An Stailc / The Strike
“I am sure the post office worker going home to wife or mother as the case may be, or perhaps to a landlady, with his miserable sum of money for his week’s work must ask is he really living in the Free State at all, because as far as he is concerned at any rate no such state of things exists at all.” Connacht Tribune 5 October 1935
An Stailc
Nuair a chonaic Máirtín an t-úrscéal Islanders (1928) le Peadar O’Donnell i bhfuinneog i siopa ar Shráid Doiminic i nGaillimh, shíl sé gur mhaith leis saothar dá chuid féin a fhoilsiú as a ainm féin. Níor tháinig aon rath ar na chéad iarrachtaí a rinne sé ar scéalta a scríobh i mBéarla, agus chrom sé ar léamh agus scríobh na Gaeilge ina dhiaidh sin.
Cé nár scríobh sé aon fhilíocht le linn na tréimhse seo i nGaillimh dó, chuir sé lear aistí, gearrscéalta agus scéalta béaloidis i gcló in An Stoc, agus Ar Aghaidh. Léiríonn cuid de na haistí a scríobh sé an dearcadh polaitiúil a bhí aige, na haistí leis ar Shéamus Ó Conghaile agus Pádraig Mac Piarais, mar shampla.
Agus é ina Rúnaí ar Chraobh na Gaillimhe de Chonradh na Gaeilge chuidigh Máirtín lena chomhÁrannach, Mícheál Ó Maoláin, a bhunaigh Coisde na bPáistí i 1932. Ba í aidhm na scéime ná airgead a bhailiú chun páistí den lucht oibre, as Baile Átha Cliath den chuid is mó, a chur go dtí an Ghaeltacht.
Bhí Máirtín ina Rúnaí ar Cheardchumann Lucht Oibre an Phoist freisin. Ghlac sé seasamh sách radacach nuair a thacaigh sé le rún go gcuirfí ciste stailce ar bun, rud a tháinig salach ar gheallúint an cheardchumainn gan dul ar stailc. Níor glacadh leis an rún, ach léiríonn na hóráidí a thug sé ag cruinnithe an chumainn an treallús a bhí san fhile óg.
Léiríonn an dán ‘An Stailc’ an dlúthpháirtíocht a bhí ag Ó Direáin le hoibrithe i muilte adhmaid Uí Eidhin i nGaillimh a chuaigh ar stailc sna 1930idí. Is mór an cáineadh atá aige ar na fostóirí, fearacht Mháirtín Mór McDonagh, ar chuma leo a gcuid oibrithe a bheith ar an gcaolchuid.
Bhí an nath cainte ‘ne’er a wing, ne’er a wet’ coitianta i nGaillimh ag an am. Deirtear gurb ionann ‘wing’ agus an focal Gaeilge ‘pingin’. An chiall a bhí le ‘wet’ ná pórtar.
The Strike
When Máirtín saw the novel Islanders (1928) by Peadar O’Donnell in the window of a shop on Dominick Street in Galway, he thought he too would like to publish a work in his own name. His attempts to write in English proved unsuccessful and he subsequently dedicated himself to reading and writing in Irish.
While he wrote no poetry during his time in Galway, Máirtín published a number of essays, short stories and folktales in the Galway-based journals An Stoc and Ar Aghaidh. Articles such as those on Patrick Pearse and James Connolly reflect Máirtín’s political and ideological interests.
As Secretary to the Galway branch of the Gaelic League, Máirtín worked with his fellow Aranman, Mícheál Ó Maoláin, in organising the Coisde na bPáistí scheme which raised money to send working class children, mostly from Dublin, to the Gaeltacht.
Máirtín was also Secretary to the Post Office Workers’ Union. He adopted quite a radical stance when he supported a motion to set up a strike fund, thus going against the union’s no-strike clause. While the motion was rejected, his speeches at union meetings show him to be an assertive and determined young activist.