This book explores the life of Limerick native son Jim Kemmy, who was an icon of the labour movement in Ireland. Kemmy’s life spans a period of immense transformation in Irish society with controversy and change in many aspects – Northern Ireland, family planning, industrial relations, religious beliefs, and heritage and the environment are just some of the many issues that engaged him. The book is also significant in that it is a review of a local activist and, in his own language, a working class one.
Kemmy’s role as a stone-mason led to a strong political life, causing the collapse of the Fitzgerald coalition, later forming his own group, the Democratic Socialist Party, al-though subsequently merging with the Labour Party, and becoming national chairman. Throughout this, his writings flowered, from the early days of the Limerick Socialist, maturing to the historical Old Limerick Journal. He was also Mayor of Limerick on two occasions, and leader of the local trade union movement.
Most political biographies focus on the ‘big players’ with a substantial national or even international profile. But the local actors have their stories to tell too, often stories that illuminate magnificently the forces of change in their society, and stories of people who helped shape their country’s future. Jim Kemmy’s is such a story.
