Remembering Seamus O’Donnell

Thursday 24 April 2025

Seamus O’Donnell, a retired ex IDATU/Mandate Official, died recently and we send our deepest sympathies to his daughter Dearbhaile.

Seamus was born in County Cavan in the 1930’s. His working career began in retail in the town of Arva. He moved to Dublin and took up a position in Frawley’s, Thomas Street and then moved to Brown Thomas in Grafton Street.

Seamus was quite active in union matters in these stores and in the early 1970’s he was appointed to the position of Union Official in the then Irish Union of Distributive Workers and Clerks (IUDWC) serving the Dublin Distributive Branch. Subsequently, he was promoted to the position of Assistant General Secretary (AGS) of the IUDWC. Seamus held this position until 1985 when the union changed its title to the Irish Distributive and Administrative Trade Union (IDATU). As AGS Seamus also acted as General Secretary during a short period of absence of the then General Secretary.

During the 1980’s, as the union was brought to modernity, Seamus took on the task of transferring the records of the union such as membership and payments to a digitalised platform. He was self-taught and achieved the onerous task of writing programmes to facilitate this transfer, which is in no way a menial task.

Seamus retired from the union in 1992 and was then appointed as an Employee Member of the Employment Appeals Tribunal (EAT) where he served for many years.

He applied himself diligently and sensitively to all matters before the Tribunal hearings and was active in delivering the Tribunal’s subsequent decisions. Separately, Seamus was often consulted on matters of labour law, being a diligent practitioner in the industrial relations arena.

Seamus took a close interest in discussions between IDATU and INUVG&ATA which resulted in the formation of Mandate Trade Union through a merger of both organisations, resulting in a strong union representing the retail and bar workers.

In his personal life Seamus was married to Conchessa (Connie) and they had one daughter Dearbhaile. He was an active member of the amateur dramatic circles and his local parish of St. Brendan’s in Coolock.

Seamus was often consulted on a range of matters and his advice was valued. He was particularly gifted at gathering data to support an argument, teasing out details and examining/analysing consequences on issues not only in his working life, but in personal situations.

An honest and upright person with a strong sense of integrity, he will be sadly missed by those who knew and served with him.

Rest in peace Seamus.