The well-attended event, organised by members of the Clare Labour Party had special guest speakers from across the political and trade union landscape for an enthralling and wide ranging debate on trade union renewal. 

 

Speakers included former SIPTU president, Jack O’Connor, senior SIPTU official, Adrian Kane, Labour Limerick stalwart, Jan O’Sullivan and Dr Joe Power.

On the night, keynote speaker, Jack O’Connor highlighted the right to be represented by a Trade Union as “critical to economic equality and the wider issue of the quality of our democracy.”

 

Adrian Kane, author of Trade Unions, a new book about how the trade union movement can renew itself into the future said: “My talk on Union Renewal was to outline some ideas and practical proposals that will empower, modernise and strengthen our movement. Trade unionism is about fighting injustice not only in the workplace but wherever it exists. We can make our Unions vibrant and central to Irish economic, political and public life. However, we can only do this by working together, the industrial and the political wings of our movement united in a common cause, with common purpose for the common good.”

 

Our Labour movement can and must rekindle the fires of discontent in an Ireland more unequal than ever before. We need to renew people’s faith and trust in the change Labour people make and bring a new generation of workers to the cause of labour.”

 

Chairman of Clare Labour, Denis Vaughan, one of the main organisers of the event said: “The Paddy Hogan seminar is fast becoming a staple in the calendar for political and union activists around Clare and Ennis. Hogan himself was an ITGWU man and that strong rural labour tradition is something that must be worked on and renewed. Events like this are a way of doing just that.”

 

Labour Trade Unionists will launching a new Larkin Lecture series in January 2024. Details to follow in the early new year. 

To register an interest in attending please email [email protected]