Coal Mining Ends in Castlecomer, Co. Kilkenny, Ireland 1969
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- Опубліковано 5 лис 2024
- The closure of the coal mine at Castlecomer, County Kilkenny means no work for men raised on the traditional skills of mining.
The Deerpark Colliery, two miles from Castlecomer in County Kilkenny closed on 31 January 1969, thereby ending 300 years of mining in Castlecomer. The mine was uneconomical to run, losing £2,000 per week. It had been propped up by the government since 1965, when the owners threatened to close.
After a lifetime in the mines 183 miners received one week’s notice and 142 of them are still out of work with uncertain employment prospects.
I fear the day that our redundancy payments will run out and I’ve only two more weeks to go now and after that we don’t know what we will do.
One man who worked in the mines for 46 years has not tried to get another job because he cannot physically work. His lungs are damaged from long term exposure to coal dust, known as pneumoconiosis. Mining is all he knows but he could see the pit closure was inevitable.
The youth are not inclined to go down and they’re bloody well right, it’s not a life for no one, it’s only a dog’s life.
There has been no attempt to retrain any of the miners. While younger men are finding work in new factories in the region, the new industries are not absorbing older men.
There is no place in Castlecomer now for the skills of men bred on a tradition that is 300 years old.
As miners move from redundancy payments to unemployment hand outs, Castlecomer is starting to feel the effect of the closure of the mines. While the employment situation is bleak, there are some signs of hope. Four factories will be taking on men within the month.
A ‘Seven Days’ report broadcast on 30 September 1969. The reporter is Bill O’Herlihy.
These men were tough. Real men.
Men of Steel coughed up and spite out abandoned
A similar fait for Ballingarry a few years later. I grew up in the Ardagh Hills at that time and it was devastating
Ireland was a tough place to live in those days
that is true, if you were not a small farmer them your life was extra rough, hard times so many had to emigrate and become foreigners and may not have been treated that well
No "working from home" for these fellas!
They’re probably all dead now. May they rest in peace.🇮🇪🙏
Not all thankfully, one died in 2017 and still a few alive today.
Best Of Coal In That Mine , still Ready by
To go. ,
A sad-looking line of fine hard-working mining men who got £3.5 shillings for those men's families to live on for a full week, nowadays a cup of coffee would cost you £3.5 shillings. Those were hard and brutal times, with not many jobs on offer and very poor wages and yet you hear some people say those were the good old days, Those were the days when working men had to leave their wives and their children behind and go to work in foreign lands to earn some money and send it home every week and yet take care of their own selfs.
Comer is soooooo different now
very hard times back then but l think is was a much happier time
Yeah they all look delighted to be queueing up for bread and lads with destroyed lungs. Nostalgic nonsense
Good Lord, what was the average age of an Irish miner? 67?
A job for life. New blood only came in when old blood retired.
Aged from hard work
❤
😢
Bill wasn't very sympathetic 😮