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His early memories comprise beatings. They are consistent to his head. They continually play in a loop with every bruise juxtaposed upon each other. No matter what he does, they are always there. During his 75 years of living, he learned to do just that, live with the pain and memories. That is, until he sleeps. Unwanted, the dreams terrorize him. His two brothers, naked, run screaming from the leather belt. He stands still and lets him lash him until he collapses unconscious from the pain.
It made him a confirmed pacifist who would rather turn the other cheek than strike back. That said, he was and still is a verbal opponent of corruption and will speak out against it whenever he can. After being forcibly removed from school, because of an altercation he had nothing to do with, he began work at Belfast Docks as a non-union man. Non-union men were treated as the lowest of the low and employed when there was a glut of work, which was usually at the start of the week. While they were treated with contempt, there were a few good workers among them. He saw that while the Dockers got paid well, the working conditions were non-existent. After a year as a non-union man he got into the Union, the ITGWU. He had to conform to the mad union rules.
He objected to these most strongly and was labeled a ‘troublemaker. They reduced him to the level of a non-union man, with the subsequent loss of wages. Along with several other young Dockers. He began to drink at the waterside Pub. A side effect of this was that he could sleep at night. Determined to sort himself out, he stopped drinking and got married. Not drinking didn’t last very long. He often would sleep in one of the large storage sheds. This continued for a while, then his mother died. The death of his mother threw him into a downward spiral and the daytime nightmares became worse. The screams of his mother and sister banging on the door for him to stop whipping them, led him to drink more which led to blackouts. One night he fell down a flight of steps in the city center and banged his head. When he became conscious after a week in the City Hospital. He couldn’t walk. Before he was even ready to return to work the Irish government forced him to return to work. Soon he was back to full strength and able to verbally fight with the Union. Then they did an about-turn and unbelievably joined forces with the employers.
He accused them of betraying every trade union principle for the protection of workers, but the sell out-continued. Then two shocking things happened. The Union Chairman left the Union and joined the employers as Labor Controller - and the Union ordered the Dockers to discharge Asbestos without protection to save the employers money.
Several Dockers, himself included, refused to work with Asbestos. So the Union joined forces with the employers and formed a Union and Employers Court, which summoned him - and fired him. The Dockers went on strike, but it only lasted three days. The Union declared he was a communist, and they were going to fire him themselves. Disgusted, he walked out the Dock gates and never returned. This started his writing career with his first stage play, ‘Justice’, touring NI and being performed in the Belfast and Dublin Theatre Festivals. However, because of his outspoken views and the fact that he has written a play about Belfast Docks - named ‘The Judas Goat’, the powers that be who rule Theatre in Ireland are behaving much like the Belfast Employers.
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