Died: December 1, 2020. AT A very early stage in his working life Michael O’Mahony, who has died at the age of 78, joined the Fire Brigades Union. He rose to become the Chairman of D Division within Strathclyde FBU and a leading light in the 1977 national firefighters’ dispute. As the union itself has remarked, the Labour government of the time never really believed that the dispute would happen, but it did. And for nine weeks in the midwinter, striking firefighters huddled round braziers outside fire stations, putting the case for improved conditions of pay and other important aspects of what is, after all, a dangerous profession. All of this was driven by need not greed. Soldiers equipped with Green Goddesses – Civil Defence tenders – responded to many fires.