Padraigín Ní Mhurchú (20 February 1949 – 4 June 2019) was an Irish trade union leader. Born in Rakeeragh,

County Monaghan County Monaghan ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster and is part of Border Region, Border strategic planning area of the Northern and Western Region. It is named after the town ...

, Ní Mhurchú was educated at St Louis Girls' National School in

Carrickmacross Carrickmacross () is a town in County Monaghan, Ireland. The population was 5,745 at the 2022 census of Ireland, 2022 census, making it the second-largest town in the county. Carrickmacross is a market town which developed around a castle buil ...

. She joined the

Irish Civil Service The Civil service () of the Republic of Ireland is the collective term for the permanent staff of the departments of state and certain state agencies who advise and work for the Government of Ireland. It consists of two broad components, the ' ...

in 1967 and joined the Civil Service Executive Union, serving on its executive committee from 1972. This inspired her to focus full-time on trade unionism, and she became an assistant branch secretary for the

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

(WUI), soon being promoted to branch secretary. She also served on the Women's Advisory Committee of the

Irish Congress of Trade Unions The Irish Congress of Trade Unions (often abbreviated to just Congress or ICTU), formed in 1959 by the merger of the Irish Trades Union Congress (founded in 1894) and the Congress of Irish Unions (founded in 1945), is a national trade union cent ...

(ICTU). In 1980, Ní Mhurchú was appointed as deputy general secretary of the

Irish Women Workers' Union The Irish Women Workers' Union was a trade union which was set up at a meeting on 5 September 1911 in Dublin, Ireland. The meeting had been organized by Delia Larkin. The union was created because other trade unions of the time excluded women worke ...

, then became general secretary in 1982. With the union have a falling membership and financial difficulties, Ní Mhurchú refocused its activity on recruiting part-time workers, then in 1985 arranged for it to merge into the WUI. In 1984, Ní Mhurchú became the first woman to serve on the Labour Court, appointed by the ICTU, serving until 2012. In the early 1990s, she undertook a law degree at

Trinity College Dublin Trinity College Dublin (), officially titled The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, and legally incorporated as Trinity College, the University of Dublin (TCD), is the sole constituent college of the Unive ...

, but suffered a brain haemorrhage and stroke in 1992, leading to her spending more than a year in hospital.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ni Mhurchu, Padraigin 1949 births 2019 deaths Trade unionists from County Monaghan