Downey’s pub, formerly of 108 Upper George’s Street, Dun Laoghaire, has the dubious title of being host to the world’s longest ever strike. It began in March 1939 and ended in November 1953, lasting a total of fourteen years and eight months.

The trouble started when the unionised bar staff objected to a senior male assistant being let go and a non unionised barmaid taking his place. The owner James Downey’s response was, as apprentice Con Cusask remembers, to “sack all of his staff and replace them all with non-union labour”.

In reaction, the Irish National Union of Vinters, Grocers and Allied Trades Assistants put a picket outside. Here on, from 10am to closing, they tramped up and down outside carrying their battered placard: ” Strike On at Downey’s.”

After five years on the picket, Con Cusack left to find work elsewhere and two years after that Patrick Young (the barman dismissed) also found new employment. Undeterred, the union continued to send on picketers for the next seven years. In total, it is believed that they walked a total of 41,000 miles altogether.

The strike was featured in newspapers and periodicals around the world including Time Magazine. It was said that tourists used to go out of the way to visit the pub to see for themselves if the “everlasting strike” was still going strong. (This prompted some to suggest that Downey was paying the strikers in order to attract the tourists!)

On 20 March 1943, the German U-boat U-638, commanded by Kapitänleutnant Heinrich Oskar Bernbeck stopped the Irish Elm ship. Rough seas prevented the Elm‘s crew from pulling their rowboat alongside the submarine to present their papers, so the interview was conducted by shouting. During the course of the conversation, the Elm‘s Chief Officer Patrick Hennessy gave Dún Laoghaire as his home address which prompted Bernbeck to enquire whether “the strike was still on in Downey’s”. [1]

On the anniversary of the start of the strike, March 3rd, Downey would host a party in the pub and allegedly would even ring up the union to tell them if the picketers weren’t there when he opening up.

Downey, a former boxer originally from Laois, died in May 1953 at the age of 79. The strike finally ended in November after an agreement was reached with the new owner. In July 1958 the premises was bought by Hugh Larkin, proprietor of the Royal Hotel in Arklow and Flynn’s pub in D’Olier Street. It was put on sale again in April 1963 and bought in February 1964 by the Dublin supermarket company of W.H. Williams Lt.d for a five-figure sum. It was demolished to make way for the Dun Laoghaire shopping centre in 1976.

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[1] Frank Forde, The Long Watch (Dublin, 1981), 56