{"id":575324,"date":"2026-07-30T11:08:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T11:08:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/575324\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T11:08:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T11:08:07","slug":"tom-macsweeney-remembering-the-asbestos-war-in-cork","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/575324\/","title":{"rendered":"Tom MacSweeney: Remembering the Asbestos War in Cork"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"contextmenu internal_Body1st\">Erosion of local democracy and a harbourside community described as \u201cnatives causing trouble\u201d were topics debated at the Spirit of Mother Jones Festival in the historic Shandon Quarter of Cork city on Saturday morning. The theme was \u2018Remembering the Asbestos War in County Cork, 1975-1980.\u2019<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">The focus of the debate was a \u2018rough protest\u2019 on May 15, 1978, at Ringaskiddy, against the dumping of asbestos waste from the Raybestos Manhattan factory in Ovens, which produced brake pads. The Ovens community opposed dumping.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">The Industrial Development Authority (IDA) had attracted the company to Cork when jobs were needed after the closure of Dunlop\u2019s, Ford\u2019s, and Verolme Dockyard.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">But asbestos was a big health issue. Medical opinion regarded it as a \u2018severe carcinogen,\u2019 but it was in high demand for commercial use. Pressure increased for a dump site. Cork County Council offered one at Ballybane, and councillors approved on a 27-17 vote.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">A community-versus-authority confrontation followed. The people of Ringaskiddy regarded the dumping of dangerous waste as a health threat.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">John Twomey and Gerti O\u2019Driscoll, from Ringaskiddy Residents\u2019 Association, and activist Derry Chambers, were on a panel at the discussion and recalled how they still felt about that day.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\u201cWe were regarded as natives causing trouble. It destroyed and broke trust in garda\u00ed and the council. We were pushed aside, our concerns ignored. Ringaskiddy has not opposed reasonable development, but, on that occasion, our community had to stand and fight. We had to defend our community,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">I was on the panel, also, having reported the protest for RT\u00c9 News. I had covered the \u2018Troubles\u2019 in Belfast in the 1970s, so wasn\u2019t unused to difficult situations. But I did not expect to see in Cork what happened at Ringaskiddy. Garda\u00ed forced a lorry carrying asbestos waste through a protest cordon of mainly women and children. Most local men were at work at the time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">The council and IDA decided that Ringaskiddy would be the waste site.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">The Garda superintendent in charge on May 15, 1978, admitted to me it was a \u2018rough\u2019 occasion. Labelled \u2018Peaceful Protest Turns Violent,\u2019 in the RT\u00c9 News archives, my report shows garda\u00ed pushing and shoving women and children aside.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\n            A brick was thrown, breaking the windscreen of an accompanying car. Residents claimed nine children were injured. Garda\u00ed denied that. Their view was that the residents were illegally blocking access to the site.\n        <\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">Those were different times, and Garda training has changed in dealing with public disorder.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">There have been years of controversy about developments in Ringaskiddy. The battle of harbour residents against the Indaver incinerator project continues after 25 years. Saturday\u2019s debate discussed erosion of local democracy. The abolition of urban district\/town councils and town commissioners removed a local voice.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">How effective is communication between \u2018authorities\u2019 and local communities? Is the current system of \u2018public consultation\u2019 fit for purpose? Would it not be better to talk, to meet face to face, listen, before decisions involving communities are made? Those were points made. The art of talking is in listening.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">The link between \u2018Mother Jones\u2019,\u2019 from Cork, known as \u2018the most dangerous woman in America\u2019, was festival organiser Ger O\u2019Mahony. He told me that the committee, focusing on social issues, believed the asbestos confrontation is part of Cork Harbour community history.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\u201cThe 50th anniversary is approaching. What happened has lessons for community activity, should be remembered and recorded for history archives. It is historically and socially important.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">The discussion was filmed\/recorded by Cork Community Television.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\u2018Mother Jones\u2019 was Mary Harris, born on Cork\u2019s Northside at the end of July 1837, baptised in the North Cathedral on August 1. Her family emigrated to Canada during the Great Famine. Marrying George Jones, she moved to the USA, where her husband and their four children died in a \u2018yellow fever\u2019 epidemic.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">A business she ran was destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, Becoming a \u2018tough and feared union organiser for miners seeking better pay and working conditions,\u2019 her slogan was, \u2018Pray for the dead, fight like hell for the living.\u2019<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">She organised the \u2018March of the Mill Children\u2019 in 1903, to highlight exploitation by big business of young children in the mines, mills, and factories of America. She was arrested and jailed several times for union activities supporting workers and underprivileged people.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu caption\">SEASCAPES<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">SEASCAPES podcast and blog website: https:\/\/tommacsweeneyseascapes.ie, Ireland\u2019s only maritime podcast. Upcoming in the August edition from Saturday: \u2018On the oceans alone for nine months.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Erosion of local democracy and a harbourside community described as \u201cnatives causing trouble\u201d were topics debated at the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":575325,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[37325,79,246,61,60,82],"class_list":["post-575324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-cork-opinion","tag-cork-news","tag-environment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=575324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575324\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/575325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=575324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=575324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=575324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}