Glimmer man

For the film, see The Glimmer Man.

A glimmer man (also rendered as "glimmerman"; Irish: fear fannléis) was a somewhat pejorative name unofficially, but almost universally, applied to inspectors who were employed by the Alliance and Dublin Consumers' Gas Company, the Cork Gas Consumers Company and other supply companies in the smaller towns and places in Ireland to detect the use of gas in restricted periods during the years of the Emergency in Ireland from March 1942[1] and in some places as late as 1947.[2][3] The term derived from the copy of advertisements published in the media and on posters which enjoined the population not to waste gas ...not even a glimmer.[citation needed]

Ireland has negligible indigenous coal resources and production of coal gas was dependent on the importation of coal which was severely restricted as a result of the war in Europe. An extract from a letter states it was "a drastic fuel famine."[4]

  1. ^ Lemass, Seán (19 May 1942). "Adjournment Debate – Dublin Gas Restrictions". Parliamentary Debates. 86. Dáil Éireann. Archived from the original on 7 June 2011. Retrieved 17 January 2009.
  2. ^ Murray, Niall (15 June 2005). "Heroes, genetics and glimmer man as options open". Irish Examiner. Archived from the original on 24 August 2013. Retrieved 26 October 2023. The only problem he cited was a short question about a glimmer man, a gas inspector during the 'emergency' in Ireland, a job many students would not be familiar with.
  3. ^ Crooks, Monica (2006). Voices in the Wind. Oxford: Trafford Publishing. pp. 60–62. ISBN 1-4122-4173-1.
  4. ^ Trench, Paddy (December 1942). "International Notes: Ireland". Extract from letter from Dublin [signed by Paddy Trench], dated August 21, 1942. Fourth International. Archived from the original on 22 May 2011. Retrieved 10 January 2009. The town gas supply depends on imported coal, and has been very drastically cut down.... There is a drastic fuel famine.