Longest pub workers strike

Initiated by the Irish National Union of Vinters, Grocers and Allied Trades Assistants, on 3 March 1939, the staff of Downey's pub in Dún Laoghaire, Dublin, Ireland, went on strike in response to the dismissal of a unionized employee who was replaced with a non-unionized worker. A picket outside the pub, including a placard that read "Strike on at Downey's", would remain in place until 27 November 1953 - a duration of 14 years 269 days, making this one of the longest labour strikes of any kind on record.

Over the course of the near-15 year strike, it's estimated that the picketers walked around 41,000 miles (66,000 km) while protesting outside the pub located at 108 Upper George's Street.

The ousted employee that had instigated the boycott (Patrick Young) moved on and found new employment after about seven years, but the strike would nevertheless continue for another seven.

The pub's landlord, former boxer James Downey, passed away in May 1953; the strike was called off later that year after the union agreed terms with the new owner.

What came to be known as the "everlasting strike" attracting international media coverage including in TIME magazine. So famous was the strike that when the merchant ship Irish Elm was intercepted by German U-boat U-638 on 20 March 1943, the submarine's commander, Kapitänleutnant Heinrich Oskar Bernbeck, reportedly enquired whether "the strike was still on at Downey's"!