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
Matt Treacy (Brocaire Books, €20) ISBN 9781291093186 Operating under various names over the decades—the Socialist Party of Ireland, the Communist Party of Ireland, the Irish Workers’ League, the Revolutionary Workers’ Groups, the Communist Party of Ireland (again), the Communist Party of Northern Ireland, the Irish Workers’ League (again), the Irish Workers’ Party (again) and the … Read more
Martin Duffy (Liberties Press, €17.99) ISBN 9781907593468 This book chronicles how the general workers in Guinness’s brewery became unionised and ended up as members of Larkin’s Workers Union of Ireland (WUI). It tells this story through looking at the career of Jack Carruthers, a brewery labourer and later the full-time WUI branch secretary. Carruthers was … Read more
Adrian Grant (Four Courts Press, €50) ISBN 9781846823619 This is an important book that tackles big issues. Adrian Grant makes a strong case for the compatibility of socialism and republicanism and argues that splits between left-republicans, radical socialists and communists were based on ‘practicalities’ rather than theoretical differences. But if the problem was one of … 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