Trades Union Hall:
Kanturk was to the forefront of the evolution of the labour movement in Ireland. Kanturk Labourer’s Club was founded in 1869, to be renamed the Irish Agricultural Labourers’ Union in 1873, which was followed by a Trades Council (1881), Labour League (1886) and the Duhallow Trades and Labour Association (1889).
It was in this hall, in Lower Bluepool, that the Trades Council was established in 1881, commemorated in the wall plaque. It was also the band room of the Kanturk Brass Band and much later of the Kanturk Fife and Drum Band, For many years the building’s activities were supervised by the O’Shea family, a name with a strong and long association with the trade union movement in Kanturk.
In recent times it was secured by Kanturk and District Community Council which has overseen its total refurbishment for community activities.