{{Short description|Defunct Irish trade union}}{{Infobox union | name = Irish Postal Union | native_name = | native_name_lang = | image = | founded = 1900 | dissolved = 1923 | merged_into = Post Office Workers' Union | num_members = 2,500 (1921) | publication = | location = Ireland | affiliations = | key_people = | headquarters = 4 Cavendish Row, Dublin | footnotes = }} The '''Irish Postal Union''' (IPU) was a trade union representing clerks, telegraphists and telephonists working in the Post Office in Ireland.
The union was founded in 1900 as the '''Dual Workers' Association''', and in 1904 it was renamed as the '''Association of Irish Post Office Clerks'''. That year, it was recognised for negotiating purposes by the Postmaster General, but the union's journal was consistently critical of Post Office policies and, as a result, recognition was withdrawn in 1909. Following an agreement to stop publishing critical articles, recognition was reinstated.<ref name="marsh">{{cite book |last1=Marsh |first1=Arthur |last2=Ryan |first2=Victoria |title=Historical Directory of Trade Unions |volume=1 |date=1980 |publisher=Gower |location=Farnborough |isbn=0566021609 |page=[https://archive.org/details/historicaldirect0004mars/page/109 109] |url=https://archive.org/details/historicaldirect0004mars/page/109 }}</ref>
By the 1910s, the union was the only body representing sorting clerks, telegraphists and telephonists in the Post Office in Ireland. Unlike most other unions in the service, it did not merge into the Union of Post Office Workers (UPW) on its formation. Once Northern Ireland was created, the IPU's members in the state were transferred to the UPW.<ref name="marsh" />
In 1920, the union renamed itself as the "Irish Postal Union".<ref name="marsh" /> In 1923, it merged with the Irish Post Office Engineering Union and the Irish Postal Workers' Union, forming the Post Office Workers' Union.<ref name="smethurst">{{cite book |first1=John B. |last1=Smethurst |first2=Peter |last2=Carter |title=Historical Directory of Trade Unions |volume=6 |page=[https://archive.org/details/historicaldirect0004mars/page/374 374] |isbn=9780754666837 |lccn=80-151653 |date=June 2009 |publisher=Ashgate Publishing |location=Farnham |url=https://archive.org/details/historicaldirect0004mars/page/374 }}</ref>
==References== <references />
Category:Trade unions established in 1900 Category:Trade unions disestablished in 1923 Category:Trade unions in the Republic of Ireland Category:Postal trade unions