May Day, St Joseph – and the Right to Work Here

On May Day, the world remembers ordinary workers who fought for fair hours, safe conditions and decent pay. In every generation, the message is the same: work is not just an income; it is about dignity, purpose and the chance to build a life where you live.

For Christians, the feast of St Joseph the Worker on 1 May adds a quieter echo to that call. Joseph the carpenter shows that the work of our hands – paid and unpaid – can be part of something deeper than profit. But you do not have to share that faith to recognise the truth at stake. Most of us, whatever our beliefs, know that being locked out of decent work, or forced into exhausting journeys just to reach it, damages families and drains hope.

A peninsula cut off from opportunity

On the Ards Peninsula this is daily reality. This is one of the lowest‑wage areas in Northern Ireland, with limited local opportunities and fragile links to better‑paid jobs, training and healthcare. When the Strangford ferry is not running, what should be a short hop becomes a 75km detour; even when it is running, residents and businesses report a service that simply does not match the needs of those who rely on it.

This affects everyone: people of any religion or none; workers in health and social care, hospitality and tourism; students and apprentices; older people trying to reach hospital appointments. In different ways, they are all saying the same thing: we are willing to work and contribute, but our geography and our infrastructure are holding us back.

A crossing for the whole community

A permanent, low‑carbon Strangford Lough Crossing is one practical way to answer that. A fixed link for road and public transport at the Narrows could turn an exposed, unreliable crossing into a dependable connection between the Peninsula, Downpatrick, Newry and the wider east‑coast corridor. Independent analysis suggests such a link could open local people to wider job markets, support tourism and small businesses, and improve access to hospitals and colleges while helping to rebalance opportunity between higher‑ and lower‑wage areas.

Good infrastructure should do exactly this: serve the whole community, regardless of faith or politics, and make it realistic to live, learn and work with dignity in the place you call home.

The one clear ask: commission the study

Across the political spectrum and both councils on the Lough, support has now grown for a feasibility study into a fixed crossing. What is still missing is a simple, decisive step from the Department for Infrastructure: commissioning an independent, TAG‑compliant feasibility study to examine the options, costs, environmental impacts and wider social and economic benefits.

A study does not pre‑decide the outcome; it lets the evidence speak. In the spirit of May Day and St Joseph the Worker, it would say to every person in this region – of any religion or none – that their right to seek work, to access essential services and to build a future here is being taken seriously.

So the ask on this May Day is clear and modest, but urgent:

that the Infrastructure Minister instructs officials to commission an independent feasibility study into a permanent Strangford Lough Crossing – and puts in writing the answer to the question Minister Kimmins, herself, has already asked in the Assembly: “Why not?”.

The ‘Why not?’ campaign song….