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A Short History of the Irish Labour Movement

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A Short History of the Irish Labour Movement Unit 3: The Growth of the Labour Movement and the 1913 Strike and Lockout A Short History Resources for Secondary Schools UNIT 3: THE GROWTH OF THE LABOUR MOVEMENT As a mainly agricultural country, the idea of organised When a long and bitter docker’s strike in Belfast ended labour came to Ireland at a relatively late stage. in defeat for the workers, Larkin blamed the inaction Nationalist leaders focused on Home Rule and the land of the union leaders in England. issue, largely neglecting the deplorable conditions of the working class. In 1911, three-quarters of Dublin’s Soon afterwards, Larkin moved to Dublin where he workforce were unskilled and unorganised and one organised three successful strikes among the dockers, third occupied one-room accommodation in decaying carters and labourers. In January 1909, after a final tenements; disease and death rates were high as were disagreement with Sexton, Larkin broke with the rates of alcoholism and crime in the city’s poorer areas. British based NDUL and set up the Irish Transport Those Irish trade unions that did exist were branches and General Workers’ Union (ITGWU) to cater for of English unions and represented skilled artisans and Dublin’s unskilled workers. Many founding members craftsmen. Despite opposition from the British-based of the ITGWU were influenced by syndicalism: the unions, James Larkin and James Connolly, believed that idea that all workers should unite in one great union Irish workers should be represented by Irish unions. and use the ‘sympathetic strike’ to get better conditions. JAMES LARKIN (1876-1947) AND Jim Larkin arrived in Belfast in 1907 and JAMES CONNOLLY (1868-1916) organised a Labour movement in which for the James Larkin was born to poor Irish-immigrant parents first time, Catholic and non-Catholic workers in a Liverpool slum. He started working on the docks at united ... So successful was he that even the the age of eleven and quickly became a committed trade R.I.C. were induced to go on strike. unionist. A charismatic and extremely enthusiastic -Liam Gaynor, I.R.B. Member, Belfast, 1907 - speaker, it was not long before ‘Big Jim’ Larkin attracted attention as an effective organiser and an articulate spokesman for the workers in Liverpool. In 1906 he By mid 1913, ITGWU membership had grown to more was employed as a full-time organiser for the National than 10,000. It had founded its own weekly newspaper Union of Dock Labourers (NUDL) in Liverpool. In The Irish Worker, and secured Liberty Hall at Beresford the following year, James Sexton, the general secretary Place as its headquarters. The popularity of the union of the NDUL, sent Larkin to Belfast to organise the was fuelled by a series of well-publicised strikes in dockers there. In his first three weeks in the city, Larkin Belfast, Cork and Wexford and Larkin’s charisma, recruited over 400 members for the NDUL. Before long, drive and obvious compassion for the working class. Larkin came into conflict with Sexton who believed that Despite his famous volatility and arrogance, the labour the survival of his union depended on avoiding strikes. leader was admired and respected by colleagues such Larkin, on the other hand, was in favour of a militant as William Partridge and James Connolly, who worked response to the unfair pay and conditions for workers. diligently to help build the Union. Atlas of the Irish Revolution Resources for Schools p. 1 Resources for Secondary Schools Resources for Secondary Schools In 1896, Edinburgh-born socialist, James Connolly THE 1913 STRIKE AND LOCKOUT and his wife Lillie Reynolds arrived in Dublin where he established the Irish Socialist Republican Party The 1913 Strike and Lockout is often seen as a conflict (ISRP). Two years later Connolly founded TheWorkers’ between two influential men: ‘Big Jim’ Larkin and Wil- Republic and used the newspaper to emphasise the role liam Martin Murphy, a successful Irish Catholic busi- of labour in Irish history in order to forge alliances with nessman and chairman of the Dublin United Tramway republicans. By 1903, the party had failed and Connolly Company (DUTC). A conservative nationalist and and his family emigrated to the USA where he joined ex-MP, Murphy was also the proprietor of country’s the Socialist Labour Party. A founder member of the best-selling newspaper, the Irish Independent, as well Irish Socialist Federation (1907) in America, he also as Eason’s, Clery’s Department Store and the Imperi- became an organiser with the Industrial Workers of the al Hotel. Determined to resist the advance of Larkin’s World, the so-called ‘Wobblies’. During this period, he new brand of unionism, and intolerant of any outside converted to the idea of syndicalism. interference in his business affairs, the Bantry-born entrepreneur founded the Dublin Employers’ Feder- “ Socialism represents the dominant and ation in 1912 to unite the city’s employers in battle conquering force of our age, the hope of the against ‘Larkinism’. worker, the terror of the oppressor, the light of the future. Workers of Ireland salute that On 19 July 1913, when Murphy realised that Larkin light, when once it shines full on your vision the was attempting to organise the tramway workers, he shackles of ages will fall from your limbs. ” called a meeting of his employees to warn them against strike action. Murphy said that he had no objection to - James Connolly, c. 1891, in Donal Nevin, “James Connolly: A Full Life”- men forming a ‘legitimate union’, but demanded that On his return to Dublin in 1910, Connolly joined the all DUTC employees withdraw from membership newly formed Socialist Party of Ireland and published of the ITGWU or face dismissal. On 21 August his book, Labour in the Irish History. In the following approximately 100 employees in the parcel service of year was appointed the Belfast organiser for Larkin’s the tramway company received a dismissal notice: ‘As ITGWU and in 1912 the two men founded the Irish the Directors of the Tramways Company understand Labour Party. Connolly was a capable – if more that you are a member of the ITGWU whose methods moderate - second-in-command to Larkin during are disorganising the trade and business of the city, they the 1913 strike and lockout during which he helped do not further require your service’. to establish the Irish Citizen Army to protect striking workers against police repression. After the defeat Larkin responded by calling the tramway-men in of the lockout and Larkin’s departure for America in his union out on strike. Their demands were ‘the 1914, Connolly became acting General Secretary of the reinstatement of the dismissed men, unconditionally, ITGWU and increasingly involved in the revolutionary more wages [and] shorter hours’. On Tuesday, 26th nationalist struggle. August 1913 - the first day of the busy Dublin Horse Show - some 200 drivers and conductors pinned their ‘red hand’ union badges to their lapels and abandoned their trams without warning. Murphy quickly cleared the congested streets and replaced the striking workers with strike-breakers– known colloquially as ‘scabs’. Atlas of the Irish Revolution Resources for Schools p. 1 Atlas of the Irish Revolution Resources for Schools p. 2 The city was filled with tension as fights broke out dependents. between strikers and the workers who continued to operate the trams. On 30th August, members of the The ITGWU strike wages were insufficient to support Dublin Metropolitan Police (DMP) used batons to workers who were already deeply impoverished before charge rioting strikers during which transport union the strike began, and starvation was widespread in the member James Nolan was fatally injured. tenements. There was brief alleviation in suffering and a boost in morale in late September when the British Larkin ignored a police order banning his proposed Trades Union Congress sent a ship carrying food for meeting in support of the striking workers in the starving families of the Dublin workers. Thousands O’Connell Street on Sunday 31st August. Disguised lined up at Liberty Hall, holding food vouchers. When with a false beard, he entered Murphy’s Imperial Hotel the British aid was exhausted, many starving workers and appeared on a balcony on the first floor. He spoke and their families relied on the bread and soup served briefly to the crowd before his arrest prompted a riot at the food centres set up by James Larkin’s sister, among supporters. The DMP baton-charged the crowd Delia, and Countess Markievicz. resulting in two deaths and up to 600 civilian and police injuries. Public criticism of police brutality led to an Upon his release from Mountjoy Prison in September, inquiry, but the committee concluded that ‘the officers Larkin travelled to England in an attempt to persuade and men of the Dublin Metropolitan Police and the the British trade unions to call a general work stoppage Royal Irish Constabulary as a whole, discharged their in support of the Dublin workers. Their refusal was a duties throughout this trying period with conspicuous bitter disappointment for the Dublin labour leaders. courage and patience. They were exposed to many In October, English suffragist and social worker, dangers and treated with great brutality’. Two days after Dora Montefiore proposed that children of strikers Bloody Sunday, a tenement in Church Street collapsed could be housed in England during the strike. The killing seven and injuring many more. The effect of unconventional idea appealed to Larkin who decided both these events and financial support from British to send the children of the worst affected families to trade unions, served to strengthen labour solidarity. sympathetic homes in England until the strike was over.
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