Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

1913 lockout

Do you know who Alicia Brady was?

Or why she is being honoured today in Glasnevin Cemetery?

THE CENTENARY YEAR of commemorating the social strife, deaths and hardship of the 1913 Lockout has just ended.

There is one more person to pay tribute to, however, and that will happen this afternoon at Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin.

SIPTU’s Jack O’Connor will lay a wreath at the grave of one Alicia Brady and her niece Brigid Taylor will be among others who will speak afterwards at the nearby cemetery museum about the effect of the 1913 Lockout.

Who was Alicia Brady?

A 16-year-old factory worker from Luke Street who became one of the last people to die as a result of the conflict of that terrible year for working-class Dubliners.

She had been an employee of the Jacob’s Biscuits factory and was locked out along with 300 other women and 600 men, because of their support of workers on strike at William Martin Murphy’s Dublin United Tramway Company.

Padraig Yeates, 1913 Committee co-ordinator, explains:

This event will be one of the last commemorations of the 1913 Lockout centenary. Alicia died from tetanus which she contracted after being hit by a richochet from a revolver fired by a strike-breaker on 18 December during a confrontation in Mark Street, Dublin.

Thousands attended her funeral on 4 January, 1914, where orations were delivered by Jim Larkin and James Connolly. In his graveside oration Connolly said, “Every scab and every employer of scab labour in Dublin is morally responsible for the death of the young girl we have just buried.

After the 2pm graveside commemoration, there will be a theatrical performance of Alicia’s life by players from ANU Productions.

A linked exhibition currently running at the Glasnevin Cemetery Museum until 30 March shows how the formation of the Irish Volunteers and the Irish Citizen Army sprung from the 1913 Lockout.

More about what happened to the person who shot the bullet which hit Alicia is here on the 1913 Committee website and also here.

Alicia is remembered on the impressive 1913 Lockout Tapestry Project, a collaborative arts project representing scenes from the Dublin Lockout.

Painters Cathy Henderson and Robert Ballagh have been commissioned by SIPTU and the National College of Art and Design to create a visual narrative of over 30 panels. The panels will be laid out in ‘comic book’ style and will be multimedia textile pieces measuring 60cm x 76cm (2ft x 2.5ft).

The panels themselves are being made by volunteers, including members of the Irish Guild of Embroiderers, the Irish Patchwork Society, RADE (Rehabilitation through Art, Drama and Education), the Irish Countrywomen’s Association, a number of Dublin schools, community arts groups, trade union activists and inmates of Limerick prison.

This one features Alicia:

image

via Women’s Museum of Ireland/Facebook

Your Voice
Readers Comments
19
    Submit a report
    Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
    Thank you for the feedback
    Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.