Anthony O Brien - 1960s ..Taken in the Garden of 188 Lally Road, Ballyfermot. Back L to R Joan Kavanagh Hanaphy R.I.P. O Hogan Rd, Baby (Cullen) Jarvis, Middle L to R Marta (Cullen) O'Kelly, Granny (Greta Cullen), O' Kelly twin 1, Maureen Cullen, (Bernadette O Kelly the baby), front L to R, Caroline Delaney, Martin O'Kelly, Carmel Kavanagh, Terri O'Brien , Mary Delaney. My Granny, Aunties, sister and cousins.
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Thanks to Susanne Plummer for the photo
Thanks to Sean Brennan for Brid's Video Link youtu.be/IMZUTlSq_pM
In the early 1980's I worked as a Library Assistant in Dublin City Council and I was privileged to be deployed to the new revolutionary, state-of-the-art library in Ballyfermot.
I was one of many staff sent there to prepare the opening and to run the library in a new, community-based perspective.
I loved it - it was a great place and full of life.
I worked mostly in the Childrens Library and had the best of experiences with children whom I now often see around the area as adults, mammies and daddies themselves.
We had great craic with art, reading stories, quiz competitions and of course, acting the maggot chasing each other around the library, knocking down books and of course replacing them back on the shelves.
Then when a strike took place at the library by the cleaners and porters, I along with two others respected the pickets and refused to pass. It was probably the first big strike across the city when this new idea of "two tier picketing" brought in by the ICTU was actually implemented. It is a disgusting term, in my view, as someone brought up by very strong republican and socialist parents, the notion of passing a picket was just not acceptable. What the ICTU wanted was that those who were not members of the unions directly involved in a strike would go to work but would not do the work of the strikers. I was not a member of the union involved but worked daily with all those on the picket lines in Ballyfermot so no way would I pass their pickets.
Those of us who refused to pass were threatened by the then City Manager (cant remember his name) with the sack. Two of us still refused and were summoned to his office which was then in Aungier Street. The City Manager basically bullied me, threatened to sack me and that I would find it very hard to get a job like this again. That just infuriated me more and he did indeed sack me.
After that I went for a few pints with my work mates, drowning my sorrows etc. And the next morning I woke up on the settee at home with me Da telling me that the union were on the phone for me. The union official then told me that earlier that morning they (the Union) had pulled staff out of the wages office, nobody in the Dublin Corporation (Dublin City Council) got paid but when the Fire Brigade refused to work because they had no wages, the manager had no choice but to give me back my job. So I did not walk alone.
After two weeks the strike ended and I went back to work to find two envelopes waiting for me - one with a bundle of pound notes, collected for me by my colleagues to help keep the wolf from the door after two weeks without pay. The other was a letter from the City Manager informing me that I was to be transferred immediately from Ballyfermot Library to Drumcondra. He knew what he was doing. Drumcondra had the reputation as the worst place to work. It was run by a Witch - it was dark and danky - hardly anyone came through the door and your time would be spent doing mindless filing and shelfing and more mindless paper work. So I knew I would never stick it. I would die of depression and boredom if I had to be a lowly paid civil servant rotting away in a dark hole. So I handed in my notice. The head librarian in Ballyfermot, a lovely man (cant remember his name) requested that I remain in Ballyfermot to work out my notice and when the month was up I got a great send off.
AS me ma said "You're giving up a great job" and it was a great job in Ballyfermot - but she understood that the victimisation of working in such a place would kill me so to speak.
That was my earliest experience of Ballyfermot and later in life when I could afford a mortgage, I bought a home in O'Hogan Road and had a great few years there with the best neighbours and the kids that grew up around me. They all called me Brigid or Bride or Bird - Brid was one they couldn't get their heads around. But that's ok - I answered to all the names I was called and still do.
Bríd Smith TD
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