Limerick Debenhams staff's 406 days on the picket line
THIS documentary has given us solace, some bit of success, and some bit of relief”.
The words of Patrickswell man Mike McNamara who was one of the army of former Debenhams workers who featured in a new film which premiered in Dublin.
There was a red carpet reception in the capital’s Lighthouse Cinema on the final night of the Dublin International Film Festival for the unveiling of ‘406 days’, an extended piece focusing on the plight of the former retail staff who lost their jobs in the pandemic.
Flying the flag for Limerick was Mr McNamara, who worked for more than 40 years in the stockroom of Debenhams and its predecessor Roches Stores.
Trish Long, the Limerick-born Disney executive who chairs the Dublin International Film Festival described the documentary as “moving and powerful” and in the audience, there was laughter, amusement, anger and tears as the former workers’ lives were followed.
Mr McNamara admitted he felt emotional watching the documentary back as it charted the longest labour dispute in Irish history.
"It’s brought back a lot of memories. It’s not out of our systems yet, even though it’s much further down the road. But it’s going to make a huge difference going forward when ordinary people see it, people who have worked, ordinary people who have paid their way, will see this injustice, and they will see that something drastically has to be done in the way workers have no rights whatsoever,” he said after the screening concluded.
It was Holy Thursday, April 9, 2020, when the lives of around 100 Limerick workers fell apart after it emerged the British firm would pull support from its Irish operation, meaning the stores – closed at the time due to Covid-19 – would stay this way.
The film sees many staff who were left in tears after discovering their careers had been ended by an email.
It got worse after it became clear that workers would not receive a redundancy deal they had signed up to four weeks earlier. Picket lines formed outside stores across the country, including the Limerick outlet in O’Connell Street. Workers had hoped the stock could be sold to provide their redundancy.
But eventually, the liquidators secured a High Court injunction which saw demonstrators removed from the site.
It was in the early hours of Tuesday, May 18, 2021, where staff of the liquidators, aided by the gardai, arrived in Limerick to try and recover the stock.
The film charts this, as Limerick staff lay on the floor of Liddy Street in a bid to stop trucks entering the premises.
As well as Mr McNamara, fellow ex-Debenhams worker Aisling O’Gorman, former councillor John Costelloe and activist David Vallelly feature on the film from Limerick.
There were ugly scenes in the film, when the gardai arrived at picket lines across the country to carry out the High Court order and forcibly remove protestors.
Mr McNamara said he felt “let down” at the way workers were handled by officers.
“We know there are criminal things in our country that gardai should be dealing with. They are not dealing with these things to the extent they should be. But they could come down to ordinary people standing on a public footpath just looking for their proper payments, causing no harm to anybody and doing no damage,” he said.
Having premiered in Dublin, it’s hoped the film will show in Limerick in the coming weeks.