Ireland: Closing the Banks

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In good times as well as bad, the Irish remain feisty folk. Among other things, labor-management strife increases even as the little (pop. 2,800,000) Republic of Ireland grows more prosperous. In 1960 Ireland had virtually no strikes. Last year it had 89 major ones — trainmen quit running trains, gravediggers quit digging graves, and, no doubt with special enthusiasm, mailmen cut off all parcel-post traffic be tween the Ould Sod and England.

The situation is certainly no better so far this year. Just last week Irish electrical workers walked out, causing wide spread shutdowns on everything from telephones to electrically operated hospital suction pumps (one poor chap suffered a long interruption in a major operation—being Irish, he survived). At the same time, members of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association were striking and picketing government buildings in Dublin.

Suffering Status. Most serious by far, some 1,000 unionized junior bank clerks decided that their "status" was suffering when compared with that of other Irish white-collar workers. So they too went on strike, demanding a 7% pay raise over the present top level of $1,881.60 a year. The result was devastating: in all, ten commercial banking institutions run about 900 main banks and branches; all these were forced to shut down. That left fewer than 40 branches—including two run by New York's First National City Bank and by the Bank of Nova Scotia—still open in all the Irish Republic. Beyond that, while Ulstermen may not ordinarily feel friendly toward the Irish Republic, apparently Northern Ireland's bank clerks are sympathetic to their compeers there. Result: more than half of Northern Ireland's 401 banks and branches also shut down.

Since Northern Ireland is still part of the United Kingdom, it could keep going with British pounds flown in from English banks. The independent Irish Republic has no such thing going for it; Eire has its own pound which, even though it is worth as much as Britain's, is not interchangeable. When word of the impending bank strike got around, depositors lined up for blocks, withdrew some $31 million before the vaults could swing shut on a remaining $775 million. That left some $322 million in out-of-bank circulation, just enough, by most estimates, to keep the Republic and its countrymen going.

Slumping Stock Market. Many Irishmen viewed the bank strike with ebullient aplomb. "I had an overdraft due in two weeks," crowed a Dubliner, "now I can forget about it." Said an official of the Irish Central Bank, only half-jokingly: "People may soon decide that banks aren't necessary after all." Others took the situation more seriously. With cash scarce, trading on the Dublin Stock Exchange slumped, and the Tipperary cattle market closed altogether.

If the strike were to continue for more than three weeks, Irish employers would be hard-pressed to meet their payrolls with cash—as is required by national law. How long will the junior bank clerks be able to shut down Ireland's banks? No one knew. Predictions went up to three months.