The 1945 Laundry Strike

Mel.: Lili Marleen

Outside the laundry, we put up a fight
For a Fortnight’s Holiday.
They said we would have to strike,
So we keep marching up and down,
As we nearly did, for half a crown.
We are a fighting people,
Who cannot be kept down.

Then they gave us one week,
But we wanted two,
And we well deserved it
For the work we had to do.
There for a long nine hours a day.
In heat and steam we have to stay.
Then they gave us one week
out of fifty-two.

The employers put a statement
in the “Irish Press”,
It was all untrue. But how could people guess?
So now that they have heard our story true,
We leave it all up to you,
To help us in our battle,
To gain what we are due.