Since his release from Sing Sing, Big Jim had been thinking of a commercial deal with Moscow. A sinecure in a Soviet-backed cooperative in Dublin or a Soviet–Irish shipping line would allow him to survive comfortably in Ireland as a freelance agitator. The Soviets were very interested, provided that Jim would lead an Irish communist … Read more
Big Jim Larkin was born on 28 January 1874 at 41 Combermere Street, in an Irish Catholic working-class enclave near the south-end docks in Liverpool. Both his parents came of tenant farmer stock from around Newry, and Jim would claim that his father and uncles had been Fenians. The second of six children, he grew … Read more
Irish Guild of Embroiderers Irish Patchwork Society Irish Countrywomen’s Association, Blanchardstown Finglas Arts Squad Divas Girls’ Group, Finglas Arts Centre RADE (Rehabilitation through Art, Drama and Education) Rowlagh Women’s Arts Group Cherry Orchard Art Group Gala Group, Ringsend Mater Dei Primary School, Basin Lane Larkin Community College St Louis High School, Rathmines Central Remedial Clinic … Read more
James Larkin arrived in Ireland in 1907 to begin his union organising work. The first members were enrolled on 20 January 1909 in the new Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union (ITGWU). By 1911 the ITGWU had about 4,000 paid-up members, but this number had doubled by the end of 1912 and had increased to … Read more
Francis Devine (ed.) (Four Courts Press, €24.95) ISBN 9781907002106 The centenary of the Lockout has generated a new interest in the period that goes beyond just historians and trade union activists. With James Plunkett’s remarkable novel Strumpet city on the lips and minds of many Dubliners thanks to the ‘One City, One Book’ campaign, there … Read more