Analysis: The move to ban women traders selling fruit, vegetables and fish at Dublin street markets was led by a group of 'substantial ratepayers'
Moore Street stands alone as "Dublin's oldest open-air market". However, it was just one of the city's many street-based markets a century ago, where women sold fruit, vegetables and fish from moveable stalls. Walking between those marketplaces, itinerant traders sold food from baskets to passersby.
Historically, the need for working-class women to earn on Dublin's streets was acknowledged and accepted. The drawings of Hugh Douglas Hamilton and the poetry of Jonathan Swift document how critical street trading was for basic survival. Their continued presence in 1920s Dublin indicates that trading still equalled survival for these women. As an added social benefit, the city's poor had access to affordable food.
So why then did city authorities try to ban street trading in the 1920s? Initial calls for a ban came from privileged quarters in the soon-to-be capital city. On October 6th 1921 the Irish Times reported on a meeting of the Dublin Citizens' Association, a group of "substantial ratepayers". Under the headline "Street Trading Evils", they alleged the practice left thoroughfares filthy, thereby compromising "the common law rights of citizens".
The only charge under existing legislation, obstruction, made convictions difficult to obtain against mobile traders, but gardaí continued to issue hundreds of summonses. On July 26th 1923, the Irish Times reported that 160 cases were heard that day in the Southern District Court. Solicitor James Brady represented the defendants. He labelled the prosecutions a "moonshine", likening the fines levied to having street traders "pay the National Debt".
Street trading regulations were prepared by Chief Commissioner of Police, W. R. E. Murphy, and presented to Dublin City Council on October 8th 1923. He identified 25 street markets and proposed they be sanctioned as hubs with a designated number of pitches. His report fell by the wayside in the uncertainty of the times. Late in 1923, prominent business interests lobbied to have the Corporation dissolved for alleged mismanagement. A government inquiry followed, and its operations were suspended in May 1924. Three Commissioners were appointed to act as the local authority. This event proved significant for street traders.
On September 23rd 1924 an editorial in the Irish Times called street trading a "pressing" issue, adding "sympathy and charity" must not cancel the rights of ratepayers. Questions were raised in Dáil Éireann and Minister for Justice Kevin O'Higgins introduced the Street Trading Bill in December 1925, insisting the legislation would regulate, not ban, street trading.
In January 1926 the Irish Times labelled street trading both a "picturesque survival of ancient times" and a "civic evil", asserting that the legislation was "drastic" but necessary. To one critic, it did not go far enough. Independent TD Bryan Cooper demanded a prison sentence for a first offence, calling street traders "evasive" and likening them to "fleas". The government, he continued, was dealing with someone who "may be a lodger" or "live in a tenement". His amendment did not pass.
The legislation became law in April 1926. It allowed for summonses to be issued for trading without a street trading certificate or stall license, and for trading in prohibited streets. Gardaí could now arrest those who failed to comply. For procedural reasons, the act was not implemented until 1927, and complaints continued to be aired in the press. An Irish Times editorial in October 1926 alleged street traders had turned the capital's streets into a "continental ghetto".
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From RTÉ Archives, Nuala Hayes reports for The Women's Programme on the conflict between big business and street traders around Dublin's Henry Street in 1985
The following January, the Irish Times reported City Commissioner Murphy would use the powers granted to him under the act to ban stall trading in over 250 streets. He intended to focus on "the main show streets of Dublin" to remove what he termed "the tawdriness of Dublin". Markets at Parnell Street and George's Street were among those targeted for police action. Sweeping arrests, fines and the seizure of traders' goods and earnings followed. Many women continued trading at their established pitches despite the bans. They were labelled "recalcitrant", and the Commissioners insisted they be brought to justice.
Social reformer and Dublin's first female city councillor Sarah Cecilia Harrison met with the street traders and compiled their concerns in a letter published in the Irish Times on March 28th. The women, Harrison wrote, were not resisting regulations or having to pay for licenses, and were instead "protesting banishment to the slums". Harrison proposed that inexpensive, covered markets be constructed on vacant lots, but the Commissioners refused to negotiate.
Hundreds of women faced mounting fines they could not afford to pay. Protests were raised in Dáil Éireann and opposition TDs labelled the Commissioners unjust. Successive government ministers dismissed calls to stop the arrests. On March 10th 1928 the Irish Times reported Robert Briscoe TD had entered an undertaking in court on behalf of street traders from George's Street to relocate them to an alternative site. Briscoe described the defendants as "honest women" forced into trading by circumstances.
After the Corporation was restored in October 1930, street trading advocates Briscoe, Alfie Byrne and Tom Kelly were elected to council. On November 4th the Irish Times printed an allegation by Kelly that the Commissioners had used the bylaws to take away street traders' livelihoods "at the behest" of shopkeepers.
Work commenced to restore the markets, but only a few, including pitches on Parnell Street and Camden Street, were re-established. The erasure of countless historic markets was permanent and the hostilities that created the Street Trading Act had forever changed the relationship between the city and its street traders.
Dublin's women street traders, 1882-1932 'civic evil' and civil disobedience is published by Four Courts Press. The author will be part of a panel discussion around women in Ireland, struggle and resilience across three centuries, at this year's Dublin Book Festival on November 6th at the Royal Irish Academy.
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The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ
