The late Tom Darby

Legendary Trade Unionist Tom Darby passed away last week aged 82. Mr Darby was born in Kinnegad in in 1927 and lived there until he moved to the Beaumont area of Dublin in the early 1950s to work on the buses.His sister, Anna Gaffney still lives in the family home at Corkhill, Kinnegad.Mr Darby helped found the organisation that became the National Bus and Railworkers Union (NBRU) and is credited with starting the one-day strike action system which was to become the weapon of choice for Irish Trade Unions in the decades that followed.The method allowed members to take short, sharp strike action at a time when people could ill-afford to lose pay. Tom began his working life as Dublin a bus conductor and was a member of the Irish Transport and General Workers Union (ITGWU) before he went on to help form the National Busmen's Union (NBU) in 1963.He quickly earned a reputation for his militancy and was synonymous with the organisation during the strikes of the 1970s and 1980s. He became the first general secretary of the union which represented the majority of bus drivers and conductors in Dublin.The union quickly spread to other major towns. Mr Darby held the position until his retirement in 1992. It later became the NBRU.Tom's youngest son Sean said he and older brothers Liam and Seamus could not remember a time when the house was not filled with his father's trade union colleagues and the union business was always the talk of the household.Sean Darby said that in the last few years his father had suffered with breathing difficulties and had been hospitalised at least twice a year for treatment. Tom Darby also suffered from Parkinson's Disease. He is survived by his wife Eileen, his sons Séamus, Liam and Seán, and two grandchildren Eoin and Brendan. Eoin travelled from his home in New Zealand to attend the funeral.