Joe Law - Shankill Road communist and trade unionist

(A slightly edited version of this obituary was published in the Irish Times of November 26th 2016)

Joe Law born October 27^th 1946 – died September 28^th 2016

Joe Law, who has died suddenly in his native Belfast, made a major contribution to dealing with sectarianism in workplaces in the North, through his role delivering anti-sectarian training with the trade-union backed Trademark organisation. He was a self-taught working-class intellectual from Belfast’s Shankill Road, an active trade unionist, a stalwart of the Communist Party of Ireland, and committed to keeping alive the memory of those from Ireland who joined the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War.

For many years he was an Amalgamated Transport and General Workers shop steward in the Shorts aircraft factory in Belfast. Because of his stance against the flying of Loyalist flags, he was threatened and had bullets left in his locker.

Law’s socialism and trade unionism flowed from life experience. James Kennedy Law – always known as Joe - was born off Belfast’s Shankill Road in October 1946, one of a family of two girls and two boys to George Law, a clerk in a mill, and his wife Susie (née Kennedy). He was educated at Hemsworth Square School, known as ‘The Henhouse’.

Leaving school, he completed an apprenticeship as a joiner, and worked in several factories. Already conscious of injustice, he felt he was employed because he was Protestant.

Seeking wider horizons, he emigrated to England. His experience in the British merchant navy made him socialist. Ships he served on called into ports in South Africa, then suffering under apartheid. A black man came onto the ship, and called Law ‘master’. Law replied: “Don’t call me master. I’m from the Shankill, mate.”

Returning home, he joined the Communist Party and became an active trade unionist. He saw himself as a Republican, not in the sense of armed struggle but of the United Irishmen.

He believed that workers’ unity was possible in the North. He joked that he came from a Stalinist tradition, and his wife Brenda from the Trotskyist tradition. If they could get on, anyone could.

Joe Law is survived by his wife, Brenda.