Forty-five feet long; 30 panels; miles of thread; yards of material; 250 adult and school student volunteers.
The 1913 Lock-out Tapestry was unveiled by President Michael D Higgins in Liberty Hall. It was described by him as “…an imaginative work of art that connects us to a crucial event in our past in a most meaningful way…”
Inspired by a similar community-based tapestry project in Scotland, The Prestonpans Tapestry, the idea was promoted as the lead project for the union’s 1913 Centenary programme.
Early stage development saw the appointment of Union Legend Brendan Byrne as the project manager and the development of a partnership with the National College of Art and Design.
Valuable advice at this stage was also received from community artist Andrew Crummie, who had designed the Prestonpans Tapestry.
The key decision of the new SIPTU/NCAD partnership was to select artists Cathy Henderson and Robert Ballagh to jointly design the artwork and to liaise with the project volunteers, reflecting the collaborative nature of this commemorative piece.
The artists’ design features 30 separate linen panels of approximately two feet by two and a half feet, illustrating various aspects of the Lockout story, based on a timeline devised by Padraig Yeates.
They include the infamous Bloody Sunday police riot and the iconic central panel of Larkin with arms outstretched against the backdrop of Dublin tenements.
It is a unique work of art, which in its design and execution, and the words of former SIPTU General President, Jack O’Connor, reflects “that essential spirit of social solidarity shown by the workers of the Lockout to refute the imperative of greed which governs Irish society”.
To mark the anniversary of Bloody Sunday this year, we launch a special online exhibition of the Lockout Tapestry in Our History. It is hoped that it will inspire workers and communities to organise for a better future in the way reflected on by President Higgins:
“The greatest moments in our history were always those where our people turned towards the future and a sense of what might be possible. It is the vision that sustained the workers of the Lockout. It is the same vision of a better future, of a future reclaimed as an arena of hope, which sustained the Irish people during every period of hardship…”