@ Mechanics Institute, Galway (in association with the ICTU & the Irish Centre for the Histories of Labour and Class, NUI Galway)

James Connolly, executed for his part in the 1916 Rising, famously asserted that ‘The cause of Labour is the cause of Ireland; the cause of Ireland is the cause of Labour’. But how did this pan out in the subsequent War of Independence? Members of the trade union movement, the largest civil society organisation in Ireland at the time, were involved in a range of activities, from cultural resistance and industrial action to civil disobedience, and served in Dáil Courts and local authorities as well as in the armed struggle. Yet Labour was left in a relatively weak position in the politics of the consequent Irish Free State. To discuss this conundrum and related matters, History Ireland editor Tommy Graham was joined for a lively discussion by Emmet O’Connor, Margaret Ward and Brian Hanley.

Also supported by the Commemorations Unit of the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht