British seamen’s strike action brought temporary boost to local port traffic

June 1966

IT was an ill wind that blows nobody any good and that ill wind brought a considerable boost to trade at Dundalk port during June, 1966.

It came because of a strike by seamen in Britain which meant that the majority of publicly owned and operated ports in Britain and Northern Ireland were closed for business.

Consequently importers were looking to ports in the Republic to bring vital goods into Northern Ireland and the authorities there relaxed import restrictions to accommodate them.

It was reported that in the first week of June, 3,000 tonnes of coal was imported into Northern Ireland from the Republic with at least 75% of that supplied by Dundalk coal yards. To meet the demand it was estimated that 800 tonnes of coal was being imported into Dundalk port on a daily basis.

The demand from the North, especially for coal did not interfere with local supplies as the yards were well stocked when the strike was called in Britain, and while some importers were experiencing a rise in freight rates as exporters and shippers sought to exploit the situation, there were no fears that Dundalk householders would experience a shortage of coal.

Indeed it was felt locally that the town’s importers had anticipated the strike in Britain and were carrying stocks of coal well above their normal summer levels.

Local dockers who welcomed the extra work and revealed that the port had not been so busy since the closure of the GNR works in 1958. As a result of the fall off in imports of coal because of the closure of the GNR Dundalk port had experienced a difficult time despite the best efforts of coal importers to increase sales in the port’s hinterland, extending to Monaghan and Cavan.

However intervention by the trade unions who were under pressure from their colleagues in England meant that the boom time for trade at Dundalk port was over after a few short weeks as the A.M.T.G.W.U. informed local importers that an embargo on the loading of coal bound for Northern Ireland was being placed. The union said that they took this course of action in support of seamen in Britain.

The Irish gateway to supply the British market was being used extensively not just for coal imports but other goods, and the seamen’s union alleged that workers in Irish ports were strike breaking.