People Australia

Michael James (Jim) Donegan (1916-1970) ships painter and trade union official 

Birth: 29 June 1916 at Murchison, Victoria, son of native-born parents Michael David Donegan (1881-1924), a farmer and former police officer of Irish heritage, and his second wife Amy, née Loughridge (1893-1938). Marriage: 11 May 1939 at the Government Statist office, Melbourne, to Jean McLeod Rosengrave (1919-2005). They had a daughter and one son.  Death: 24 June 1970 in hospital at Footscray, Victoria. 

• Organiser, Munitions Workers’ Union and later Federated Ironworkers’ Association during WW II.
• Previously union vigilance officer, Donegan was secretary of the Victorian branch of the Federated Ship Painters and Dockers Union of Australia from 1952 to his death. Sometime federal president.
• Played active part in struggles against Essential Services Act, 1948, support for 1949 miners’ strike and 1956 waterfront strike.
• Noted for compassionate attitude to down and outs, a ‘rough diamond with a kindly heart full of sympathy and understanding for the under-dog’.
• The 1980 Royal Commission into the painters and dockers union 1980-1984, conducted by Frank Costigan, uncovered evidence that Donegan had continued the policy of recruiting criminals into the union initiated by his predecessor as secretary, ‘Doc’ Doyle.

Sources
Lew Hillier, Meet the ship: painters & dockers (St Kilda, 1981); Painter and Docker, July 1970; obituary, Tribune (Sydney), 8 July 1970, p 11: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/237503196; Richard Morris, ‘The Incorrigible Waterfront and its Decline’ in Labour History, No 55 (November 1988) pp 77-79.