Kemmy, passionate worker for the disadvantaged, dies

Mr Jim Kemmy (61), who died in St James's Hospital in Dublin last night after a long illness, was a passionate socialist, historian and advocate on behalf of the disadvantaged.

During much of his political life he was an outsider: a socialist in a politically conservative State; a social liberal in a socially conservative city; a radical in a clientalist local Labour Party.

He spent many years in staunch and high profile opposition to the prevailing values of his State, city and party. During those years his stature grew, he became one of his city's most popular politicians, and ultimately rejoined and became chairman of the Labour Party he had left for 18 years.

While outside the party he always expressed optimism that socialists could gain electoral power, pointing to the fact that he had been elected in Limerick, which he called "not the most progressive city in the world"

Born in September 1936, Jim Kemmy was the eldest of five children in a Garryowen family. His father and grandfather were stonemasons, and the family tradition in that trade went back to the time of the Act of Union in 1800.

He left the Christian Brothers School, Sexton Street, Limerick at age 15 to begin serving as an apprentice stonemason. His father died of tuberculosis less than two years later and the teenager found himself supporting his family on an apprentice stonemason's wage of 10d an hour. When he sought a 3d increase he was sacked.

He ultimately qualified as a stonemason in 1957 and immediately left for work in London. He was introduced to trade union activity there, thus embarking on a lifetime of activism in the labour movement and beyond.

While in London he also developed a lifelong love of reading. He began reading socialist writings and came home with what he said was "an enormous suitcase full of books", including works of Marx, Engels, Connolly and Larkin. In a recent letter to a friend, he described Frank McCourt's book, Angela's Ashes, as the "best book ever written about working class life in Limerick".

Back in Limerick in 1960, he worked on the building of the Shannon industrial estate. His foreman was the chairman of the local branch of the Brick and Stone Layers' Trade Union. He was invited onto the branch committee and quickly became branch secretary.

He joined the Labour Party in 1963, and during the next nine years became a leading member of the party, a member of its administrative council and chairman of the east Limerick executive. He was also elected president of the Limerick Trades Council.

The Labour Party organisation in Limerick was deeply divided, however, and Mr Kemmy was constantly in conflict with the then Limerick east Labour deputy, Mr Stephen Coughlan, and his supporters.

Mr Kemmy's following was strong among younger members of the party. He had led the anti-apartheid protest against the South African rugby team when Mr Coughlan, as mayor, was welcoming them to Limerick. Mr Kemmy regularly criticised Mr Coughlan for statements concerning Jews.

Mr Kemmy resigned in 1972 with 38 other officials and members of the party, declaring "that the party is not a socialist party and that it will not lead the Irish working class to State power". A statement from the 39 reserved particular vitriol for Mr Coughlan, saying that he "faithfully and consistently served the interests of the enemies of the workers . . . The anti-democratic and antisocialist campaigns, actions and speeches of the party deputy for east Limerick has made Limerick and the Labour Party a by-word for bigotry and witch-hunting."

Mr Kemmy set up a small but committed independent socialist group in the city.

A decade later Mr Kemmy said: "I felt no bitterness towards Stevie Coughlan and I can recognise the good work he did".

Mr Kemmy's advocacy of socialism was combined with anti-nationalism and support for the separation of church and state. He was elected to Limerick City Council in 1974, advocating a social and cultural "revolution"; the availability of contraceptive devices; and the deletion of Articles Two and Three of the Constitution. At the council's first sitting he refused to wear the ceremonial crimson robes.

In the early 1980s he was a leading member of Socialists Against Nationalism. He strongly oppose the H Block hunger strike campaign of 1981, constantly argued for the repeal of Articles Two and Three of the Constitution claiming jurisdiction over Northern Ireland.

He became chairman of Limerick's family planning clinic, and once responded publicly to an anti contraception statement by Dr Newman by informing him that "women . . . are increasingly regarding sexual intercourse as an expression of personality and a physical pleasure, rather than a mere means of human reproduction."

His campaigning for contraception earned him condemnation from the pulpit, an experience that was to be repeated on a number of occasions during his life.

He had a lifelong interest in local and labour history. In the early 1970s he published the Limerick Socialist whose first issue debunked the nationalist hero Sean South of Garryowen. The magazine went on to give readers extracts from the writings of Marx, Engels, Connolly, Larkin and Dr Conor Cruise O'Brien.

He also edited the quarterly Old Limerick Journal and served in various cultural positions, including chairman of the local art gallery advisory committee and of Limerick Corporation's national monuments advisory committee. He was a strong advocate of the conservation of old buildings.

His hostility to the Catholic Church was expressed on many occasions. In 1974 he turned down an invitation to attend the consecration of Dr Jeremiah Newman as Bishop of Limerick. He maintained that it was not the business of State or local authority representatives to get involved in such ceremonies.

"The event, with its ostentatious pomp, elaborate rituals, ornate vestments, extravagant reception and wealthy, influential guests clearly shows how far the Catholic Church in Ireland has departed from the original, simple Christian message, and how it has shackled itself to the economic and political ruling class".

A few months later he refused to attend a civic reception in Dr Newman's honour, and he was regularly in public conflict with the bishop over contraception and other issues. In 1979, he condemned what he deemed "extravagant" spending on the 1979 Papal visit.

In June 1981, he finally eclipsed the local Labour Party he had left, defeating the sitting Labour deputy, Mr Mick Lipper, and the second Labour candidate, Mr Frank Prendergast. That General Election resulted in a hung Dail, and Mr Kemmy cast his vote for the election of Dr Garret FitzGerald as Taoiseach at the head of a Fine Gael/Labour Coalition.

His first term as a Dail deputy was short-lived, and was ended by himself in January 1992 when he voted against that Government's first budget - Mr John Bruton's budget attempted to impose VAT on shoes, including children's shoes. Mr Kemmy said it was not just this issue that had swayed his vote, but the fact that the Government had not responded to a list of proposals he had made concerning increases in social welfare payments, increasing capital taxation and tax on banks.

"They took me for granted," he said after the vote. "That was the mistake they made tonight."

He was re-elected in February 1982 with a six per cent increase in his vote. He declined a Fianna Fail offer of the Ceann Comhairle's position and later that year founded the Democratic Socialist Party, describing it as a "post-nationalist Socialist Party".

Shortly after Fianna Fail and Fine Gael had agreed to the anti-abortion lobby's demands for an antiabortion constitutional amendment, Mr Kemmy became active in the anti-amendment campaign.

It was the beginning of his most celebrated struggle against forces he had opposed all his life. He found himself on one side of the divide with much of the Limerick clergy, the Limerick Labour Party, the other political parties and the Limerick Leader ranged against him.

This culminated in the loss of his Dail seat in the November 1982 General Election. The seat was taken by Labour's Mr Frank Prendergast. Mr Kemmy blamed his defeat on the use of the abortion issue by his opponents. Sermons dealing with the abortion issue had been given in city churches on the Sunday before the poll. In addition, the Limerick Leader had run a front page editorial calling Mr Kemmy an "abortionist" and referring to "deputy Kemmy's way of death". The week before the election the paper ran a lead story "Kemmy backs DSP policy on abortion", thus highlighting "news" that was eight months old. The Labour Party placed advertisements in local newspapers stating it was opposed to abortion.

Out of the Dail Mr Kemmy spent the next five years building up his local base in Limerick with the help of his brother Joe. He regained his seat in February 1987 - beating Des O'Malley and Michael Noonan on the first count - and retained it in the election of June 1989.

Mr Kemmy had earned great admiration among Labour Party members nationally during this time, and the enmities between him and the Limerick Labour Party had reduced somewhat. On May Day 1990, Mr Kemmy finally rejoined the Labour Party that he had left 18 years earlier. The mechanism for the coming together was a merger of the Democratic Socialist Party with Labour, although some DSP members resigned rather than become Labour members. Mr Kemmy almost immediately became a high profile spokesman for his party. He was elected vice-chairman in 1991 and chairman in 1993.

His independent streak emerged from time to time, such as when Labour was in Government with Fianna Fail. He criticised the Government Chief Whip, Mr Noel Dempsey, over the planned interpretive centre at Mullaghmore and appeared to dismiss the mission of his party colleague, the Minister for Enterprise and Employment, Mr Ruairi Quinn to Boston in a fruitless attempt to try to stop the closure of the Digital plant in Galway. Speculation that he might split with his colleagues over some difficult issue in Government proved groundless, however.

As party chairman, but not a member of the Government, he occasionally gave interviews defining Labour Party policy as separate from the collective policy of the Government. He widened the Fianna Fail/ Labour rift in August 1994 over the beef tribunal report by saying that the question of Labour remaining in Government with Fianna Fail would be discussed by the Labour Parliamentary Party later that month. Two months later he said that there could be a conflict of interest arising from the holding of shares in a mining company by the Minister for Energy, Mr Cowen. Mistrust between Labour and Fianna Fail and the handling of the Brendan Smyth extradition case finally led that government to break up.

Nevertheless, his pragmatism was shown when in June 1993 he defended the much criticised tax amnesty on the grounds that it would bring money back into the economy.

In 1991, he was elected Mayor of Limerick, he donated his £16,000 mayoral salary to help offset cutbacks in city contributions to 25 local organisations. He unsuccessfully contested the 1994 European Parliament election in Munster.

Mr Kemmy was admitted to hospital last month for treatment of a condition called multiple myeloma.

The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and the Tanaiste, Ms Harney, early today expressed their sadness at his death. It was a "huge loss" to the Dail and to his friends and colleagues, said Ms Harney.

The Labour Party leader, Mr Dick Spring, expressed deep sympathy on behalf of the party to Mr Kemmy's brother, sisters and close friends. "He was one of Limerick's greatest sons, and will always be remembered in the Treaty Stone city," he said.