Last October, the Labour Party donated its archive to us here at the National Library. This fascinating collection reaches right back to the Party's foundation in 1912. Project archivist, Ross Higgins, is currently working on this important archive and will be posting about items he finds...
by Ross Higgins, Project Archivist
The More Things Change…
Dick Spring for Taoiseach from the Labour Party Archive
Here’s a Labour Party lapel sticker from the 1992 general election. During the campaign Dick Spring TD (who was then leader of the Labour Party) was hoping for Labour to make a breakthrough and become one of the two largest parties in the Dáil. In the course of that campaign they adopted the slogan ‘Dick Spring for Taoiseach’ shown on this sticker, with the Labour Party emblem of the rose. Eamon Gilmore TD and Labour leader used this same slogan in the 2011 General Election.
100 Years A-Waiting
100 years of Labour Party Annual Reports
Ever wondered what a hundred years of annual reports looks like? Don’t answer that! – Have a look at 100 years of the Labour Party’s Annual Reports stacked in my office at the National Library of Ireland. Unusually among Irish political parties, Labour produced these reports to put before its conferences each year, thus keeping up a tradition the party had inherited from the Irish Congress of Trades Unions (ICTU). The reports run from 1914 to 2011 and will provide a wealth of information to researchers interested in aspects of Labour history including minutes of conferences and meetings; Labour's stance during the Irish Civil War and World War Two; along with details of scores of individuals involved in the Labour movement in Ireland.
Small records often start big things…
2007 nomination form for deputy leadership of the Labour Party
Here’s a copy of Joan Burton’s (current Minister for Social Protection) nomination form to become Deputy Leader of the Labour Party. The election took place in September 2007 where she ran against the current Minister of State for Housing Jan O’Sullivan TD. We can see from the form she was nominated by fellow TDs Brian O’Shea from Waterford and Joanna Tuffy, who represents the Dublin Mid-West constituency.
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