Derry Labour stalwart dies (first published in Irish Times January 11th 2014)

by Anton McCabe

Jim Sharkey – born March 23^rd 1914, died December 31^st 2013

Jim Sharkey, who has died in his 100^th year, was known in his home city of Derry as a ‘labour man’. He spent much of his life working for an economically just society. He had a horror of sectarianism, from whatever source, and held the vision of working-class people coming together

In the 1960s he was a leading figure in the Derry Labour Party. This was one of the bodies which organised the City’s Civil Rights march on October 5^th 1968: police attacked the march, with revulsion leading Civil Rights to become a mass movement. Sharkey was subsequently active in the Civil Rights Association. In his working life he was an electrician, an active member of the Electrical Trade Union (ETU), and for years an officer of the union’s Derry branch.

Before Derry Labour Party was re-established in 1960s, he had been involved in several ephemeral groups that came together to stand independent labour candidates for the old Stormont parliament.

He was an old-style ‘labour man’. Attending meetings in jacket, shirt and tie, the middle-aged Sharkey was sartorially different to the youthful radicals who flocked into Derry Labour Party in the late 60s – and warmed to his sense of humour and strong principles.

James Joseph Sharkey was born March 1914 in Rossville St, the main artery of Derry’s Catholic quarter, the youngest of six children to James Sharkey, a carter, and his wife Bridget (née Doherty), a seamstress. When he was only a few months old, his father died. His widowed mother then opened a small shop in the house.

He received secondary education at the Christian Brothers’ Technical school, known as ‘The Brow of the Hill’. During World War Two, he served in the Irish Army, stationed mostly in the Dublin area.

Politics and trade unionism were only part of his life. He had a passion for music. His wife, Sibeal, shared that passion, and they passed it on, particularly to their son Fearghal, once lead singer of seminal punk band The Undertones. He had an adventurous spirit. In the late 60s, he took his family on camping trips to France and Spain, when such was uncommon. This culminated in he and Sibeal selling their home and moving to Fuengirola, Spain. There he became unofficial sacristan of the Catholic Church, and facilitating all sorts of activities for the Irish community. After his wife’s death he stayed on, until the family persuaded him to return to Derry.

He is survived by his daughters Ursula and Bridgín: sons Jimmy, Michael, Fearghal and Diarmuid: and by his grandchildren and great-grandchildren. He was predeceased by his wife Sibeal and daughter Patricia.