William A. Attley (born 5 April 1938) is a former Irish

trade unionist A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and Employee ben ...

and

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

referee A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other titl ...

. Born in

Rathcoole, Dublin Rathcoole () is an outer suburban village, south-west of the city of Dublin, in the jurisdiction of South Dublin, Ireland. Rathcoole is also a civil parish in the Barony of Newcastle. Etymology Ráth is the Irish word for a ringfort, a circu ...

, Attley studied at the National College of Industrial Relations. He became active in the

Workers' Union of Ireland The Workers' Union of Ireland (WUI), later the Federated Workers' Union of Ireland, was an Irish trade union formed in 1924. In 1990, it merged with the Irish Transport and General Workers Union to form the Services, Industrial, Professional and ...

(WUI), being elected as a branch secretary in 1968, then Deputy General Secretary in 1977 and General Secretary from 1982.Louis McRedmond, ''Modern Irish lives: dictionary of 20th-century Irish biography'', p.6 In 1990, he led a merger of the WUI with the

Irish Transport and General Workers' Union The Irish Transport and General Workers Union (ITGWU), was a trade union representing workers, initially mainly labourers, in Ireland. History The union was founded by James Larkin in January 1909 as a general union. Initially drawing its memb ...

, forming

SIPTU SIPTU (; ''Services, Industrial, Professional and Technical Union''; ga, An Ceardchumann Seirbhísí, Tionsclaíoch, Gairmiúil agus Teicniúil) is Ireland's largest trade union, with around 200,000 members. Most of these members are in the Rep ...

(Services, Industrial, Professional and Technical Union), serving as joint General President until 1994, then as General Secretary until his retirement in 1998. Outside trade unionism, Attley was active in the Labour Party, and was a keen football referee, ultimately working with

UEFA Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; french: Union des associations européennes de football; german: Union der europäischen Fußballverbände) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs f ...

to recruit and train referees, and in his retirement becoming chief referee assessor for the Football Association of Ireland.Martin Fitzpatrick
"Billy Attley"
''

Irish Independent The ''Irish Independent'' is an Irish daily newspaper and online publication which is owned by Independent News & Media (INM), a subsidiary of Mediahuis. The newspaper version often includes glossy magazines. Traditionally a broadsheet new ...

'', 6 June 2004

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Attley, Bill 1938 births Living people Republic of Ireland football referees Trade unionists from County Dublin People from Rathcoole, County Dublin Alumni of the National College of Ireland