17.05.2013
‘You Can’t Eat a Flag’ – Church of Ireland Symposium on the 1913 Dublin Lock Out to be held at Liberty Hall
A symposium organised by the Church of Ireland Historical Commemorations Working Group is to be held at Liberty Hall, Dublin on Saturday 16 November 2013. During this ‘Decade of Centenaries’ many will concentrate on the great constitutional issues and events which dominated public life in Ireland in the period 1912–1922. However, these events took place within the context of the circumstances of everyday life for ordinary people in Ireland. For many those circumstances were dominated by economic hardship and social deprivation. The years 1913–1922 were also years of great Trade Union activity and turbulent relationships between labour and capital. The best known manifestation of this turbulence was the Dublin Lock Out of 1913, an event which continues to have relevance for today. In more recent times, and in a period of equally fraught constitutional crises, John Hume remarked that ‘You can’t eat a flag’ – a sentiment that may have found an appreciative hearing amongst the poor of Dublin. This symposium will seek to examine the Dublin Lock Out of 1913 in its own context but also focus on some of the less well–known people who influenced events or were influenced by them. In this way it is hoped that the historical canvas for commemoration will be broadened beyond constitutional matters.
The event will commence at 10.30am and conclude at 3.00pm. Dr Fearghal McGarry of the School of History and Anthropology at Queen’s University, Belfast (QUB) will give a general historical introduction, followed by an examination of the part played by William Martin Murphy, a very influential employer in Dublin in 1913, by his biographer, Fr Thomas Morrissey SJ. Dr Valerie Jones, a member of the Church of Ireland in Dublin who has conducted recent research into the Church of Ireland in this period, will look at some of the Church of Ireland personalities who sympathised with the strikers and some who played a role in the events surrounding the Lock Out. The Symposium will be chaired and facilitated by Mr Kieran Mulvey who is Chief Executive of the Labour Relations Commission and Professor David Hayton of QUB will chair a roundtable discussion.
Further details for registering interest in attending this event will be issued closer to the time.