Great Irish Women part 5 - Delia Larkin

NORMAL service must be resuming here because here's the next in my Great Irish Women series. I will draw up a straw poll for a future post and give you the choice for the next one, the most mentions in the post comments (ha if indeed there'll be any) is the next one.

Delia Larkin

But for now the next is Delia Larkin for two reasons, one being that her name has been thrown in the ring by some of the commentators here and the second being that a pal bought me a pack of Irish women post cards from SIPTU/ICTU for this series. Thanks a million for that, people have been great with suggestions, research, all sorts, thanks:)

Delia was born in February 27, 1878 in Toxeth Park, Liverpool. The fifth child and eldest surviving daughter of Mary Ann McNulty and James Larkin, Delia lost her father to TB when she was nine and her two eldest brothers, Hugh and James had to work to support the family. Delia herself started work early to help out the family.

She is first recorded as living in Ireland in 1911's census when she lived in Broadstone, Dublin 7 with her brother James. The census records her as being a teacher though she was known to be a nurse in Liverpool.

At one stage it is thought she ran a hotel in Rostrevor when her brother was strike leader with the National Union of dock labourers in Belfast in 1907.

She felt passionate about women's involvement in trade unions and how their voices should be held in the same regard as men's. So in the summer of 1911 she established a trade union for women called the Irish Women Workers Union (IWWU) within the ITGWU which was founded by her brother James.

The new union was advertised with a column in the Irish Worker where Delia wrote about housing, social conditions, and votes for women. She said: "all we ask for is just shorter hours, better pay than the scandalous limit now existing and conditions of labour befitting a human being".

In a short period of time the union has fundraised enough monies to help the families of victimisation.

By 1912 the union had 1,000 members and was seeking independent affiliation from the ITGWU to the ITCU and was represented by Delia at three annual conferences from 1912 to 1914. Delia also represented women on Ireland's first trades board which was formed to regulate pay within the poorly paid manufacturing sectors where women worked.

While she was doing all this, Delia was also organising a drama section of the union, the Irish Workers Dramatic Class, a choir as well as campaigning on votes for women.

In 1913 the Dublin tram strike took place and was spreading throughout the city. Dublin was paralysed by the lock-out and thousands were unemployed.

The dispute hit Jacob's in September following workers wearing the IWWU badge, 310 women were locked out within a week.

James Larkin went to England while Delia took charge of Liberty Hall where she organised feeding the thousands of workers locked out and their families. This involved daily breakfasts for 3,000 children, lunches as well as distributing other necessities such as clothing.

A plan to send workers' children to England was opposed by Archbishop Walsh who thought the Catholic children would be sent to the homes of 'atheists and Socialists'. Delia ended up in a stand-off after another plan to send the workers' children to Belfast by train before she was eventually compelled to retrace her steps to Liberty Hall with the children.

The lock out continued until February 1914 and with 400 of her union members not reinstated, the union drama group began to tour with the troop consisting of the locked-out members.

That June she stood unsuccessfully for the Poor Law elections in Dublin and was the only woman in 13 candidates nominated by trade unions.

A row over payment for Liberty Hall saw her in June looking for new premises for the union and then her rejection as a proposed member of the Ladies' Advisory Committee which was formed to provide relief work in Ireland.

When her brother Big Jim went to the States in 1915 Delia went to Liverpool where she is believed to have worked as a nurse. She returned to Ireland to work on the anti-conscription campaign of Irish men into the British army and was also refused membership of the reorganised IWWU who told her she should join the Irish Clerical Workers' Union who in turn also refused her membership.

After 1916 Delia began to write for the Red Hand, something her brother disagreed with as he believed it could cause disunity within the union.

In 1918 she campaigned on behalf of the Sydney 12 continuing her lifelong passion for workers' rights and eventually went back to work in Liberty Hall.

At the age of 43 she married former Irish Citizens' Army member Pat Colgan and ill-health forced her out of the passions that drove her in her younger years. She said: "I was forced into this life against all inclinations".

Delia died at home in October 26, 1949 and is buried in Glasnevin Cemetery. She remains an inspirational union women who was driven by her belief in equality.

Sources here, here and here and you can read more here. And you can get the postcards I was talking about here.

RM Column - April 5 Sugar Plum Teenager

“Tell her she can get any clothes she wants for easter and I’ll pay for it,” Nanny told me. With instructions like that the Young Wan didn’t need to be told twice.

The plan was seeing as how she was off school for the week and was in with me in work, that when I had a meeting she would head off on a clothes hunt in town.

For most of the morning I felt like the parent of a toddler again, there were lots of ‘is it time yet’ a little reminder to the ‘are we there yet days?’.

At 4.30pm she burst back into the office gushing about finding the most perfect skirt ever.

“Oh it is soooo beautiful. I HAVE to have it. AND it is reduced from €50 to €25,” she told me.

I then asked what’s it like?

“Well it is red and black, kinda like a tutu, but not really. It comes down to here (points at her knee) and it is gorgeous. The woman in the shop said it is gorgeous on me too.”

Yeah cos people who try to sell you things never lie… How and ever off she went €25 in hand to buy the wonder skirt.

She came back, pulled it out of the bag to an audience of work colleagues whom she had all told about the item. They cooed appropriately as I went ‘that’s too short’.

It’s not a skirt at all it is a belt as they say, seriously. Oh and it is a tutu of the sugar plum fairy type, a short one. While it is certainly very pretty and cool it is still a belt.

So when I got back home she was trying it on in all its glory.

Now I have a rule which has been adapted from that fashion rule, the higher the skirt, the darker the tights.

Only mine is the higher the skirt, stick on some trousers. I am not talking about big mad trousers, I am talking about her Capri trousers which look beautiful under little skirts and mini-dresses.

You see I think she doesn’t move right in miniskirts, she forgets she is wearing one and can reveal more than decent.

She matched her skirt with her massive big hoodie sweatshirt, holey patterned tights, and her big boots.

She even managed to sit down and move about with the skirt on without revealing anything of concern.

Then I noticed the skirt was sitting longer on her than I thought. Trouble was she had pulled it down to her hips, and would not have any top that would sit right with a skirt pulled that far down.

So it would appear that even she didn’t want to wear it that short. So I think I might take a trip to buy some black net to lengthen the skirt and make it a decent length.

If I don’t I will just turn into an even bigger nag than I am already and I will not feel comfortable with her wearing it. As if that would be a change...

One last post on the election, count pictures

[EDIT: 14:18] To include McDowell pic for Fiona, its at the bottom.

I was at the election count over the weekend in both the RDS and then up in Portmarnock for the Dublin North count. Here's some of the pics. I took lots and lots and don't want to make them public on Flickr or I will completely inundate Irishblogs.ie with a deluge of count pictures.

If you are interested in seeing more and have a Flickr account, add me as a friend on Flickr and once I add yourself then you'll be able to see them. If you are already a friend you can see them here. (There's even one of McDowell leaving politics!)

Counts are fascinating and exciting business, I hope the pics give you a flavour of the day. Oh and yes I was depressed at the outcome, I think Twenty puts it eloquently.

Seriously it's time to call it a day...

Super Spoofer Bertie

There's a lot of funny youtube videos on the election. I only spotted this one, Super Spoofer, by Abba (Anyone but Bertie Ahern). Enjoy. Oh and you can find more funny videos on Vote Tube and Irish Election tv. You can also find more here on youtube itself.

Never let Nanny near the remote

The green writing on the pic apparently says volume...



Never let Nanny near the remote. Nuff said.

RTE tracking the media

RTE on it's election section has an interesting piece on tracking media over the campaign. They describe it as "RTÉ.ie, in collaboration with RTÉ Libraries and Archives and Factiva, will be tracking the media in the final days of the campaign using Web 2.0 technology."



There's lots of graphs showing all sorts from the number of times each party has been mentioned in the last 30 days as shown above, to the issues, to the party leaders, oh there's something for every anorak.

Do check it out, its interesting reading altogether, now I'm away for a closer look.

RM April 27 - Not a Romeo

THERE'S been hiccups in the romance field for the Young Wan this week and my hearts gone out to her.

She has seemed a little ‘meh’ about the boyfriend over recent weeks, the fact that she has been chatted up left right and centre may have had something to do with it. But in fairness to her she is not that fickle and there have been a couple of things that have been annoying her. So Romeo’s lost his crown somewhat.

Then it all blew up on Saturday night.

While I was chilling in front of the telly herself was sending text messages back and forth to the young boyfriend.

And from the things she told about what was going on I have to say he is a little bit of a drama queen, throwing the proverbial toy from the pram when he isn’t happy.

At one stage she replied back to him and then heard nothing, so off she went to bed.

Unbeknownst to her until the next morning, he had been replying but as her inbox was full none of the messages were delivered until she turned her phone off over night and back on again the next morning.

Then a load of messages came in stating something along the lines of ‘well if you can’t be bothered replying forget about it’.

What a wee eejit.

So she phoned him and he told her it was over. Then she told him not to worry because she thinks it was lame to text and finish a ten-month relationship. Oh the melodrama of it all.

Course I was listening to this thinking he’ll be calling her before the end of the day. Turns out he called before saying ‘well if you have anything to say I’ll be in town if you want to meet’.

Now as an adult I hate that nonsense. If you want to meet, say so, don’t turn it over to someone else, say whats on your mind.

Anyway she texted him back saying ‘I will be in town if you have anything to say’.

The long and the short of it all is that they have decided to cool things off until after the exams, considering the fact that she will be heading off for the summer with her Nanny, I told her she should have said ‘ach lets leave it till September’.

By the time she came home another two boys were texting her. And they haven’t stopped all week.

So while I am actually quite surprised she hasn’t heard from him, a part of me is a little bit delighted.

His parents were putting a real adult level onto their relationship. One time when he dropped her off with his sister and the Young Wan didn’t invite them in. She made a wise decision because the flat was upside down due to Christmas preparations and Nanny’s arrival.

His mum told him it was because she was hiding a man, seriously. The Young Wan was only 14 at the time and I just wasn’t sure if I should phone her and tell her off. Just because her mind was obviously in the gutter at times doesn’t mean that’s how others operate, particularly young teenagers.

There’s been more comments, more unsavoury comments and part of me is relieved that she no longer has to hear about them, or indeed me, I don’t fancy having to roll up my sleeves to punch some mad-Mum on the nose for being outrageously horrible about my daughter who at the end of the day is a young teenage girl and certainly far from the wiley-woman they were putting on her.

And now I don’t have to, thank God, she would have actually wiped the floor with me.

More things electoral

Irish Times political correspondent Mark Hennessy has started a blog. Just noticed it advertised on the Irish Times website, check it out here. The Irish Times election coverage is also a must-stop place.

In the last post I also should have included RTE's online coverage and the Insider blog-type reports on the road. If I think of other omissions I'll post them here.

My essential election reading

IN the true sporadic-blogging nature of late here, here's yet another post on the back of two today. While I should probably leave it for another time, who knows when I'll next get a chance to post so here's another. Seeing as how we are in the middle of the General Election, no better time to completely and utterly over-indulge in politics.

Along with newspapers, TV, breaking news websites, I have a couple of election must-reads where you can find me a couple of time a day.

First up is Irish Election which has more than come into it's own in the short time it has been established. The contributors have all stepped up to the challenge and raised their game in this run-up to polling day. Not that they weren't before, not at all, but you can read the passion and excitement in the posts now that we are in full-scale election time.

Some of the contributors at times make me want to shake people, other times I am nodding in agreement, other times laughing. I particularly enjoy the blogging round-ups they are doing at the moment. I really enjoy the different contributors doing it, the different angles from various bloggers make it great reading.

I also really enjoyed canvasser's entries, brilliant and anyone who has ever canvassed will click with it all. There used to be a rule not to canvas during the soaps, sure there are on all evening now, you'd never get to canvas.

So what is Irish Election going to do after the election? Hopefully continue, what's in a name anyway, sure there's always an election coming... There was certainly an opening in the Irish blogging community for such a site and I do hope it continues.

Next up is the Irish Examiner's Harry McGee who also seems to be enjoying the election and enjoying blogging about the election. Either way I am enjoying his blog. You can read his enjoyment of it all in each line. His is another blog that makes me laugh on occasions. And can you imagine waiting and waiting for the election to be called and you happen to be in Lisbon? Only he was in such wonderful surroundings I would almost feel sorry that he had to practically text his column that Sunday, so I don't :)

Shane Hegarty's Present Tense is also good reading, he's writing about the serious to weird of elections with little extras thrown in here and there. It's great to see the Irish Times blogging and great to see Shane linking to others.

Slugger is doing bits and pieces and is always worth a stop for a while, ehh a couple of times a day, regardless, after all there were kinda big things happening up north recently ;)

Irishblogs also turns up some gems which I sometimes have never come across before and it is one of those sites I have open nearly all day and will just refresh my browser every now and again.

I laugh heartily at Curry Chips, particularly gingit bang, more, more, more pleeeaaaseee. This creativity and humour is also found on Green Ink, excellent altogether.

Course YouTube has been hosting absolute gems, Political Thicko, Ragaman to name a few.

I know there are more spots but at the moment I am too tired to remember. I'll add more when I think of them and get a chance to post.

Oh and if you want to check out somewhere else other than election fever, do check out Deborah's blog, lots and lots of yummy and easy recipes with easy instructions and mouth-watering pictures. Maybe Deborah should devise a high-energy, low-fat, healthy meal menu for our candidates.

Effin foreigners

WHERE I live in Dublin is full of our new Irish, so much so that it is not unusual to hear more languages other than English while going to the shop and it's great.

We have some new and exotic shops and a wonderfully cosmopolitan feel to the area. Unfortunately others haven't taken this view at all. And it would surprise you how 'foreigners' are blamed for everything.

Nanny told me a mad one today from her walk to the shops.

She was waiting at the lights when an old dear approached her and complained about how long the lights take to turn to allow pedestrians to cross.

The woman said: "These bloody lights are effin terrible, aren't they?

Nanny agreed.

Woman: "It takes you all effin day to get through these traffic lights, it's all them foreigners and them blacks".

Nanny puzzled at this just looked at her and the woman said "where are you from? are you from Scotland?" (You would be shocked by how many Dubliners have asked me that over the years.)

Nanny said: "No, I'm from Belfast."

Woman: "Oh Belfast so you're Irish then."

Nanny: "Of course I'm Irish."

The woman then walked on. Effin Dubliners!

Some recent pics

BEING out and about with the camera there are occasionally some great moments to snap including this dog which emulated the other dog in the window. I love the sly sidewards look its giving me.



Or what about this horse putting it's feet/hoof up.



Or these discarded shoes on Dublin's Baggot Street.

What on earth were the teachers at Scales Elementary thinking?

Jesus, none of the teachers at Scales Elementary School in Tennesse must have children, otherwise why would they think it appropriate or indeed right to organise a drill on what they would do if someone armed attacked the school. And weeks after the horrific deaths at Virginia Tech too. Read more on the BBC website here.

One thing that also strikes me is that when you organise a fire drill, well anywhere I have been to school or work, you don't tell people its real, you don't try to put the fear of God into them to see how they will react.

Those teachers and whoever devised such a outrageous drill should be ashamed of themselves. If it was my child I would certainly take this further. They should not be allowed to be in charge of children.

Statcounter in the Irish Times

THERE was an interesting article in the Irish Times yesterday on Statcounter.

Some of you may not know that one of our favourite statwatching sites is run by a Dubliner, the name Aodhan on the website pointed me in the direction of his Irish-ness.

The article tells us among other things that statcounter has become one of the top 30 visited sites in the States, wow, what an achievement.

And how young is Aodhan and his lovely wife Jenni? Once when statcounter introduced labels and I blogged about it and she responded to the post, a very nice personal touch considering how many emails they must get.

Anyway check out the article here, (subscription required) and fair play and well done to Aodhan and Jenni.

RM April 13 - Need to know basis

A FUNDAMENTAL part or rule of my parenting has been ‘on a need to know basis’. What the Young Wan didn’t need to know she didn’t.

This has been very handy over the years particularly for the ‘are we there yet’ scenarios. If they don’t know they are going anywhere they won’t be asking now will they?

Some of my friend’s children are at that stage where they don’t fully understand time and this is where ‘need to know’ becomes very important.

If they know they are doing something fun at the weekend and it is only Monday, the wee dears will do the ‘is it Friday? when is it Friday’ about every five minutes.

Why put yourself through endless questions that have the same answer.

I used to do this for everything from weekends away, trips to the cinema, the time I got preview tickets for the first Harry Potter movie of which the Young Wan has been a massive fan.

So not only was my head not done in by endless questions of when, where and how, but the look of wow on her face when she realised what we were actually doing was something else.

You can also have a bit of fun with it. That night of the Harry Potter movie, she would have been 10 or 11 years old, I bet her as we were ‘ahem going into town, (not to a movie at all)’ that she wouldn’t wear her big witches hat.

I am sure she thought that strange but she did it. When we got to cinema I asked her to stand in one place while I checked times of the Harry Potter movie which was officially opening the following week.

She told me afterwards she was thinking ‘oh all these kids are going to see Harry Potter, why is my Mum torturing me like this’.

The excitement from her when she realised what was going on is something that still makes me smile.

I once even managed to pack a weekend bag, got the two of us onto the airport bus before I told her we were off to spend the weekend with my friends in England.

At one stage she liked Justin Timberlake and unknownst to her I got tickets for his Point Depot concert. That night we went to dinner with pals and despite one of them blurting it out by mistake, the blurt went unnoticed. Later on I asked herself ‘wouldn’t it be lovely to go for a walk?

She agreed and when I asked her where she thought would make a lovely walk, she answered ‘by the river’.

Perfect my cunning plan was working out even more according to plan.

So off we went in a taxi down to the Point Depot beside the river where we got out and she saw all the people.

Everyone with us all welled up when I pulled out the tickets, she was ecstatic.

I am telling you the need to know rule is massively important and even more so now she is a teenager.

I have had a few occasions when I have been working late and decide not to let her know. It is probably better than teenagers do not have time to prepare for the coveted ‘free gaff’ and why broadcast the fact to them.

While a little amount of organisation is involved, making sure her dinner is prepared or at the very least there is money for the chipper, I will let her think I am coming home as normal.

Only I am actually not in the office, I am not even in Dublin sometimes. But as long as the Young Wan thinks I am just about to walk in the door, fantastic.

I’m telling you, its on a need to know basis.

Miss D

I DON'T have the time or energy at the moment to get into too much the awful situation yet another young woman/girl has found herself thrown into like another bloody awful nightmare throw-back. But I have to say something.

What is going on? Well a 17-year-old girl, Miss D, who is four months pregnant and under the care of the HSE, found out terrible news about her pregnancy and made the decision to have an abortion. The foetus she is carrying suffers from a brain condition and would have a life expectancy of three days.

The Irish Times explains:

"the HSE had given certain directions that Miss D was not to be permitted to leave the State for the proposed termination. She had been told by the HSE that the Garda had been notified that she is not permitted to leave the State and that the care order makes it unlawful for her to leave the State without HSE permission, counsel said."

As Miss D is a minor, her boyfriend is seeking a judicial review to stop the HSE preventing her from leaving the country.

Back to the Irish Times:

"Miss D wants the court to overturn the care order made by the judge to the extent that it restricts her from travelling outside the State. She also wants the court to quash a decision of the HSE refusing to permit her to travel to procure the termination of her pregnancy unless she presented as a suicide risk."

While I would like to say it's hard to believe we are here again, it isn't. It is awful to think that at a time when this young person is vulnerable and in need of support that she is subjected to this and having to resort to the courts.

Someday a lesson will be learnt, until then, my heart goes out to Miss D.

May Day

Just doing a search for May Day as you do on Flickr, I found these two images beside each other. From Hdbird and Sphinx 55. Considering they were uploaded in Boston and Athens, a cool coincidence.