Frank Prendergast: a union man who loved Limerick and its history

Those present in the Jonathan Swift theatre at the Plassey campus on May 13th, 1976, thought it was Frank Prendergast’s finest hour. The first cohort of students to graduate from Limerick’s NIHE were in danger of not receiving their degrees.

Students were refusing the National University of Ireland’s demand that they sign matriculation forms before it would award degrees. The real problem was that the minister for education Richard Burke was trying to put manners on Ed Walsh’s upstart university-in-waiting.

The institute's governors wanted to sue for peace, but tempers ran high among the angry students and parents in the packed hall. Governing body member Frank Prendergast got up to speak to a very rowdy audience: "I beseech you in the bowels of Christ . . . to accept the compromise on offer and outlast this government." Oliver Cromwell's words and Prendergast's measured Limerick tones gradually won over the militants. The students signed the forms and got their parchments.

The less confrontational Peter Barry replaced Burke as minister for education and the campaign for Limerick’s own university continued on its unstoppable way to success in 1989.

Frank Prendergast was a trade union official and politician and a dedicated chronicler of the proud history of his native city. Born of a family of Limerick bakers, he became president of the bakers union before switching to a larger general union. He was hired by the Irish Transport and General Workers union, now known as Siptu, where he worked from 1973 until retirement at the rank of district secretary in 1993. There was an interruption when he was elected as Labour TD for Limerick East (1982-1987). He was elected mayor of the city in 1977 and 1984.

It was said of him that there was nothing he did not know about Limerick, its people, its families, its dynasties and all their doings.

All this radiated outwards from the family home at Mayorstone, close to Thomond Park, and was seasonally extended to the resort of Kilkee, Co Clare, otherwise known as “Limerick on sea”. His enthusiasms were many and practical and included Garryowen rugby club and the Voices of Limerick choir.

He had left school early to serve an apprenticeship, later obtaining a diploma in economic and social studies and a master’s degree in industrial relations. As a trade unionist representing industrial workers he was respected for his non-doctrinaire approach.

Prendergast was an Irish language enthusiast, determined to make the language easily accessible to others. Like his close friend Séamus Ó Cinnéide, he wrote Irish language columns for the Limerick Leader. A library at Gaelcoláiste Luimnigh is named in Prendergast's memory.

His passion for local history was shared by his political rival on the left Jim Kemmy, who displaced him as TD for Limerick East in 1989, having lost out to Prendergast in 1982. His publications include: History of St Michael's Parish, Limerick, 2000; Limerick's Glory: From Viking Settlement to the New Millennium (co-author), and Dála an Scéil, a collection of his newspaper columns.

President Michael D Higgins attended the funeral Mass of his old friend last Monday in Limerick. Separately, the founding president of the University of Limerick Ed Walsh paid tribute to “a highly respected trade union leader, rational and realistic. “He contributed much to the governing body [of the NIHE, later UL] and he was held in great affection by the people of his native city.”

Many believe that the recent renaissance of the Treaty City owes much to the leadership of people like Prendergast, Kemmy, Kevin Hannon and others, who kept the cultural flame burning in an earlier generation.

Prendergast is survived by his wife Mary (née Sydenham), their sons Conor and Eoghan and daughters Orla and Aedín.