'It was the most bitter confrontation in the history of the State'

LABOUR PARTY councillor Denis O’Callaghan (inset) was a driver with the Department of Post and Telegraphs when the 1979 postal strike began in February that year.

Mr O’Callaghan from Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin, was also on the committee of the drivers’ branch of the Post Office Workers’ Union. “It was the most bitter confrontation in the history of the State between government and workers,” he says.

“It was particularly difficult for strikers and their families. A man with a family got £5 a week strike pay; those who were single got nothing.”

At the time, he had four children, with one making First Holy Communion and one their Confirmation. “It was a terrible struggle, we were relying on the community welfare officer . . . I wouldn’t like to see a strike of that duration again.”

The seeds of the trouble were sown the previous year. The union had 20 claims going through an arbitration process and being stalled by the department. There were low wages and poor working conditions.

Then the government refused a pay claim for clerks and the dispute began. Tensions ran high in many areas and workers remembered who supported them and who did not.

Pay cheques for Civil Service staff were processed at the Department of Social Welfare on Store Street, but one weekend strikers got word the cheques were going to be moved. They mounted a picket.

“One famous Kerry footballer brought cheques to Tralee; the next time he played in Croke Park there were placards held up reminding him of what he had done.”

For those who picketed at Store Street there was a tab opened at the local pub for a few days.

“It was said it was the minister for social welfare at the time [Charlie Haughey] because two-thirds of postmen came from the north side of the city.”

When the strike finished, at the end of June, workers received an average rise of £10.

“I do think it was worth it. It had to happen and it raises for me the clear-cut message of the importance of workers being organised. Had we not been organised we would have been trounced.

“The same applies today.”