Strikers are bitter, but still resolute

This is the fourth week of the dispute between the Irish Locomotive Drivers' Association (ILDA) and Iarnrod Eireann, which has seen major disruption of mainline rail services. No trains at all have run to Westport or Tralee since the beginning of the dispute. Arrow services to Kildare, which is primarily a commuter route, are erratic. Other services, such as Cork-bound trains, have been much reduced and depend on bus transfers somewhere along the way, which makes for an unpopular and disrupted method of journeying.

It is soon after 10 in the morning at the railway depot at Inchicore, which is where drivers report for work and from where they drive out the locomotives to Dublin's mainline rail stations. Four of the approximately 130 ILDA members - Mr Martin MacMahon, Mr Mick Melvin, Mr Lar Griffin and a man who prefers to be known simply as Joe - are at the entrance to the depot in what is a picket in all but name.

Since the beginning of the dispute, there have been people on protest shifts here from 4 a.m. to 10 p.m. About 25 of the original 130 have since returned to work.

Had they thought the dispute would last this long? There is a small, bitter silence before they all start speaking at once.

"We thought it would all be over in a few days." "Iarnrod Eireann are trying to starve us back to work." "We're not out here for the money, it's about conditions." "We'll go back to work at the drop of a hat, but only under our conditions."

While the four men are courteous to me, they make it clear they do not like journalists in general.

"The media are ignoring us, they've totally left out our side of the story. It's all so negative what they're saying," says Mr Melvin.

The others agree. They mention the appearances of Mr Brendan Ogle, executive secretary of ILDA, and Mr John Keenan, human resources manager of Iarnrod Eireann, on Morning Ireland earlier that day. "Brendan hardly got a word in. They gave John Keenan far more time. They were totally biased to Iarnrod Eireann," is the consensus.

However, on checking the Morning Ireland tape later with RTE, the opposite turned out to be true: the time given to Mr Ogle (who spoke first) was three minutes and 10 seconds, while Mr Keenan got two minutes and 40 seconds.

Meanwhile, I point out to the four at Inchicore that Mr Ogle had had the opportunity to write an extensive opinion piece in this paper on June 30th (as Mr Keenan had on July 3rd) explaining why they were in dispute. Mr Melvin shrugs it off by saying: "Yeah, but he had to write it himself," - even though they had just been arguing that journalists were not giving ILDA unbiased coverage.

Such contradictory comments do have a telling whiff of the dogged we're-right-and-everybody-else-is-wrong attitude, which perhaps goes some way towards explaining why the dispute has gone on for so long without any sign of compromise.

AT HEUSTON it is coming up to midday and there are no more than a dozen people in the concourse. The ticket hall is deserted, as is the restaurant on platform two. The newsagents has three staff members on the floor and no customers. There are just four departures listed on the bulletin boards, and three of those will meet bus connections.

Ms Judy O'Callaghan, who is at the Heuston Flowers stall, says glumly: "I've never seen it this empty." Takings are usually in the region of £300 a day; since the strike, they have been down to about £25 per day. She says that the stall owner is considering closing permanently.

"At this time of year I'm usually falling over backpacks that tourists leave lying on the floor and having to give out to them, but there's been no backpacks here for days," says Mr Michael Mahood, Heuston's customer services manager, wistfully. The woman at the station information desk says that the disruption which has caused most anger with the public is of the Arrow to Kildare service. "Other journeys people can put off, or maybe take the bus, but commuters have to rely on a way to get to work."

The ILDA members are not being paid during the dispute, and there can be no doubt but that many of them are finding the situation financially difficult.

That same day, Mr Ogle tells this reporter: "Our members have told me they are not going to pay for their mortgages with their principles." He says that the longer the dispute goes on, "the more our resolve is strengthened," but admits with anger: "I didn't believe it was possible the dispute would be allowed to continue for so long without Government intervention."

"You'd have to go back a long, long way to find a disruption that has lasted as long," says Mr Keenan. Neither Mr Ogle nor Mr Keenan will offer any estimates on how much longer they think the dispute will continue.

"People have been drifting back to work, but regrettably that has been for financial reasons," says Mr Keenan. "What ILDA are doing now is illegal. We have had pressure from the public to go after ILDA, but we think the patient approach is the best one. If issues like safety are real agendas to ILDA, they can be addressed through our general trade unions, NBRU or SIPTU. Just listen to the language of their statements. They are aggressive; there is no hint of compromise or reconciliation."

Industrial disputes, by their nature, are ugly things: small civil wars. The men at Inchicore say several times that their members have never intimidated anyone who has crossed their line. Mr Keenan disagrees.

"In fairness, reports of intimidation have ceased lately - or maybe people are just putting up with it - but there certainly has been name-calling, and the leaving of very abusive messages on home and mobile numbers."

It is clear that neither side expected the dispute to go on this long, and there is a sense of something like desperation in statements about resolve hardening.

Morale cannot be high. Do the men at Inchicore see themselves still being there in another month?

"I hope not," Mr Griffin says, after a tiny pause.

"Some people are talking about never going back," says Joe.