dublin, was deprived of his office and resigned. He also became disillusioned with Unionist politics and joined the Labour Party.
In his short period as an EC member, Hill set high standards for his successors. On behalf of the Irish clerical staff he gave valuable evidence to the Board of Trade Committee on Railway Amalgamations and Working Agreements and wrote a stirring pamphlet called Rouse Ye! His organising ability and the quality of the reports he sent to The Railway Clerk soon attracted the attention of the General Secretary and Hill joined the head office staff as Assistant Secretary in 1911. When he retired in 1931 owing to ill-health, he was the first member of the Association's staff to receive superannuation. His replacement on the EC was W.B. MacMahon.5
During 1910 Walkden conducted a recruitment campaign in Ireland visiting Waterford, Cork, Limerick, Dundalk, Dublin, Belfast and Londonderry. This was followed by a second visit from Halfpenny during the early part of 1911 when he recruited the first women members with the promise of many more to come.6 They, like their sisters in England, Scotland and Wales, suffered the same discrimination in their wage packets. A further campaign by Hill took place in 1911 and Halfpenny made his third visit in 1912. Recruitment campaigns were now the norm but even though Ireland established new records, one of the saddest features of branch life was the large number of members who felt obliged to emigrate (mostly to Canada, some to Australia) in order to achieve a decent living wage and better working conditions. It was to change this that the first RCA Memorial to seek an improvement in clerks' salaries was presented to the Midland Great Western Railway in 1911. This was followed by a deputation to the Board of Directors, the first clerical deputation ever received by any Railway Board in Ireland. The result was that the maximum salary of a railway clerk was raised from £65 to £78 per annum.
The Irish TUC was established in 1894 largely on the initiative of the Belfast and Dublin Trades Councils. In 1914 it became the Irish Trades Union Congress and Labour Party and it continued as a joint political and industrial organisation up to 1931 when the two functions were separated and the Labour Party was established in its own right. The RCA affiliated to the Irish TUC in 1909; Joseph St. Clair Halfpenny was its delegate and the affiliation fee was £1 8s 4d (£1.42).
The problems that railway clerks faced in Ireland were similar to those in England, albeit in most cases invariably worse. As a reflection of this, the RCA's earliest motions submitted for debate at the Irish TUC were virtually identical to those debated at congresses in England and Scotland. These referred to Sunday work without pay, low salaries, long working hours, poor office accommodation and railway nationalisation. It was little wonder that the subject of office accommodation had such a high priority as many offices were a disgrace and a potential health hazard. Possibly not all, though, were as bad as that of the Goods Office at Strabane where space was so limited that the clerks had difficulty passing each other and with the accumulated dirt and cobwebs the place was not fit for a lair, let alone an office.
Eventually, the clerks suggested that a disused signal cabin be converted at little expense into a suitable office, but nothing happened and as one clerk remarked, Man's inhumanity to man makes dividends for shareholders.
7
The first Irish trade unionist to stand for Parliament was Alexander Bowman, the Secretary of Belfast Trades Council, who stood as a Liberal in 1885. It was also in Belfast that the first Labour branch was established in 1892, later affiliating to the ILP. In 1894 Labour branches were opened in Dublin and Waterford. After 1898 branches were established throughout the country and in 1899 Labour contested the local elections, being successful in a number of towns including Belfast, Dublin, Limerick and Waterford. Socialist politics in Ireland had other roots and in 1896 James Connolly founded the Irish Socialist Republican Party which gave Irish workers a clear, class-conscious socialist organisation. It produced a considerable number of pamphlets and under Connolly's editorship, a newspaper, The Workers' Republic was published.
The Socialist Republican Party vigorously opposed the Boer War, and in 1900 represented Ireland at the International Socialist and Labour Congress in Paris where Connolly obtained voting rights for Ireland as a distinct nation, a position which was supported by the British delegation. It also contested local elections and between 1899 and 1903 put forward nine candidates, one of whom was Connolly, but they failed to make any impact, and with little influence outside Dublin and Cork, the party virtually collapsed. In 1904 it was reorganised and given a new name - The Socialist Party of Ireland.
Following the Transport Workers' strike in Belfast during 1907, when workers of all religions and political persuasions united for the first time, strike followed strike, eventually leading to the formation of the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union (ITGWU) with James Larkin as General Secretary. The ITGWU affiliated to the Irish TUC in 1910, heralding major changes in its politics. James Connolly, who was in the USA carrying out a successful propaganda tour among Irish workers, kept in touch with events at home and accepted an invitation from the Socialist Party of Ireland to return and become its organiser. In addition he was appointed as organiser for the ITGWU, co-operating closely with Larkin to develop both socialism and a militant style of trade unionism. Then, in May 1911, The Irish Worker, the brainchild of Larkin, first appeared, and this became the most important of the socialist papers, with sales reaching 20,000. Its propaganda was extremely powerful and with contributors such as Connolly and Jean Jaurès, the French socialist leader, the paper played an important role in developing class consciousness.
At the 1912 Irish TUC James Connolly, as a delegate from the Belfast branch of the ITGWU and attending the TUC for the first time, proposed that an Irish Labour Party be formed. The next speaker at the rostrum was Nathan Rimmer, the ASRS Irish Secretary, who said that in view of the Osborne Judgement, he would remain neutral as the members of his union were forbidden to take any part politically through their branches or through affiliation to political bodies. W.E. Hill, who followed Rimmer, took a different point of view and proclaimed on behalf of the RCA It is the duty of leaders to lead,
and referring to the Osborne Judgement, argued There is no use waiting for it to be reversed and if it is not reversed by the time that it is necessary to put this resolution into operation, then our Irish Labour Party must be formed and supported in spite of that judgement.
8 When the debate concluded 49 delegates voted for the formation of the Irish Labour Party and 18 against.
This Congress was not only historic for its decision to form the Irish Labour Party but for its support of resolutions covering a number of other radical issues (including suffrage for women). The RCA's motion, which had been formulated by the Irish Divisional Council, was the first of many to call for the nationalisation of Ireland's railways. Proposed by W.E. Hill, it also declared that all railway employees should have the right to elect representatives to Executive Boards.9
In 1914 when the Irish TUC held its annual meeting in Dublin, it was preceded by a massive rally in Phoenix Park, and the first speaker on one of the platforms10 was W.E. Hill who had been elected to the Parliamentary Committee in 1913. There were 97 delegates at the conference, representing 80,000 workers, and the RCA delegates were Hill and the Irish EC member, James Lamberton Orr (Dublin). As President of Congress, James Larkin said:
"Thanks to the last two Congresses and the resolutions therein carried, today we see the birth of an Irish Labour Party in which there will be no room for the old lines of cleavage; no sectional politics, no disagreements, no misunderstandings; cemented by their common needs, a working class party that will concern itself with seeing to it that sufficient food, clothing and shelter are enjoyed by women, men and children."11
The Congress approved a new constitution, and amended its name to the Irish Trade Union Congress and Labour Party. In 1918 the title was changed to the Irish Labour Party and Trade Union Congress. (Irish LP & TUC) W.E. Hill was re-elected to its Parliamentary Committee with the third highest vote, a tribute to the role he had played within the movement.
The RCA had, from its inception, established the practice that delegates at the annual conference voted for the next year's venue. It was without doubt the organising ability of William Hill and the Irish Divisional Council that led to Dublin being selected for the 1915 Annual Conference. This decision encouraged the Irish Council to produce a pamphlet called The RCA - Its Aims, What it has Achieved, and its Future, with the result that membership further increased by 23 per cent during the year. Dublin, which already had over 90 per cent of its potential members in the branch, increased its membership, as did all the Irish branches, and by the 1915 Conference there were 8 branches with 3,400 members.
The conference took place on 15th/16th May and although the First World War had broken out during the previous August, it was felt that it should go ahead as planned. Despite the danger of travelling across the Irish Sea, 197 delegates attended, only 11 fewer than the previous year's record of 208; their first decision was to record sympathy with all those who had suffered a bereavement because of the sinking of the Lusitania. Herbert G. Romeril,12 who had followed George Lathan as President in 1912, was anxious not to get engaged in Irish politics, but in his address he urged all unorganised Irish railway workers
"not to let their political differences prevent them from uniting in their economic interest. Railway shareholders and officials in Ireland will not allow their political differences to prevent them from combining to safeguard their interests in the railway business, and I trust that the unity which is now a marked and unusual feature in Ireland, so far as national defence is concerned, may be extended among railway clerical workers in defence of their industrial interests."13
RCA politics took an interesting turn when J.P. Nannetti, a Nationalist MP, died, and a by-election was held in the Dublin College Green constituency in June 1915. Nannetti had always been vehemently opposed to a separate Labour Party but played an important role as a spokesman for the Irish trade union movement within Parliament, winning considerable respect even though his politics were not supported by the Labour Party. The Association's EC decided that the RCA should contest the the seat and W.E. Hill was nominated to stand - not for Labour, but on the Nationalist ticket. The constituency was overwhelmingly working class and there was a real possibility of winning the seat. The controversial decision to stand on a Nationalist platform was probably owing, in part, to opportunism; it also had the objective of excluding any supporter of Jim Larkin's militant politics from Parliament.14
Hill was certainly prepared to stand against a nominee of Larkin's, but not against a recognised trade union candidate. Hill saw the dangers and told the EC that if he were put forward by the Nationalist Party it would be as an independent member of that party and not as a trade union or labour representative and he would, of course, be under the Nationalist whips. He told the EC that he would not stand unless he was guaranteed a free hand in regard to labour questions and was convinced that if he stood as a Nationalist, Larkin's supporters would oppose him and this would probably mean having to sever his connections with the Parliamentary Committee. The EC agreed that the application for permission for Mr. Hill to stand as a Parliamentary candidate under the nomination of the Nationalist Party be acceded to, provided full freedom of action on Labour questions be given to him.
15 As it happened, Thomas Farren, President of the Dublin Trades Council, decided to stand under the banner of the Trades Council, and Hill withdrew. Farren was opposed by John Nugent a member of the Irish Party, who had opposed a lengthy ITGWU Dublin strike in 1913 and set up a sectarian railway union. Nugent won the election by 659 votes.
In September 1915 a by-election was announced for the Dublin Harbour constituency; W.B. MacMahon the Dublin branch secretary was approached, as indeed was Connolly, who refused the invitation. Unfortunately, MacMahon became ill and felt unable to put his name forward. In the end, no-one stood for Labour, and Nationalist politics dominated the political scene. During the election the RCA wrote to all three candidates asking them to confirm their support of a wide range of RCA policies. These included nationalisation of railways, compensation to staff in the event of redundancy, equal pay for equal work, adult suffrage and a number of questions related to wages and conditions. All three candidates responded positively to the Association's questions.
The Labour Party did not contest any elections until 1920 when it participated in local elections, nor did it put forward candidates in a General Election until 1922 when the RCA achieved its first Parliamentary success. As for Hill, he was now considerably ill at ease with the politics and the policies of the Parliamentary Committee, and he resigned his position in June 1916.
From Easter 1916, every aspect of life during that momentous year was overshadowed by the Republican Rising. The insurrection was primarily that of the Irish Citizen Army and the Irish Volunteers, both Republican, and seeking separation from Britain. Many trade unionists took part in the fighting although no union as such had any part in the insurrection. However, the Citizen Army had been formed and led by members of the ITGWU and when the fighting ended the leadership of the Irish TUC & Labour Party tried to disassociate itself from the Citizen Army; a view that was strongly challenged by W.E. Hill. Amongst those who died was James Connolly who was court-martialled, and, despite being severely wounded, executed.
A railway clerk who played a significant part in the Easter Rising was Sean Heuston who had commenced his career with the Great Southern and Western Railway Company as a Goods Clerk in Limerick on 19th August 1907. An active Nationalist, he introduced Fianna Éireann16 to Limerick, becoming an officer and Director of Training. Transferred to Kingsbridge Station, Dublin, in 1913 he was present at the inaugural meeting of the Irish Volunteers held in the Rotunda on 25th November that year. He immediately joined the Volunteers and became Captain of "D" Company 1st. Battalion. During the Rising, Heuston, with approximately twelve young men, had the responsibility of occupying the Mendicity Institute (later renamed Heuston's Fort) and of holding the building for two or three hours. In fact they managed to hold out against 300-400 troops for three days, during which time continuous fighting took place. Several of Heuston's troops were killed during the assault on the building and before they could be reinforced the surrounding area was set on fire by British troops and they were obliged to surrender. Sean Heuston was executed on 8th May 1916 and in his memory Kingsbridge Station was renamed Heuston in 1966.
When the Easter Rising erupted W.E. Hill was in London. Concerned for his relatives in Dublin he resolved to find out if they were safe and started his long and difficult journey, with no guarantee that he would reach his destination. Martial law had been declared throughout Ireland and just after Hill's arrival at Dun Laoghaire he noticed that even to enter the Roman Catholic church for Mass people were required to show a pass to the army picket. He managed to speak to some troops and to his amazement found that many were surprised that the locals all spoke English, albeit with an accent; they thought that they had been sent to France!
Hill eventually obtained a travel pass and made his way to Dublin where he was checked every hundred yards or so by the army; when he reached Baggot Street Bridge he witnessed some of the fighting. As he looked around he found it hard to recognise the city he had known so well. Grafton Street was smashed and looted from end to end; Sackville Street was a wide space of utter ruin. There were a few gaunt walls, mountains of debris, smoking heaps of bricks, dead horses lying about, a wrecked tramcar on its side, broken barbed wire entanglements, and frowning over it all, the massive smoke-blackened shell of the General Post Office.
17 There had been considerable fighting in all the railway stations and no trains had been operating around Dublin for a week. Many of the hotels where delegates had stayed twelve months earlier had been destroyed or badly damaged. When Hill eventually reached his relatives, he found them safe, but two close friends had been killed by stray bullets during the street fighting. By the time he returned to London 1,351 people had been killed or severely wounded, and 179 buildings in the central area of Dublin, including the NUR office, were totally demolished.
During the early stages of the Rising many firms, including the railway companies, suspended staff who were known to have strong Nationalist views even though they had had nothing to do with the fighting. A number of RCA members were detained by the military who made wholesale arrests simply on suspicion. Some of these had worked for the railway companies for up to twenty years and were punished simply because they believed that Ireland should have her liberty and independence.
18 The Irish Divisional Council and the EC worked hard to get members, and some non-members reinstated. The most problematic cases were J.J. Doyle who was still detained five months later, W. James (a stationmaster), R. Whelan and D. Neary who, although released, were refused reinstatement. J. Redmond, who had been forced against his will to take part as an ambulance worker, was reinstated but was not paid for his months of absence. J. Richmond, a member of the Dublin branch, who did take an active part, was not permitted to return to work until 1922 following the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty.
The Irish Divisional Council pressed strongly for an amnesty for all those who had been involved in the Easter events and a number of RCA branches in England, Scotland and Wales protested against the unjust treatment of Irish railwaymen. W.E. Williams, the newly elected President of the Association, visited Ireland in September 1916, regardless of the fact that the country was still under martial law, with branches having to apply to the military authorities for permission to hold meetings. Williams addressed members in Belfast, Dublin and Limerick. It was not Nationalist politics that dominated the discussion but the price of food and low pay. At the Dublin meeting the chairman, W.B. MacMahon, condemned all merchants who had raised their prices and adulterated foods such as milk, sugar and butter to increase their profits, and the RCA was the first trade union to denounce profiteering and the adulteration of food.
At the RCA's 1915 Annual Conference a motion to open a Dublin office was referred to the EC but they decided that no action should be taken. The subject was revived at the 1917 Conference and despite opposition from one delegate who said that it would not justify the expense, it had the support of the Executive and was carried. Applications for the post of Irish Secretary were received from a large number of members of whom three were interviewed. These were Thomas Moore (a founder member of the Belfast branch and its chairman), F.J. McCormack, born in Limerick but now chairman of the Glasgow branch, and the new Irish Divisional Council Secretary, a member of the Dublin branch, John Thomas O'Farrell,19 and it was O'Farrell who was appointed.
O'Farrell was a leader of considerable ability and he had always taken the lead when deputations met the various company directors to discuss wages and conditions. He played a distinguished role in the history of the RCA, the Irish TUC and also in politics. When he retired in 1948 the Irish membership had more than doubled and the considerable improvements that had been made were owing in no small part to his efforts. A controversial figure in Irish politics, he was very outspoken, but few questioned his competence and intellectual ability. He was an outstanding figure in the Irish labour and trade union movement.
[1]. Nottingham RCA branch minutes 9th December 1898.
[2]. Railway Herald 7th July 1900. In 1900 the Irish Railway Officers' Association had a membership of 2,000, with approximately 800 members in Dublin, 300 in Belfast, 130 in the Clearing House, and the remainder spread throughout the network.
[3]. S. Lomax (Bolton). Started work in a cotton mill, then joined L&Y Railway. EC 1906-1914. TUC Auditor 1923-1926; Chairman Bolton ILP. Bolton Town Councillor, Alderman and Mayor 1932.
[4]. W. P. O'Doherty (Londonderry). Joined RCA 1904. Branch secretary 1906-1931. Chairman Irish Divisional Council and Chairman Derry Gaelic Football Club.
[5]. W. B. MacMahon (Dublin). Irish Railway Officers' Association, then RCA Chairman Irish Divisional Council. EC 1911-1912. Led many deputations to improve salaries and conditions of service.
[6]. The Railway Clerk March 1911.
[7]. The Railway Clerk February 1911.
[8]. Irish TUC Annual Report 1912.
[9]. Irish TUC Annual Report 1912.
[10]. Before the invention of the public address system, at all large rallies there were several platforms, each one having a succession of speakers. The speakers were positioned to ensure that everyone could hear, and speeches were often simultaneous.
[11]. Irish TUC & LP Annual Report 1914.
[12]. H. G. Romeril (Railway Clearing House). Started work in the Railway Clearing House at 15 in 1896. Joined West London branch 1898 and established Clearing House branch 1909, continued to attend meetings until his death in 1963. EC 1912-1916 and 1933-1936. President RCA 1912-1916. First sponsored RCA MP.
[13]. The Railway Clerk June 1915.
[14]. Jim Larkin led the 1913 Dublin strike which lasted for several months. He targeted companies to concede higher pay and then, if they refused, asked sympathisers to join the strike. The strike was not officially supported by the RCA but nine British branches and the Yorkshire Divisional Council collected money in support. At the 1913 TUC, A.E. Chandler was the first delegate asking when the events of the previous weekend, (when 400 people were injured and one man killed), would be discussed. He also spoke during the debate that took place later.
[15]. RCA EC Minutes 2nd May 1915.
[16]. Fianna Éireann, the Republican Youth Movement.
[17]. The Railway Clerk May 1916.
[18]. The Railway Clerk July 1916.
[19]. Senator J. T. O'Farrell (Dublin). Joined RCA 1910. Secretary Irish Council 1915-1918. Appointed Irish Secretary 1918. Delegate to Dublin Trades Council, helped to form Irish Labour Party. ITUC and LP EC 1918-1930, President 1926-1927. Treasurer Irish TUC 1945-1949. Labour Party EC 1930-1931. Chairman Film Censorship Board, CIE Board of Directors 1950-1968. Seanad Éireann 1922-1936 and 1948-1950.
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