The curious connection of the stained glass window and the trade union movement

IT IS not often that one can include the trade union movement and a stained glass window in the one sentence.

The story about the connection between this magnificent window in Cork and the trade union movement is an interesting one. In the early 1900s, workers in Ireland were suffering from low wages and rising prices, due to the outbreak of the First World War, which caused strikes throughout the country.

This sparked Fr Thomas Dowling (1874-1950), a Capuchin priest who had studied social reform, to set up a Conciliation Board in Cork. This had an equal number of employer and trade union members and was the first such organisation in an English- speaking country. As its first chairman, Fr Thomas presided over many trade disputes; the most notorious was one between the tram workers and the company, for whom he brokered a successful settlement.