Then & Now: Remembering a giant in Limerick politics

BUDGET 2023 was announced this Tuesday, September 27, brought forward by two weeks to address the ever-increasing cost of living. It is one of the most important Budgets in the history of the state as people face a winter of discontent. High energy and fuel costs, and the threat of power cuts have put all households on red alert and government ministers responding to calls for financial help.
Forty years ago, Limerick politician Jim Kemmy brought down the Fine Gael government over the imposition of a tax on children's shoes and cutting food subsidies. Last Sunday, September 25, was the 25th anniversary of his death, at the young age of 61 years. Big Jim as he was known came from within the working class whose people he loved and promoted. An ordinary man, his legacy was to show people from working class communities that they could rise up and achieve what they wished.
Jim, from Garryowen, the eldest of five children was born on September 1, 1936. He was educated at Sexton Street C.B.S. up to the age of 15, when he began working in the family trade as his father and grandfather were stonemasons. His apprentice wages helped to support the family following the death of his father from tuberculosis. His wages were 10d per hour and after seeking a 3d increase he was sacked. He qualified as a stonemason in 1957 and moved to England where he was introduced to trade union activity. Following a time working in London he returned to his native city to begin a new chapter in his life.
While in London he also developed a lifelong love of reading. He began reading socialist writings and came home with what he said was an enormous suitcase full of books including works of Marx, Engels, Connolly and Larkin. In later life, he described Frank McCourt's book, Angela's Ashes, as the best book ever written about working class life in Limerick.
Back in Limerick in 1960, he worked on the building of the Shannon industrial estate. His foreman was the chairman of the local branch of the Brick and Stone Layers' Trade Union. He was invited onto the branch committee and quickly became branch secretary. He joined the Labour Party in 1963, and during the next nine years became a leading member of the party, a member of its administrative council and chairman of the east Limerick executive. He was also elected president of the Limerick Trades Council.
As well as Jim joining the Labour Party, he worked as a trade unionist. He was a member of the party's National Administrative Council, and its Director of Elections in 1969. He resigned from the party in 1972 because of conflict with local Labour TD Stephen Coughlan. Taking advantage of a change in the law which removed the ban on council employees standing for election as councillors, he was elected to Limerick City Council in 1974. He had pledged not to wear the formal robes of a councillor, saying that "While some councillors act like clowns, there is no need to dress like them." In 1975 Kemmy founded the Limerick Family Planning Clinic. At the time, it was illegal to sell condoms in Ireland and the clinic was condemned by the Catholic Church.
Jim Kemmy stood unsuccessfully as an independent candidate for Dáil Éireann in the Limerick East constituency at the 1977 General Election. His second attempt, at the 1981 General Election, was successful, and he was elected to the 22nd Dail. During this time Kemmy criticised the 1981 Irish hunger strike which earned him the animosity of many Irish republicans and socialists as well as a number of his fellow trade unionists. His first term as a Dail deputy was short-lived and was ended by himself in January 1982 when he voted against that Government's first budget.
John Bruton's budget attempted to impose VAT on shoes, including children's shoes. Mr Kemmy said it was not just this issue that had swayed his vote, but the fact that the Government had not responded to a list of proposals he had made concerning increases in social welfare payments, increasing capital taxation and tax on banks. "They took me for granted," he said after the vote. "That was the mistake they made tonight."
Despite this he was re-elected at the February 1982 General Election but his opposition to the pro life amendment to the Constitution had led to sustained attacks from the Catholic Church. At the November 1982 General Election, Kemmy lost his seat to Labour's Frank Prendergast. He returned to Dáil Éireann at the 1987 General Election and was re-elected again at the 1989 general election.
Jim was a socialist but also a realist who knew that smaller left-wing parties like the DSP needed to unite to achieve real change. Jim and Jan O'Sullivan negotiated a return to the Labour Party led by Dick Spring in May 1990.
After the merger, Kemmy was elected vice-chairman of the Labour Party in 1991 and chairman in 1993. He was twice elected Mayor of Limerick, from 1991 to 1992 and again from 1995 to 1996. Shortly before his death, Kemmy edited the acclaimed book The Limerick Anthology which featured the work of his admirer, Frank Mc Court.

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Jim was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma in 1997. He died in St James Hospital Dublin on September 25, 1997, following a short illness. The by-election for his seat was held on March 11, 1998 and was won by the Labour Party candidate and former Democratic Socialist Party colleague Jan O'Sullivan.
The College of Business in the University of Limerick was named in his memory in 2003 as the "Kemmy Business School". The University College Cork branch of the Labour Party is named after him. The city council had proposed in 1999 to name a new bridge after Kemmy, but it was renamed the Abbey Bridge. In 2000 the Limerick City Museum was renamed the Jim Kemmy Municipal Museum. The Jim Kemmy Papers are housed at the Glucksman Library, University of Limerick.
He also edited the quarterly Old Limerick Journal and served in various cultural positions, including chairman of the local art gallery advisory committee and of Limerick Corporation's national monuments advisory committee. He was a strong advocate of the conservation of old buildings.
Jim's favourite song was Beautiful Dreamer, and it was sung at his funeral, and his favourite poem by Dylan Thomas, Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night was recited.
“Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

Separately, the GAA Grassroots book, stories from the heart of the GAA Volume 2, will be in the book shops in the coming weeks. It is a follow up from volume one which was launched last year and is compiled by Offaly native PJ Cunningham. It will contain some Limerick people's stories.