In 1924, the leader of the Irish Labour Party, Thomas Johnson, told the Dáil “a man is easier in his mind when he is getting a holiday if he is getting his pay for the same day”. His remarks came during a debate on the Public Holidays Bill, repealing nineteenth century British legislation which also covered Ireland, relating to four bank holidays: 26th December, Easter Monday, Whit Monday and the first Monday in August. St Patrick’s Day had been designated a bank holiday in 1903 by the Westminster parliament. The 1924 Act gave power to the government of the new Irish Free State “to appoint any particular day to be observed as a bank holiday.”
Johnson’s plea was that “workmen who are given a holiday by statute… shall have their day’s pay for that holiday.” While that request was not acceded to then, further legislation in 1939 established workers’ entitlement to paid leave, with six bank holidays legally established: Christmas Day, St Stephen’s Day, St Patrick’s Day, Easter Monday, Whit Monday and the first Monday in August. New Year’s Day and the October holiday were added in the 1970s, while in 1993 the May holiday was introduced.
The most recent public holiday was established in 2022, St Brigid’s Day, which also marked the Celtic festival of Imbolc, traditionally acknowledging the commencement of Spring. It was the first Irish public holiday named after a woman.
We use the terms bank holiday and public holiday interchangeably, but our laws refer only to public holidays. Collectively, these days arise from inheritance, independent statehood and our distinctive traditions; historically, there were rest and feast days, and celebrations marking seasons, harvests and saints.
RM Block
Some may regard the plethora of public holidays, including this weekends August Bank Holiday, as indulgent. But with ten public holidays, Ireland falls below the EU annual average of twelve, and the Irish, working an average 39 hours a week, toil at a higher rate than the EU average of 37.8 hours, allowing workers benefiting from this weekend to be easy in their minds.
