A documentary about the Durham Miners’ Gala from Shut out the Light Films. Length 91 minutes.
Produced by Christie Allanson and Daniel Draper. Writer and Director Daniel Draper.
Every July on the second Saturday of the month, the northern English City of Durham is taken over by former miners and their families, old mining communities, trade union members, brass bands and visitors from many countries for an event known locally as the Big Meeting. The colourful march through the narrow streets of the city by thousands of working class men and women carrying their lodge banners known as the Durham Gala is truly a spectacular and emotional sight.
Tens of thousands attend the events each year celebrating their heritage, their allegiance to the labour movement and international solidarity in what is a huge manifestation of the power of organised labour.
This unique gathering of miners’ solidarity was first held on August 12th 1871 in Wharton Park in Durham.
“The following year it was estimated that between 50,000 and 70,000 marched through Durham and on to the racecourse at Old Elvet, much to the discomfort of the genteel residents of Durham City”
According to Dave Hopper, who for thirty one years was the General Secretary of the Durham Miners’ Association, a champion of the Gala and a regular visitor to Cork until his death in 2016.
Miners and their families and the mining communities have been marching the same route since. At one stage in 1915 membership of the Durham Miners’ Association reached 120,000, organised in 200 lodges, with its headquarters at the impressive Red Hill’s Miners Hall. Set in its own grounds it resembled a coal baron’s estate. At that time it represented the power and prosperity of the mining unions and even contained the unique Miners Parliament at which representatives of the lodges decided union policy.
The late Dave Temple of Red Hills in a well-researched article about the Easter Rising 1916 in the 2016 Gala programme mentions that a fiery James Larkin spoke at the Gala in 1914 where he denounced the “ lackadaisical and fossilised trade union leaders to the great delight of the crowds and much to the disapproval of the Durham miners’ leaders”.
The Big Meeting documentary follows four participants at the Durham Gala to experience the colour and pageantry and the inspirational impact of the Durham Gala.