The Energy Services Union (Aontas Oibrithe Fuinnimh is a

trade union A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

representing workers at the

ESB Group The Electricity Supply Board (ESB; ) is a state owned (95%; the rest are owned by employees) electricity company based in Ireland with operations worldwide. While historically a monopoly, the ESB now operates as a commercial semi-state concer ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

. As of 2024 ESU is the last "in-house" trade union left in Ireland. Until the late 1950s, most staff at the

Electricity Supply Board The Electricity Supply Board (ESB; ) is a state owned (95%; the rest are owned by employees) electricity company based in Ireland with operations worldwide. While historically a monopoly, the ESB now operates as a commercial semi-state concer ...

(ESB) were represented by the Amalgamated Transport and General Workers' Union. In 1959, a strike among clerical staff at the ESB was unsuccessful, and this led the clerical section to found a new union, Electricity Supply Board Officers' Association (ESBOA). By the following year had a membership of 1,116, growing to 1,800 ten years later, and 3,005 in 1990. It affiliated to the

Irish Congress of Trades Unions The Irish Congress of Trade Unions (often abbreviated to just Congress or ICTU), formed in 1959 by the merger of the Irish Trades Union Congress (founded in 1894) and the Congress of Irish Unions (founded in 1945), is a national trade union cen ...

in 1976. David Begg became its general secretary in 1982, serving for three years.John B. Smethurst and Peter Carter, ''Historical Directory of Trade Unions'', vol.6, p.370 By 2012, the union also had members working for

Endesa Endesa, S.A. (, originally an initialism for ''Empresa Nacional de Electricidad, S.A''.) is a Spanish multinational electric utility company, the largest in the country. The firm, a majority-owned subsidiary of the Italian utility company Enel, ...

EirGrid EirGrid plc is the state-owned electric power transmission operator in Ireland. It is a public limited company registered under the Companies Acts; its shares are held by the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications. It is one ...

and

Airtricity SSE Airtricity (previously Eirtricity) is an energy company founded in Ireland in 1997, and now a subsidiary SSE plc. SSE Airtricity supplies and distributes electricity and gas to Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. History The comp ...

, and as a result it renamed itself as the "Energy Services Union

f Ireland F, or f, is the sixth letter of the Latin alphabet and many modern alphabets influenced by it, including the modern English alphabet and the alphabets of all other modern western European languages. Its name in English is ''ef'' (pronounce ...

Presidents

:1998-2002: Philomena Harrington :2002-06: John Nugent :2006-10: Dave Byrne :2010-13: Treasa Ni Mhurchú :2013-17: Ann Lynch :2017-21: Karen Halpenny :2021-25: Anthony Kelly :2025- : Karen Halpenny

General Secretaries

:1960: Franklin O'Sullivan :1964: N. Farrelly :1965: R. Kinch :1968: R. McElroy :1969: E. Harpur :1972: Louis Gillick :1975: Micheál Ó Foghlú :1978: John Mitchell :1982: David Begg :1985: John Hall :1991: Willie Cremins :2008: Tony Dunne :2010: Fran O'Neill :2024: Karan O'Loughlin

References

{{Irish Congress of Trade Unions Trade unions established in 1959 1959 establishments in Ireland Trade unions in the Republic of Ireland Energy industry trade unions