Larry Broderick obituary: Astute and pragmatic trade unionist

Born: March 1st, 1958

Died: June 18th, 2023

There was a particular sense of shock last month when news that Larry Broderick, the retired general secretary of the Irish Bank Officials’ Association, later the Financial Services Union, had died suddenly at his home.

Minister for Finance Michael McGrath joined Broderick’s former colleagues at the FSU, senior officials in the wider trade union movement and from across the industry in paying tribute to him after the news was announced. The sense of sadness was all too clear as FSU president Eileen Gorman talked about his absence at an event last week.

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Born in 1958, Broderick grew up on Dowland Road, in Walkinstown, Co Dublin, with his parents Vincent, a plasterer by trade but much better known as a composer and player of traditional music, from Loughrea, and Phyllis from Dublin.

He had two brothers, Vincent and Des, and he inherited his father’s love of music, playing the flute and tin whistle. He was later renowned for bringing his whistle everywhere and striking up a tune during the many lulls that would occur in trade union negotiations.

He had also been an accomplished sportsman, featuring for Dublin’s footballers and hurlers as a youth and good enough for Stella Maris to be offered trials with Arsenal and West Ham. Pressure from his mother contributed to his decision not to travel, but friends say he shared her belief in the importance of education and that he never regretted his decision to stay in Dublin. Having done his Leaving Certificate at CBS Crumlin, he went on to earn a commerce degree followed by a master’s in industrial relations at University College Dublin.

His career in trade unions started with the Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union (now Siptu) which was starting to hire graduates, having previously sought to make activists full-time. He moved to the IBOA in 1985, a year after marrying Elizabeth Whelan from Rathfarnham. They had one daughter, Lauren, and made Ballymore Eustace their home.

Broderick was to gain a reputation as an astute and pragmatic negotiator with a firm sense of what could be achieved for the union’s members. He became general secretary of the IBOA in 2001 and is said to have enjoyed the status the position brought. Both colleagues and banking industry officials, however, recall a man who never forgot who was paying his wages.

“He was a negotiator who did deals,” recalls one. “He didn’t lead people up the garden path with promises he couldn’t deliver on. He’d get a sense from the membership that they wanted A, B and C, and if he couldn’t deliver all three, then he’d look to come away with A and B.”

It would have been fairly routine for officials to retire to the pub after such talks to analyse how they had gone, but Broderick, though considered sociable and collegiate, would almost always prefer to head home to his family.

He had a reputation for hard work and for trying to ensure he and the union had a sense where a fast-changing industry might be heading.

The union grew during his early years in charge, but was then at the very heart of the financial crisis as the banks sought to suddenly restructure, a process that inevitably involved substantial job losses.

He is credited within the movement with having played a significant part in scotching at an early stage the suggestion of a merger between AIB and Bank of Ireland, after the State had come to control both of them.

The move would have cost many more workers their jobs and potentially, former colleagues point out, resulted in even less competition in the retail banking sector now.

He was also acutely aware of his union’s position as a 32-county organisation with members from all communities. The union’s then communications adviser, Tom Kelly, recalled having played Roddy McCorley then The Sash for Peter Robinson at a function in the North. It went down well, Kelly said, mainly because Broderick was the sort of personality who could pull that sort of thing off.

He retired in 2018 and though he continued to do some voluntary work with, among others, the acquired brain injury charity Positive Futures, he stepped back almost completely from frontline trade unionism. He left the now FSU, the refocusing of which from association to union he had overseen, and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, where he served on executive for many years, repeatedly winning re-election despite the modest size of his union.

He spent much of his time in the years since, friends say, supporting Elizabeth in her work, while gardening, golfing and cooking. He was devoted, too, to Lauren who married only a matter of weeks before his death. He is survived by them both, his son-in-law Dylan and two brothers.