5 October 2013: Food ship re-enactment, Dublin

On 27 September 1913, the SS Hare arrived in Dublin from Liverpool, bringing food for thousands of starving trade unionists and their families. It was the first of many such voyages by the Hare and its sister vessels, the SS Pioneer and SS New Fraternity  winter of 1913-1914. A re-enactment of its arrival and unloading took place at Dublin’s docklands on Saturday 5 October 2013, as part of the commemorative programme taking place to mark the centenary of the 1913 Lockout.

The food had been loaded at the British Co-Operative stores in Salford and brought down the Mersey Ship Canal to Liverpool before setting off across the Irish Sea.

The goods were stored in the Manchester Shed on Sir John Rogerson’s Quay throughout the Lockout. The last of the food was distributed in February 1914, as the men returned to work. Altogether the Parliamentary Committee of the Trades Union Congress collected £93,518. The amounts ranged from £1,000 a week provided by the Miners Federation, to 10 shillings from the stokers on the HMS Edinburgh. By late November 255,330 packets of tea had been shipped to Dublin, 255,000 bags of sugar, 255,330 packets of margarine, 597,000 loaves of bread, 251,804 bags of potatoes, 1,856 lb of Jacob’s Biscuits, 72,639 pots of jam, 85,330 tins of fish, 12,500 boxes of cheese and almost 885 tons of coal.

For details of the re-enactment, click here.

From History Ireland: Padraig Yeates on the 1913 Lockout.