Fifty years after the Ulster Workers’ Council Strike brought life in the north to an abrupt halt, a lifelong trade unionist has said “it should never have happened”.
The 14-day period of upheaval was a seminal moment in the Troubles, which led to the collapse of the first power-sharing executive, half a century ago this month.
Speaking to The Irish News, Derry trade unionist Uel Adair (82) said the action, while viewed as a victory among the Protestant community, set the north back decades and drove a wedge between communities.
“It should never have happened. I always thought the strike was a disgrace. It should never have been called in the first place,” he said.
“It was a strike that was uncalled for. It really alienated both communities from each other at that time. It was an attempt to drive a wedge between them.
“I worked in Molins Machine Company in Maydown at the time and I think our workforce banded together quite well. It was a very good workforce, and it was a mixed workforce, although the majority of the people in it were Roman Catholics.”
Mr Adair was highly critical of the strike leaders, among them the late UDA leader Glenn Barr.
“The strike was called by people who were out to make a name for themselves at that time. Glenn Barr became very famous as a result,” he said.
“I think what they were trying to do was play a bigger part in society than what they had.”
Mr Adair recalled a man coming to the door of his Newbuildings home the night before the strike commenced on May 14, 1974, warning him not to go to work the next morning.
Undeterred, the Amalgamated Engineering Union shop steward, retorted he would be going.
“My wife was a nurse in Stradreagh Hospital at the time. She started at 7 o’clock in the morning, so I took her to work and went on to Molins.
“I was in work that day before everybody else. I was in there myself, waiting on them all coming in but by that time, roadblocks had been put up and no-one else could get in.”
Reflecting on the strike 50 years on, Mr Adair said: “I think in fairness, the Protestant community thought it was a victory for them. The Executive was brought down, but personally, I don’t think it was a victory. I think it put us back decades.
“It drove a wedge between the communities at that time and, I think, at the end of the day, working class people were coming together and the strike was a weapon which drove them apart for a particular period of time.
“It didn’t affect me at all by the way because I maintained I was an Irish man, even though I was a Protestant by descent. I believed and still believe working people would be better united than divided. There was more that brought us together than drove us apart.”
The Executive and cross-border Council of Ireland had been key components of the Sunningdale Agreement, signed by the British and Irish governments on December 9 1973.
In opposition to the council, Loyalists established the Ulster Army Council (UAC), incorporating the UDA and UVF, the following day.
The Executive took office on January 1 1974, comprising, among others, chief executive, Brian Faulkner (UUP); deputy chief executive, Gerry Fitt (SDLP leader); Minister for Commerce, John Hume (SDLP); and Legal Minister and head of the Office of Law Reform, Oliver Napier (Alliance leader).
There remained a high level of opposition to the Council of Ireland among the unionist and loyalist communities.
Speaking in Trinity College Dublin in early 1974, Hugh Logue of the SDLP described it as “the vehicle that would trundle Unionists into a united Ireland”.
The abiding memory of the strike is the rolling electricity blackouts, as workers shut down Belfast’s two power stations; Coolkeeragh in Derry was only able to operate a small gas turbine generator; and half of Ballylumford power station was also shut down.
There was also massive traffic disruption as loyalists set up roadblocks across the north.
At the time, loyalist paramilitaries murdered 39 civilians, 33 in the Dublin Monaghan bombings of May 17 1974.
Derry woman Louise McCarron, who was nine, described it as “the most traumatic time”.
“I remember my mammy, Rita, trying to cook food on a camping stove for our whole family - my daddy, Harry, and seven children, including a nine-month-old baby.
“We lived in the Waterside, not far from the Bond Street headquarters of the United Ulster Unionist Council - an umbrella group of unionists opposed to Sunningdale.
“This is the one period I have most difficulty moving on from. I had no idea which side I was supposed to be on. The Troubles were literally in our home, no matter how valiantly my mum and dad tried to shield us. They were sinister and fearful times.”
Retired Belfast businessman, Glenn Bradley (57) was living with his grandparents in Ainsworth Drive, in the Woodvale area, at the time.
“I can remember division in the family at the time. Hugh Smyth was my uncle, and he was quite active in politics at that time. He later became leader and president of the PUP.
“In the build-up to the strike, Hugh and my granda were arguing. Hugh was obviously all for it and my granda being a trade unionist working in Parkview Brickworks was basically against it because it was denying workers their right to work.”
Of the strike itself, Mr Bradley said his lasting memory was “simply hardship”.
“There was no power, no gas, no anything. I remember my granny, Martha Smyth, cooking in the backyard – one pot meals, over coals, destroying the whitewash. It just added to the poverty in which we were living at that time.
“Post the strike there was breakup and disenfranchisement, because although it succeeded in toppling Sunningdale, nothing constructive or positive came out of it until the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.
“However, for me, the positive from the breakdown of the UWC Strike led to the formation of the Progressive Unionist Party.
“My uncle Hugh, who had been an independent until that point and the spokesman for the UVF, and Kenny and other great people at that time, formed the Volunteer Political Party, as it was called, which came directly out of the UVF and later became the PUP.
“As a working class kid, growing up in a Protestant loyalist area, that was a positive outcome.”
