The bitter class warfare witnessed in Dublin in 1913 mirrored a series of similarly vicious struggles in the United States. Meredith Meagher outlines the part played in several of them by the charismatic Irish-American labour leader Elizabeth Gurley Flynn. On 25 May 1913 Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, an organiser and ‘soapboxer’ for the Industrial Workers of … Read more
The Wexford lockout was not merely a struggle between employers and workers; it also brought into sharp focus the visceral opposition of the Catholic Church to trade unionism in Ireland, the violent approach taken by the police authorities towards ordinary workers in the town and the distance between urban workers and their national representatives, the … Read more
The Belfast dock strike of 1907 marked James Larkin’s arrival and first extraordinary impact in Ireland. It revealed that Belfast alongside a British economy had a very Irish one that governed the conditions of the unskilled. It marked the first substantial organisation of the unskilled in the city. Although relatively small-scale as a strike, it … Read more
AE’s letter is enshrined in the literature on the strike, but one never hears of Murphy’s letter to the Daily Citizen, in which he responded to the charge that he had produced the state of affairs existing in Dublin. ‘At the Court of Inquiry at Dublin Castle’, he declared, ‘I was cross-examined for hours by … Read more
ITGWU founded The ITGWU marked the birth of the modern Irish labour movement. Less than 10% of Irish workers were unionised at this time, and most of these were in British-based unions. In Dublin especially, many activists felt neglected by British labour and argued for an Irish-based movement. As an NUDL official, Jim had said … Read more