9 Nicholas Street

Robert Day resided at No. 9 Nicholas Street and was a militant labour activist in Cork city during the revolutuonary era.

No. 9 Nicholas Street: The yellow house on the left, former residence of Robert Day.

Robert Day, or Bob Day as he was also known,  was secretary of the Cork branch of the ITGWU. In 1920 he won a seat on Cork City Corporation as a Sinn Fein ITGWU candidate. These were the historic local elections which saw the independence movement take countrol of City Hall and Tomas MacCurtain elected Lord Mayor.

The first meeting of the new Cork City Corporation 1920.

Lord Mayor MacCurtain set up the Cost of Living Commission which sought to determine a proper living wage for workers. The Cork Harbour Board was one of those targeted in this commission and were told to implement a wage of 70shillings for dockers. The Harbour Board dismissed the commission and it would be another year before dockers , led by Day, would strike for what the Cost of Living Commission asked the harbour board to implement. 

Robert Day.

Day with the Cork contingent who went to London to accompany the body of Lord Mayor McSwiney back home. 

The War of Independence took priority in Cork and it wasn't until the truce was announced in the Summer of 1921 could Day and his fellow labour activists organise the disgruntled dockers. 

Nicholas Street, early 20th Century. 

In September 1921 Day and the dockers seized the Cork Custom House , the headquarters of the Cork Harbour Board. Day raised a red flag over it's roof and declared it the Cork Harbour Soviet.

The Cork Custom House where the red flag flew in 1921.

The strike made headline news in California.

Day was declared the Chief Commissioner of the Port and for two weeks the Cork Harbour Soviet stayed in place until the overdue pay rise was finally implemented. 

Some of the striking dockers of the Cork Harbour Soviet.

It was a time of short lived soviets across the country, the most famous being the Limerick Soviet of 1919. In Cork workers set up a Youghal Soviet, a Fermoy Soviet and a Cork Railway Soviet. 

1923 caricature of Robert Day.

Robert Day would stand for Labour in the 1922 general election and win a seat representing Cork Borough. His stint in Dail Eireann was a short one, he lost his seat the following year. 

 Robert Day remained active in the fight for the working class until his death at the age of 64 on May 1st 1949 - May Day, appropriately!