Come Here To Me!

I got a text from hxci to tell me he was only about to upload that great image of the Irish Womens Workers Union when he saw I’d used it on Sunday in another post. It reminded me to upload this image of Delia Larkin, members of the IWWU and male trade unionists who made up the Jacobs Strike Committee on the steps of Liberty Hall. It’s obviously from the same day, and is a wonderful image that doesn’t show up as often.

Several people who would go on to be involved with the the Irish Citizen Army, such as Rosie Hackett, were involved in the Jacobs dispute.

One of the first women to come out in sympathy with the men was Rosie Hackett, a young messenger for the company, who had joined the Irish Transport and General Workers Union in the previous year. Two weeks after the successful Jacob’s strike, Rosie was one of the founder members of the Irish Women Workers Union, set up to protect women in the face of the appalling conditions in which many of them were expected to work.

In August 1913, when the tramworkers struck, Rosie and her fellow workers from Jacob’s again mobilised in support of the pickets and they gathered in O’Connell Street on 31 August for a rally against the employers. She was in the crowd that was baton charged by the police, resulting in the terrible injuries to the workers that made the day infamous as ‘Bloody Sunday’. On the following Saturday, three Jacob’s workers were sacked for refusing to remove their ITGWU badges and Rosie was one of the organisers of the supporting strike which began immediately afterwards.

The steps of Liberty Hall were a favourite place for the trade union movement to be photographed! The image below shows the men and women of the Irish Citizen Army at Liberty Hall in 1917, a year on from the insurrection. James Connolly’s secretary Winifred Carney is clearly identifiable in the front row on the left, next to the streetlight. It’s another great photograph on the steps of Liberty Hall.

Can you identify some of the women in any of the pictures? Leave a comment!

My thanks to David and Barry, who are active within the very important campaign to save 16 Moore Street, for bringing these images to my attention of the demolition of Liberty Hall in the 1950s. This was a very different Liberty Hall to the one we know today.

Back in May of last year, I posted this great little story on a banner that was draped over this Liberty Hall in 1917.

In it, Rosie Hackett of the Irish Citizen Army noted that:

“Historically, Liberty Hall is the most important building that we have in the city. Yet, it is not thought of at all by most people. More things happened there, in connection with the Rising, than in any other place. It really started from there”