William O'Halloran was a pioneer of trade unionism in Galway in the west of Ireland, and was also Galway city's first Labour councillor.
Born in the Bushy Park area around 1870, O'Halloran lived alone in Leetle St (off Lr Canal Road) at the time of the 1911 census. By his own account, he was one of a number of dock labourers who met one evening in August 1911 at Cromwell's Fort, near Renmore, to discuss the establishment of a union to represent general workers. Over the following days, news of the al fresco discussion spread around Galway, and a considerable crowd attended a subsequent public meeting at the Racquet Court Theatre. At that meeting, the Galway Workers' and General Labourers' Union (GWGLU) was established and O'Halloran was elected as its first secretary.
About a thousand members were recruited -all eager to improve their working conditions. There was opposition, however from a Galway Employers' Federation chaired by the city's leading employer 'Mairtin Mor' MacDonogh. Negotiations between the GWGLU and the Federation broke down, and 23 employers locked out their 500 workers in March 1912. Arbitration brought a settlement acceptable to the locked-out workers in less than a week, and a 'victory' was celebrated in a 2 am march through the streets of the city.
Subsequently, the GWGLU affiliated with the Liverpool-based National Union of Dock Labourers (NUDL), a move which was unusual in Irish trade unionism at a time when the Irish Transport and General Workers Union was displacing the NUDL in Ireland. O'Halloran remained as branch secretary, and he would lead his members into a general strike in late March 1913 which shut down the city for five weeks. A negotiated settlement ensued. An interview with William O'Halloran, published on the eve of the strike, provides insights into the points at issue. http://www.john-cunningham.com/glimpse.html
In January 1914, William O'Halloran was elected a member of the Galway Urban Council, having been nominated by the Galway Trades & Labour Council. A Labour colleague, Martin Holleran also took a seat. Having energetically raised labour matters and actively opposed recruitment into the British army early in World War One, O'Halloran sank into obscurity after 1915.
written by Adam Halloran , October 18, 2009
written by kevan derbyshire , September 07, 2010
His mother quickly gathered his things and told him to get out of Ireland and not to return for he would be hung if the police were to find him.
What a terrible thing for a 16 year old to experience and to be cut off from his family, friends , his life. i cant imagine how that would have felt.
He made it to Dublin and found a ship, I dont know how many years he was at sea but eventually he arrived in England, met my grandmother and married.
He told her some of his past and explained that he could not visit or contact his family in Ireland.She accepted this but felt so sorry for his mother,never knowing what had become of her son that when their first born arrived she begged him to somehow let his mother know that he was alive, married and that she was a grandmother. He refused but she kept on at him suggesting that there must be a way to let her know.
He eventually relented and said there was an aunt who had always looked after him
and that he was certain he could trust her to get a message to his mother without alerting the police to his whereabouts.
They wrote and waited, a letter arrived. His aunt wrote that his father was alive, he had not killed him but his mother had passed away. His aunt also sent £5 (a fortune in the 1920's) for the baby.
They kept in touch, christmas cards , and my grandmother wrote whenever another baby was born ( 5 in total)
The letter giving news of the third birth was not answered and they wrote again,still no answer. My grandmother had an idea, write to the parish priest in Salthill where the aunt lived, she did.
The parish priest replied and regretfully informed them that there had been a really
dreadful storm in the winter and his aunts cottage had been overwhelmed by a huge wave and the cottage with his aunt inside had been washed away.
That should have been the end of the story but not quite.
My mother remembers as a young girl being told about an ad in a sunday newspaper asking for anyone knowing the wereabouts of a ----- ------- to contact a solicitors in Dublin - something to his advantage ext. He did not contact them, fearfull that it may be a trap, that he was still wanted by the police.
She also remembers two men knocking on the door and my grandmother speaking to them and calling my grandfather, they asked was he mr ----- ----- and he denied it and bundled out of the house and slammed the door.
Could it have been his aunts legacy maybe ?
This is my Familys story as I remember it and I would love to know if any of it is true.
The terrible storm would have to be between 1925 - 1933, can anyone enlighten me,
was there a storm that washed a cottage into the sea around that time.
Thank you for taking time to read my family's story.
Kevan Patrick Derbyshire
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