Father Michael Cassidy: The Potato Priest

Michael TRB Turnbull

The exploitation of Irish seasonal potato pickers was not a new phenomenon. In 1920, for example, Roman Catholic Bishop Grey Graham informed his clergy that a committee in Ireland had been investigating the question of housing potato workers, especially women and girls. However, in the spring of 1971, attention in East Lothian was focussed on the activities of 18 contractors or 'gaffers' who employed around 600 men and women in the potato fields.

Fr Michael Cassidy and Fr Michael Walsh of Dunbar became active in highlighting the plight of the potato workers, many of them, alleged Fr Cassidy, the victims of 'old slave-type tactics' (Scottish Catholic Archives (SCA) , Irish Weekly (Scottish Edition), 15 May 1971, GD6/4/2) and intimidation, allegations which he gave substance to in a report (SCA, Gray, Cardinal G to Campbell, Secretary of State, 2 July 1971, DE132/15/1) submitted to Cardinal Gordon Gray of St Andrews and Edinburgh. As a consequence of this report, Gordon Campbell, Secretary of State, directed the Department of Agriculture's Wages and Safety Inspectorate in collaboration with the Department of Health and Social Security to investigate the matter. East Lothian MP, John P. Mackintosh, Alex Eadie MP and Tom Oswald MP also took an active interest in the potato workers and what the press referred to as 'slave camps'. Irish parliamentarian, Tom Harte TD, spent three days looking into their living conditions. In July 1971 a 'News of the World' journalist, Gerry Brown, posed as a potato worker and reported: 'My finger nails were cracked and bleeding, my hands ripped by stone fragments.' (SCA, Brown G, News of the World, 18 July 1971).

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