Successful Culture Night event in the Sean O’Casey Community Centre
Last Friday, 20th September was Culture Night 2013, and the Sean O’Casey Community Centre hosted a hugely successful programme of events on the theme of ‘working class’ culture. Here is a full report on an evening which included Dublin tenements, Dockers and 1913 photo exhibits and some workers songs.
The centre piece of the evening was three performances of “Victims”, AP Wilsons one act play, still tragically topical a century after it first appeared.
“Victims” was originally performed in Liberty Hall on St Stephens Day 1912, and featured Delia Larkin in a leading role. It is set in a tenement room and addresses the still (unfortunately) relevant subjects of poverty and eviction. The play had also been published in ‘The Irish Worker’ Christmas number of that year. This was the paper of the ITGWU, edited by Jim Larkin. This had an important role in promoting and influencing a working class culture in its readership and was not just concerned strictly with trade union issues. This was a rare opportunity to see the play being performed in a community that was central to the events of the era, and was very well received.
Each performance was preceded by an introduction by Director Dara O’Carolan who explained the historical background to the play and outlined the events of the era. Dara also introduced special guest Diarmuid Breatnach who helped set the atmosphere with workers songs from the era (see feature below).
The Dublin Dockworkers Preservation Society photo exhibition was held in the Sports Hall. Recording a crucial era and location in the City’s working class history, the exhibition was a real treat for local residents as this included a different selection of images than displayed here previously. Also featured was memorabilia of the Dockers working life, a selection of hooks and a Button collection.
The centre was also decorated with a selection of 1913 Lockout related material , including three sets of photographs recalling the recent re-enactment of Bloody Sunday on O’Connell street . These photo collections by Antonia Joaquin , John Moran and Sarah Lundberg showed many of the characters and costumes who had taken part , including “The Risen People “ cast and other local residents.
Culture Night 2013 was a major achievement for the award winning Sean O’Casey Community Centre and is yet another great example of how our community is truly a shining example of what can be achieved in promoting arts, culture and history at a very high standard.
Songs of the workers: Diarmuid Breatnach sings Guthrie and Connolly
Special guest singer Diarmuid Breatnach had chosen two songs and explained their relevance. The first of these was from the United States but was connected in number of ways to the experience of the Dublin Lockout of 1913. This song was The Ludlow Massacre, written by the legendary Woody Guthrie.The events in the song took place during the great miners’ strike in Southern Colorado, which began in September 1913, just after the start of the Dublin Lockout. However, while the Lockout ended in February 1914, the U.S. strike continued until December 1914.
The United Mineworkers of America trade union faced a combination of companies. Diarmuid pointed out that the full force of the State in Southern Colorado was on the side of the employers, just as in Dublin the British Army, the Royal Irish Constabulary and in particular the Dublin Metropolitan Police were ranged against the workers.
The death-toll in the struggle in Southern Colorado was much higher than in Dublin, with some estimates putting it as high as 199 people. Diarmuid recounted how the mineworkers armed themselves and fought back, just as the Irish Citizen Army was formed by leaders of the Irish Transport & General Workers’ Union.
In a parallel to the practice of a number of Dublin employers, mineworkers were often housed in company houses for which they were charged rent and when they went on strike they were evicted. This is exactly what happened to 62 workers families on Merchants Road, as commemorated recently.
The events recounted in the Ludlow Massacre song took place in 1914, eight months after the start of the miners’ strike and two months after the Dublin Lockout ended. On April 20th 1,200 strikers and their families were evicted by the Colorado Fuel & Iron Company (owned by John D. Rockefeller). The strikers set up a camp town an area called Ludlow, and the State Troopers set up machine guns overlooking the camp. Diarmuid then went on to sing the song:
http://www.christymoore.com/lyrics/the-ludlow-massacre/
Diarmuid assured all that his next song would be more cheerful. It had been written by James Connolly himself and although he was unsure of the date, he believed it had been published earlier than 1913. Like many of the lyrics written in those years, for example in The Irish Worker newspaper, no indication was given for the air to this song. That left workers free to compose their own air or, more likely, to fit the lyrics to what might be a popular air at the time – whether folk, traditional or music-hall.
Although the lyrics have been put to a number of airs more recently, Diarmuid first heard them sung by an English communist in the early 1970s to the tune of Thomas Davis’ great song, A Nation Once Again. Diarmuid believes that the lyrics fit this air very well and the song also has the benefit of providing a chorus, in which he hoped the audience would join (which they did, with gusto).
http://www.marxists.org/archive/connolly/1907/xx/wewnerth.htm
Diarmuid delivered powerful and emotive renditions of both songs, and greatly added to the atmosphere of the evenings events. A big thank you to Diarmuid and to John, Joaquin and Sarah for permission to use their photos and to everyone else that contributed to making the evening such a triumph.