Mick Lynch joins Dublin gathering to celebrate Irish novel seen as central to trade union culture

Mick Lynch, leader of the British railway union, the RMT, will be among those celebrating the work of Irish author Robert Noonan at the Robert Tressell festival at Liberty Hall on Saturday. Noonan wrote under the pen-name Tressell.

The Londoner, born to Irish parents, says he is delighted to be speaking at an event that revolves around a book, The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, which he read in his youth and which he believes is still a significant influence on the left both in Britain and further afield.

“I read it when I was 14. It was passed around my house, down from our brothers and my sister. And that’s the way it gets passed around in the movement really on building sites and in factories and railway yards and in branches. People pass it on one to another,” he says.

“It has sold over a million copies. It was published in different versions and there’s a stage play and one-man performances.

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“It’s part of the culture of the Trade Union movement, [British Labour Party leader Keir] Starmer’s read it. [British mineworkers’ union leader Arthur] Scargill read it. George Orwell read it. All sorts of people have read it including a lot of rank and file. And it’s pretty inspirational… even though the story itself can be quite depressing. He does expose what the world is like and how it might change.”

A semi-autobiographical work written by a man who was a painter and decorator but who endured a good deal of hardship over the course of his short life, the book is set in Edwardian Britain but Lynch believes it is still hugely relevant today.

[ The Irishman whose novel stirred the English working class ]

[  Union chief Mick Lynch to address Dublin event celebrating author Robert Noonan ]

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“He is speaking through the voice of the character Frank Owen, who is enduring in-work poverty and it’s set in a world before the welfare state, benefits and all the rest of it, that we have the privilege of enjoying if we need it. And it’s about that idea that you can work as hard as you like but the world is stacked against you because of the system.

“He’s saying to his fellow workers, ‘we can change the system but first of all, we’ve got to understand it’.

I think that’s really relevant because that in-work poverty has returned; certainly in Britain but I think in Ireland too with the fairly low wages, the soaring costs of housing and food, the utility bills and all the rest of it.

“So even though we’re in a modern context, these issues at heart are still there. Profit is still available to those that are in control. And exploitation is the mode of operation for an awful lot of people in our society. That’s the case in America, it’s the case in Ireland and Britain. And it’s more and more the case in Europe, I think, and across the world. People are not getting a square deal for their work.

“So I’m glad to be coming over and to be speaking at an event to celebrate Robert Noonan and his book. And always glad to be coming to Liberty Hall with its links to Larkin and Connolly…”

Details of the Robert Tressell festival are available at tressellfestival.ie.