Hugh Murphy

Hugh Murphy began his working life on the Belfast docks. He started as a non union worker and later joined the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union, where he quickly became known as a troublemaker, because he would not accept rules he believed were wrong.

The turning point came over asbestos. Hugh objected to the way dockers were being made to handle it, and to the way he felt the union had sided with the employers instead of the men. His refusal to stay quiet led to his dismissal and a short strike, and the strike collapsed.

Hugh left the docks, but he never let the story go. He turned to writing, and his first stage play, Justice, was performed across Northern Ireland and at the Belfast and Dublin theatre festivals. He went on to write The Judas Goat, a play set on the Belfast docks.

A lifelong pacifist, Hugh is an outspoken critic of corruption in Ireland, and he writes regularly about justice, civil liberties and accountability. In Memories And Observations, the story he carried for 75 years is finally told, in full, in his own words.