Limerick workers to feature in Debenhams documentary

LIMERICK workers feature heavily in a new award-winning film which is to premiere this coming weekend.

‘Tales from the Picket Line’, an extended documentary focusing on the plight of ex-Debenhams Ireland workers will get its first showing at the Dublin Film Festival on Saturday night.

Many staff who worked at Debenhams in Limerick will travel to attend the 90-minute screening.

For 406 days, between 2020 and 2021, a core group of the 30 retail staff who lost their jobs in Limerick when the British chain shuttered its stores across the country provided an around-the-clock picket in order to prevent access to the building.

This was used as a bargaining tool in order for the staff to be given the four weeks of redundancy pay they were due according to a 2016 agreement.

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Now, the longest labour dispute in the history of the State which concluded in May 2021 with a standoff with gardai in Limerick has been brought to the silver screen by producer Fergus Dowd and director Joe Lee. It follows a book charting the fortunes of the workers which was launched last year.

Ahead of its launch, the film has already won an Irish Council for Civil Liberties award.

Producer Fergus said: “I think there will be mixed emotions. There is sadness, but tinged with a little anger as well. People might be surprised that come along to the film that maybe only skimmed the headlines of the story to see some of the footage from the strike.”

Among the Limerick contributors were Mike McNamara, who worked both in Debenhams and its predecessor Roches Stores for 43 years, and former councillor John Costelloe who was an ever-present on the picket-line.

A stand-out scene in the documentary was filmed around Honan’s Quay in the city centre when, in the dead of night, and surrounded by gardai and security staff trying to access the store, local workers led a chorus of ‘Limerick, You’re a Lady’.

Fergus said he hopes the film will be shown in Limerick in the coming weeks, as well as the other cities which staged pickets.