Journal of Irish and Scottish Studies Volume 8: Issue 2 The Strike in Irish and Scottish History Aberdeen University Press JOURNAL OF IRISH AND SCOTTISH STUDIES Volume 8, Issue 2 Spring 2015 The Strike in Irish and Scottish History Published by Aberdeen University Press in association with The Research Institute of Irish and Scottish Studies ISSN 1753-2396 Printed and bound in Great Britain by CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham and Eastbourne Journal of Irish and Scottish Studies General Editor: Cairns Craig Issue Editor: Chloe Ross Associate Editor: Michael Brown Editorial Advisory Board: Fran Brearton, Queen’s University, Belfast Eleanor Bell, University of Strathclyde Ewen Cameron, University of Edinburgh Sean Connolly, Queen’s University, Belfast Patrick Crotty, University of Aberdeen David Dickson, Trinity College, Dublin T. M. Devine, University of Edinburgh David Dumville, University of Aberdeen Aaron Kelly, University of Edinburgh Edna Longley, Queen’s University, Belfast Graeme Morton, University of Dundee Shane Alcobia-Murphy, University of Aberdeen Ian Campbell Ross, Trinity College, Dublin Graham Walker, Queen’s University, Belfast International Advisory Board: Don Akenson, Queen’s University, Kingston Tom Brooking, University of Otago Keith Dixon, Université Lumière Lyon 2 Marjorie Howes, Boston College H. Gustav Klaus, University of Rostock Peter Kuch, University of Otago Brad Patterson, Victoria University, Wellington Matthew Wickman, Brigham Young David Wilson, University of Toronto The Journal of Irish and Scottish Studies is a peer reviewed journal published twice yearly in autumn and spring by Aberdeen University Press in association with the Research Institute of Irish and Scottish Studies. An electronic reviews section is available on the RIISS website at: http://www.abdn.ac.uk/riiss/issjournal.shtml Editorial correspondence, including manuscripts for submission, should be addressed to The Editors, Journal of Irish and Scottish Studies, Research Institute of Irish and Scottish Studies, Humanity Manse, 19 College Bounds, University of Aberdeen, AB24 3UG or emailed to: [email protected] Subscription information can be found on www.abdn.ac.uk/riiss/publications Cover image: ‘James Connolly, Irish Revolutionary, Executed 1916’ by Jim FitzPatrick 2015. Copyright Jim FitzPatrick. Image reproduced by kind permission of the Artist. CONTENTS Editorial 1 Was Health and Safety a Strike Issue? Workers, Unions 5 and the Body in Twentieth-Century Scotland Arthur McIvor Locality, Regionality and Gender: Revisiting Industrial 34 Protest among Women Workers in Scotland 1910 to 1913 William Kenefi ck Scotland and Ireland: Labour Directions 59 and Radical Connections Emmet O’Connor ‘Strike Patterns in Three Irish Firms: A Comparative 77 Analysis’ Liam Cullinane The Irish in Greenock: Employment, Networks and 100 Ethnicity – A Primary Analysis Shaun Kavanagh ‘Better to die by the sword than to die of starvation’: 126 Popular Resistance to Food Exports in Ireland and Scotland, 1846–7 John Cunningham Refl ections on Labour History in Irish-Scottish Studies 143 Terry Brotherstone List of Contributors 160 Introduction Chloe Alexander The following articles stem from the conference, ‘The “Strike” in Scottish and Irish Labour History’, held in November 2013 at the Research Institute of Irish and Scottish Studies at the University of Aberdeen. The event was born out of a two-fold discussion with my then PhD supervisor, Professor Michael Brown. This centred on a desire for the Institute itself to hold a conference where a subject or theme shared by both Scotland and Ireland could be examined, with both comparatives and differences discussed. From a broad perspective, it is clear that Ireland and Scotland are much more than simply close geographical neighbours: they share much history in common, together with cultural, religious, linguistic and economic connections. Secondly, the conference was inspired by Ireland’s celebrated ‘Decade of Centenaries’ and the centenary of the First World War, with its associated social unrest in Scotland as well as Ireland on the home front, most notably that of Red Clydeside, together with the rise of the Labour Party during this period. Drawing on these thoughts, it was decided to hold a conference on the topic of ‘The “Strike” in Scottish and Irish Labour History’. The aim of the conference, and subsequently these articles, was to examine more broadly the role of labour and class in Scottish and Irish history. Hence, papers were not restricted to the time-period of the ‘Decade of Centenaries’. The conference was very successful, with more than thirty delegates, ranging from PhD students to professional academics, attending. There were lively and engaging discussions throughout both days which continued at the conference dinner and in the pub later on. The conference was opened with a welcome from Professor Michael Brown (Acting Director of the Research Institute of Irish and Scottish Studies) and a few words from myself. Professor Arthur McIvor (University of Strathclyde) provided the opening key note address, ‘Oral History, Strikes and the Body’. This paper discussed the issue of occupational health and safety as a strike issue. A variety of themes and subjects centring on attitudes towards threats to health in the workplace were explored, namely workers with asbestos-related disease, working conditions in the mines and offshore safety conditions. The 2 Chloe Alexander inaugural session focused on nineteenth-century Scottish and Irish labour history. Dr John Cunningham (NUI Galway) presented on ‘“Better to die by the sword than to die of starvation”: Popular Protest and Resistance to Famine in Ireland and Scotland, 1846–1847’. Against the background of the failure of the potato crop during the mid-1840s, Dr Cunningham examined the shared popular ideology informing the Irish and Scottish mobilisations of 1846 and 1847, comparing the repertoires of protest, and discussing connections between them. The next speaker, Shaun Kavanagh (University of Glasgow), investigated ‘The Irish Migrants’ Experience in Nineteenth-Century Greenock: Poverty, Strikes and Disturbance’. Here two central questions were discussed in detail: how unifi ed were the Irish working class ‘community’ in Greenock, and what relationship did Irish workers have with other ethnic groups in Greenock, namely Highland and Lowland Scots? The second day began with early twentieth-century Scottish and Irish labour history. Leah Hunnewell (Trinity College Dublin) addressed ‘Transatlantic Socialism and the Crisis of Faith in Scotland and Ireland, 1889–1914’. This paper explored the relationship between socialist party rhetoric and religious identity during the Second International. Meanwhile James Curry (Moore Institute, NUI Galway) spoke on ‘The Worker (1914–15): James Connolly’s short- lived “Organ of the Irish Working Class”’. Curry examined the background to the founding of The Worker (the weekly paper of the Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union), its journalistic style, the diffi culties encountered by Connolly in having his paper printed in Scotland, and analysed the reasons for its suppression after Dublin Castle and the War Offi ce had initially adopted a tolerant approach towards the publication. The third session focused on the decade of revolution in Scottish and Irish labour history. Dr William Kenefi ck (University of Dundee) assessed ‘“The dear little, sweet little, Shamrock of Ireland!” The Lochee Irish and Female Strike Activity in Dundee, 1911–1912’. Investigating a strike wave that historians have rather neglected during the past twenty years, this paper, through examining strike activity in the Dundee textile industry and comparing it with the actions and activities of workers in other textile districts, discussed an intensive and prolonged period of strike activity between 1911 and 1912 from the perspective of the Irish female spinners of Lochee. I then offered a paper examining ‘Scottish Responses to the 1913 Dublin Lock-out and the 1916 Easter Rising’.1 With Scottish cities home to 1 This paper has subsequently been published in Saothar: Chloe Alexander, ‘Scottish responses to the 1913 Dublin Lock-out and the 1916 Easter Rising’, Saothar, 41 (2016), 269–77. Introduction 3 considerable sections of the Irish working classes during this period, and with fi gures, such as James Connolly, possessing direct links with the labour movement in both Scotland and Ireland, the Lock-out and the Rising drew a signifi cant reaction in Scotland. This general response was explored, with particular emphasis given to the evolving views of the Socialist, John Maclean. His reaction to both events was signifi cant as although he and Connolly shared many ideological parallels, the former did not initially empathise with Connolly’s embracing of the Irish question. During these years however, Maclean’s opinions gradually evolved and he began to put the national struggle in Ireland at the forefront of his propagandising. After lunch, the conference moved further into the twentieth century, focusing on Scottish and Irish labour history during the 1970s. Dr Ewan Gibbs (then of the University of Glasgow, and now of the University of the West of Scotland) presented on ‘Community Mobilisation and Historical Tradition: The Anti-Poll Tax Movement on Clydeside, 1988–1990’. This contemporaneous paper generated extensive discussion, particularly owing to comparisons with the backlash against the ‘Bedroom Tax’ and general austerity measures introduced by the then