H-blocks march: shops to stay open

July 1981

Wexford shopkeepers have refused to close their premises during a H-block protest march that will take place through the town on Saturday next.

And the Wexford branch of the shopworkers’ union, the IUDWC, is to advise its members not to accede to a request by the march organisers to stop work as the parade passes along the Main Street.

‘I won’t be closing. Nor will I be recommending that any members of the Chamber of Commerce close,’ said Chamber President, Mr Denis Burke.

And he added: ‘ The recession is bad enough, and Saturday is our busiest day of the week. Anything that is bad for business now is out!’

The request to close the shops came from the Wexford Provisional Sinn Féin Cumann, which has organised the silent protest march from Swan View to The Bull Ring.

A spokesman said on Wednesday that the march had been organised to facilitate those who could not travel to Dublin for the national protest parade.

Trade unionists, local politicians, local authority officials, and members of GAA clubs and other organisations have been asked to join the 100 or so Sinn Féin members and supporters who are expected to march in single file along the Main Street parade route.

Said Sinn Féin’s Ald. Philip Kelly: ‘We have appealed to businessmen to close their shops during the parade and also to workers to stop work. But in the event of the death of another hunger striker before Saturday, we would also expect workers to observe fifteen minutes of silence in their workplace, as they have done in the past.’

But a spokesman for the Irish Union of Distributive Workers and Clerks was adamant that the parade on Saturday would not affect business.

‘All employees will be expected to work once the shops are open. The recession has had a very bad effect on business in Wexford and a stoppage such as this would do a lot of harm. Anyway, we cannot see what role we have to play in this particular issue. We are not involved in politics.’

The march leaves Swan View at 3.30 p.m. and marchers will proceed in single file along the Main Street to The Bull Ring, in order to cause as little disruption as possible to traffic.