Belfast News-Letter, 17 May 1921

In April 1921 David Lloyd George’s decision to privatise Britain’s coal mines led to a ‘coal crisis’ as mining unions called for a strike. On 17 May, the Belfast News-Letter reported on the arrival in Belfast of a coal shipment from the USA. The report highlights the impact of the strike on social and economic life in Ulster, alongside the lengths that business owners went to obtain much-needed coal.

Coal from the States. Big Cargo Arrives at Belfast. Historic Event in Industry

There is something peculiarly significant in the arrival at Belfast Harbour of a steamer laden with coal from Norfolk, Virginia, U.S.A. It is an historic event. The coal strike in England and Scotland has paralysed many industries, and in industrial Ireland its evil effects have also been keenly felt. Hundreds of thousands of men, who are in no way connected with coal mining, have been thrown out of employment in consequence of works and manufactories having been closed down through want of fuel to “carry on,” and in many parts of the United Kingdom people – and more importantly the women and children in a lowly station in life – have to endure hardship, suffering, and misery through no fault of their own. In Ulster the pinch is also felt, as it must be wherever there are large industrial concerns. The railway services have necessarily been severely curtailed, fleets of steamers have been laid up, the most stringent economy has to be exercised everywhere, and on practically all our departments of commerce and industry the shadow of the coal strike has fallen with its numbing and destructive influence …

Ireland is very poor in native coal, both in quantity and quality, and it is one of the most striking testimonies to the ability and enterprise of the men of the Northern province that she has attained her proud position in the very forefront of industry, although having to import almost all her raw materials. When supplies of fuel from cross-channel ports failed here in Ulster, it therefore became necessary to obtain them elsewhere, and negotiations were entered into with the management of the vast coalfields in America. The considerations for doing so are plain; either coal must be got, or industry must further decay. So far the results have been satisfactory, and the arrival yesterday morning at York Dock of the S.S. Aledo, one of the Baltimore Steamship Company’s numerous fleet, with about 8,000 tons of the best coal … may be but the forerunner of many similar cargoes direct to Ireland from across the Atlantic …