Interview on the subject of work at the Sunbeam Textile Factory, Cork, in the 1970s and 1980s.

Interviewers: Rionach Aiken and Catherine Fray

Interviewee: Linda McCarthy

For example:

Rionach Aiken: 'And, eh, what sort of wages were, would be earned on a weekly basis there?'

Linda McCarthy: 'It's kinda hard to remember now - the wages were very good for the most part for anybody that was a good worker there. Em, the basic at the time I think, kinda, when I was leaving was around ninety pounds, but they, they could have anything upwards to two hundred if they, if they worked and did their, you know, you know, packers, and machinists and if they . made their target and over it they definitely would have had a lot more than that like'.
...

Rionach Aiken: 'Em, do you remember the, the big strike that was here?'

Linda McCarthy: 'That was just em, after. that was just before I started, but em, I remember a story, I don't kow if you remember Eleanor Kelleher and Anne,dark Anne, my cousin Anne? Anne O'Mahoney?'

Catherine Fray: 'Oh Anne, yeah!'

Linda McCarthy: 'Well Eleanor and they used to all pal together and there was . the strike was on and em, there was somebody passed the picket and of course they were lynched, nearly blacklegged this, and they were, management they were now, but they would've they'd have been working for the management, not in a union. So it caused so much friction and so much confusion they went in and they took over the top offices, actually up over this now, where there was a big em, boardroom with a big oval table and . the fridge would be stacked, and there'd be the best of everything there. They went in and they'd sit-in thre, for hours and hours, and they ate and drank what was inside the boardroom. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.That was the time Eleanor Kelleher was one of them now like.'

Catherine Fray: 'That would would have beenthe time they scandalised Scott, would it?'

Linda McCarthy: 'That's right, yeah, that's right'.

Catherine Fray: 'They actually chased him into a corner and he had to lock himselfinto a room isn't it? Yeah.'

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