Despite the call by the Irish regional executive of the ATGWU to boycott this week's ICTU conference in Bundoran, the union mustered 24 of its 35strong delegation to attend.
The call had been made in protest at the decision of the British Transport and General Workers' Union, to suspend the Irish regional secretary, Mr Mick O'Reilly.
The ATGWU delegation was led by the Republic of Ireland district secretary, Mr Ben Kearney. However, Mr Kearney failed to have his name put forward for the ICTU executive in place of Mr O'Reilly, because it was considered too late to amend nominations. It is expected that Mr Kearney will be co-opted to the executive after the conference.
A motion from the ATGWU calling for greater use of the social inclusion provisions of the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness (PPF) due to be proposed by Mr O'Reilly was formally put by the Dundalk branch secretary, Mr Brendan Hodgers, instead. It was passed unanimously without debate.
While there was general sympathy for Mr O'Reilly, his suspension did not feature in debate beyond two brief references by the ICTU president, Ms Inez McCormack, and the general secretary, Mr Peter Cassells.
Ms McCormack warned that there was a danger that internal union rows - including the suspension of "a passionate trade unionist, with whom many of us have had passionate disagreements" - would present a picture of a movement at odds with itself.
Mr Cassells said that with 750,000 members there were bound to be disagreements. "When these rows spill into the public domain they can be very damaging for the trade union movement," he said.
While he could not speak about the rights and wrongs of the dispute, he wanted "to put on the record that neither I, nor any representative of Congress, sought in any way to influence any decision of the ATGWU in relation to Mr Mick O'Reilly."