End of an era as last city dockers finish up

FOR generations, they used their bare hands to unload massive ships berthed at a city’s bustling quays.

But an era ended yesterday when over 100 Cork city dockers collected redundancy payments on their last day at work.

Men like legendary docks’ foreman Simon Quilligan, who worked at the Port of Cork for 49 years, Christy Murphy, who saw 30 years’ service, and “baby docker” Jack O’Keeffe, who “only started in 1978”, filed into Connolly Hall to collect their payments.