Infamous St Conal's Hospital Letterkenny strike of 1924 to be recalled

The County Donegal Historical Society will host their first field day of 2024 with a talk to commemorate the centenary of the strike that took place at St. Conal’s Hospital in 1924.

It will take place this Sunday June 9 at 3pm in the Donegal County Museum, High Road, Letterkenny, and will be followed afterwards by some refreshments.

A “walk and talk” will take place around the grounds of St. Conal’s Hospital from 4pm with Hugh Devlin as guide, to talk about the history of the hospital. This is a free event and everyone is welcome to come along.

The Democrat recently recalled in an edition from May 16, 1924:

The Letterkenny Strike  - Disgraceful Sunday Scenes - Melee in the Street - Talk of the Blockade 

Scenes of a disgraceful and violent character took place on Sunday morning in Letterkenny in connection with the strike of attendants at the Mental Hos[ital.

When some of the new attendants were proceeding to ten o’clock Mass at the Cathedral they were assailed.

A regular melee ensued in which attendants and former attendants engaged, and during ot a member of the Civic Guard, who was escorting the party to the Cathedral, used his baton freely.

The first incident occurred opposite the Courthouse, when three of the new male attendants, accompanied by a Civic Guard, were passing by. It is alleged that a woman, who is the wife of a man who came into some prominence in connection with the strike a couple of weeks ago threw a quart of milk into the face of one of the attendants.

This incident caused some excitement and a crowd including strikers and others collected.

This crowd followed the three attendants to Church Lane where a scene of a somewhat uglier description took place.

One of the strikers approached the three attendants in an aggressive manner shouting “Scab” and other offensive names.

These epithets were resented by one of the new attendants, who declared that he was prepared to fight anyone of his assailants single handed. He got into hold with one of the strikers and a violent struggle ensued, in which a number of men were engaged and blows were freely exchanged.

The article continues in the same vein: it later quietened down, there was a meeting supporting the strikers, the ITGWU warned that they would blockade the whole town, there was support from the National Union of Railwaymen and in a warning to merchants supplying the asylum, 

“A ‘black list’ has been drawn up and no goods consigned to or by the forms on it are being handled”.

The article ended with a member of the Derry Joint Committee stating:

If forced to it they would, he said, “declare a Soviet,” and take charge of the Institution