Dock work was treated as casual labour in Dublin Port right up to the 1970s. As such, men would gather at the docks each day in the hope that they would be called to work by the foreman in a daily address known as 'The Read'. Foremen from different…

At one stage in Dublin Port, roughly as many ships were worked outside the dock gates as inside. Ships were worked on the North Wall and along the South Quays. Cranes would lower their gibs into the ship's hatches, where cargo would be put on…