While on the subject of re-enactments, we might as well mention one with a particular relevance to our current special issue on the 1913 Lockout, in which Tony Canavan wrote a preliminary account of the Dublin Tenement Experience: Living the Lockout (you can read his review, taken from the current issue, elsewhere on the website). … Read more
The republican trade unionist and ITGWU organiser P.T. Daly alleged that the low wages paid to the female employees at Jacob’s factory were ‘the cause of driving many of them onto the streets as prostitutes’. The Dublin Metropolitan Police estimated in 1901 that while female prostitution was decreasing there were still an estimated 1,677 women … Read more
The weekly wages of a DMP or RIC constable during his first years of service were by no means high, slightly more than the wages of a labourer during a full week of summer employment, or just over a pound (20–22 shillings). The report of the Committee of Inquiry into the Royal Irish Constabulary and … Read more
The lockout brought much hardship to families, affected trade and occupied both the infirmary and the court house. It therefore drew reactions from various and diverse groups. The GAA quickly showed their support for the locked-out men by staging challenge matches to raise funds. Even funds from the Leinster hurling final between Dublin and Kilkenny … Read more
A provincial coastal town, Wexford had a strong seafaring tradition, its quayside having established trade links with Britain and a railway that connected the town to Dublin. Besides having its own distillery and flour mills, it was a busy trade town with regular agricultural markets, thus ensuring a high level of commercial activity. But the … Read more