The Bottom Dog, Vol. 3, No. 57

As noted with the first of TBD’s placed in the Archive:

This periodical, of which a number were donated on behalf of Mick Ahern and Tom Hayes to the Left Archive – for which we’re extremely grateful, is a fascinating addition. The paper which was published on a very regular basis had the subheading that it was ‘the working class paper of North Munster’.

This edition of the Bottom Dog from January 1976 adds to the selection already in the Left Archive. It is notable for the front cover article on Liam Cosgrave’s Pay “Paws” (Pause) and what it regards as a linked issue, the redundancy of 50 workers at the Standard Pressed Steel Ltd. In Shannon Industrial Estate. Inside it has an article entitled ‘Fighting Poverty’ which analyses the then Fine Gael/Labour coalition.

It asks ‘What happened to the ‘revolutionary Marxists’ in the LP and the Fine Gael ‘young tigers’ with their promises of a just society? What makes the difference between the LP’s stand now in 1969?’. And that answer it suggest is ‘the actual coalition itself between FG and Labour’. In a list of the issues it regards the coalition as having failed on, it notes that ‘having completely failed to implement even its moderate social policy, the young paper tigers have now turned into law and order mongrels. The main thrust of its work over the past three years [in regard to the North] has been aimed at isolating the Catholic minority and facilitating in every possible way the Loyalists from the U.V.F…

The magazine has a range of interesting snippets, for example it notes that at the Limerick and Shannon District Council of the I.T.G.W.U. Annual Dinner ‘three well known champions of workers rights were among the guests of honour’, these being representatives of the Limerick Chamber of Commerce, the Chair of the Limerick Federation of Employers and of the Federated Union of Employers. There is a piece on the Common Law Bill then being introduced in Northern Ireland, and another on the shoe industry. There’s an article, written by Irishwomen United, on the amendment to the Equal Pay Act (1974), which calls for ‘ICTU to take an active lead in the fight for women’s equality in work; launch an all-out campaign to unionise women workers; to stand solidly against any victimisation of or discrimination against women workers’.

It concludes by advertising a meeting at Connolly Hall, Limerick, on the issue of unemployment.

The longevity of the production is of particular interest, given that it managed to remain in publication with a large number of pages in each individual issue across many years.

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