Yesterday the Sunday Times reported how two options for trade union floats marking the centenary of the 1913 lockout were banned from the St Patrick’s Day parade because neither of them met the theme of The Gathering.

The decision prompted claims the St Patrick’s Festival was embarking on “cultural censorship”.

One of the options included a large replica cash register, as big as three double deck buses, with the script of WB Yeats’s poem September 1913. The other was to celebrate the life of Jim Larkin (top).

The theme of yesterday’s parade was Great Things Happen When We Get Together.

From yesterday’s Sunday Times (behind paywall):

“The St Patrick’s Festival said: “The application didn’t pass the first stage of submissions because it didn’t reflect the theme of the Gathering. Stage-one applications are judged on artistic vision. They were given feedback on the artistic direction and invited to resubmit if they could meet the criteria a little more, which they didn’t do.”

…Padraig Yeates, a Siptu official, said:“The parade marches past Jim Larkin’s statue every year and yet they say Larkin and other trade unionists aren’t good enough to have their names in the parade.

“What was interesting was that they didn’t shoot down the ideas on the grounds of aesthetics or design, but to actually say, ‘No thanks, trade unions or workers are not part of our mission,’ says a lot about the parade.”

Meanwhile…

Dublin City Council has recently announced Strumpet City by James Plunkett, which recounts life in Dublin during the 1913 lockout, as its choice for its annual One City One Book initiative.

Are we missing something?

(Pic: UCC)