Larkin James - James Larkin: lion of the fold

JAMES LARKIN
LION OF THE FOLD

Editor

DONAL NEVIN

Gill & Macmillan
in association with RTE and SIPTU

Contents

Preface

James Larkin died on 30 January 1947. In 1996 the National Executive Council of the Services, Industrial, Professional and Technical Union (SIPTU) decided to mark the fiftieth anniversary of his death with a number of commemorative events in 1997.

James Larkin founded the Irish Transport and General Workers Union (ITGWU) in 1909 and was its general secretary until 1924. He then became the general secretary of the Workers Union of Ireland (WUI) and continued in this position until his death. He was thus general secretary of these two unions for a period of thirty-eight years.

In 1990 the ITGWU and the Federated Workers Union of Ireland (which the WUI had become) merged to form SIPTU. It was appropriate therefore that this union should organise the commemorative events marking the fiftieth anniversary of Larkins death. These events included a lecture in Liberty Hall, Dublin, by Prof. Emmet Larkin of the University of Chicago, the biographer of Larkin, whose book James Larkin: Irish Labour Leader, published in 1965, remains the authoritative work on Larkin; a celebration in poetry, prose, music, and song, Salute to Big Jim, in Liberty Hall and in Transport House, Belfast; a SIPTU Tribute to James Larkin exhibition in the National Library of Ireland; and a special production in Liberty Hall of Sen OCaseys play Red Roses for Me. Finally, SIPTU arranged for this compendium on Larkin and his times to be prepared.

Radio Telefs ireann also commemorated the fiftieth anniversary of Larkins death with a Thomas Davis Lecture Series, James Larkin: Lion of the Fold, which was broadcast between January and May 1997. The fifteen lectures were given by historians from the University of Chicago, University College Dublin, Queens University, Belfast, the University of Liverpool, and University College Cork, by other historians and writers, and by trade union officials.

The general editor of the RTE Thomas Davis Lecture Series is Michael Littleton, and the consultant editor of the Larkin series of lectures was Donal Nevin. The Thomas Davis Lectures, in most cases extended and revised, are given in part 1 of this book. Part 2, Jim Larkin: His Life and Turbulent Times, and part 3, Big Jim, were compiled by Donal Nevin. Unattributed chapters in parts 2 and 3 were written by Donal Nevin.

The editor acknowledges the help of a great many people in preparing this compendium but especially Prof. Emmet Larkin for his help and cooperation, Prof. Patrick Lynch for his wise counsel, and Theresa Moriarty for her considerable research assistance and archival expertise. His special thanks are due to Shirley Cosgrave (a colleague from far-off Irish TUC days, when the total staff of the Congress in Dublin and Belfast was six!) and Tom Dunne (SIPTU), both of whom bore with patience and serenity the editors persistent importunities and impositions over a prolonged period.

The editor wishes also to express his appreciation to the seven contributors to part 3: Breda Cardiff, Prof. Fergus DArcy, Joe Deasy, Dr John de Courcy Ireland, Bishop James Kavanagh, Rev. Prof. F. X. Martin, Theresa Moriarty, and Ulick OConnor.

The editor acknowledges also the assistance given by Hilda Larkin Breslin, Patrick Cardiff, Francis Devine, Enda Dunleavy, Tom Geraghty, Celia Larkin, Michael Littleton, Proinsias Mac Aonghusa, Stella Larkin McConnon, Evelyn MacMahon (New York), Sen Mac Ramoinn, Mary Maher, Sylvia Meehan, John Murphy (SIPTU), Anne Nevin, Maura Nevin, Manus ORiordan, Deirdre Price, the US Ambassador, Jean Kennedy Smith, Fergal Tobin (Gill & Macmillan), and Freida Wiles (Brown University, Rhode Island); also the staff of the National Library (especially Theresa Biggins, Kevin Browne, Eugene Hogan, and Dnall Luanaigh); Gerald Whelan (RDS Library); Jennifer Hunter (Irish Labour History Museum Library), Dr Jack McGinley (TCD Library), John Gibson (Irish Times Library), and the staff of the National Archives and the City of Dublin Public Libraries (Gilbert Library). The editors special appreciation and thanks are due to Samas Sheils (SIPTU) for his extensive work on the pictures and the design.

Finally, the editor would like to express his thanks to the general officers of SIPTU: Jimmy Somers, general president; Des Geraghty, vice-president; and the now retired general secretary, W. A. Attley. Billy Attley, a hard taskmaster but wholly supportive, gave unstinted encouragement to the editors work in putting together this compendium marking the fiftieth anniversary of Irelands greatest trade union leader and an important figure in the history of this century.

The publication of as large a volume as this is involved substantial subsidy. In very large part this was provided by SIPTU, but other organisations that contributed to the cost were the Department of Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands and the Irish-American Labor Coalition, New York.

PART 1

THOMAS DAVIS LECTURES, 1997

General Editor

MICHAEL LITTLETON

Consultant Editor

DONAL NEVIN

Thomas Davis Lectures

Every year since 1953, Radio Telefs ireann has been broadcasting half-hour radio lectures named in honour of Thomas Davis, one of whose sayings was Educate that you may be free. The fifteen lectures that follow were broadcast between January and May 1997 in commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the death of James Larkin.

Chapter 1

James Larkin: Labour Leader

Prof. Emmet Larkin

James Larkin was a remarkable man. On the day he died, Sen OCasey, his lifelong admirer, wrote: It is hard to believe that this great man is dead, for all thoughts and all activities surged in the soul of this Labour leader. He was far and away above the orthodox Labour leader, for he combined within himself the imagination of the artist, with the fire and determination of a leader of a down-trodden class.

It is most appropriate, therefore, that we should honour James Larkins memory in this distinguished series of Thomas Davis Lectures on the fiftieth anniversary of his death. Before any meaning can be drawn, however, from the life and work of this remarkable man, something must be said about that life and work. He was born in the slums of Liverpool in 1874, raised in poverty, received only a few years formal schooling, watched his father die slowly of tuberculosis, was thrown on a brutal labour market, struggled to keep his family from sinking into a more abject poverty, stowed away to escape unemployment and find adventure, and then returned to Liverpool at the age of twenty to take his place among that vast army of casuals who prowled the docks in search of a days work.

He finally found regular work as a docker and was soon promoted to dock foreman. When his men went out on strike in the summer of 1905 he went with them and became their leader. The strike was lost, but he was asked to become a full-time organiser for the union, the National Union of Dock Labourers. He quickly organised the Scottish ports, and was then assigned the more difficult task of reorganising the Irish ports.

Soon after his arrival in Ireland in January 1907, Larkin was involved in a series of strikes in Belfast, Cork, and Dublin, which the executive of the National Union was reluctant to support. He then broke with the union and founded the Irish Transport and General Workers Union at the end of 1908. The Transport Union, after a shaky start, rapidly gained in numbers and strength over the next several years, and by 1913 it was the largest and most militant union in Ireland. In the great Dublin strike and lock-out of 1913, Larkin challenged the employing class in the persons of William Martin Murphy and his Employers Federation. The epic struggle, which lasted some six months and involved twenty thousand workers and their eighty thousand dependants, resulted in a crushing defeat for the workers, in spite of massive support from the British labour movement. The Transport Union was decimated and financially wrecked. In early 1914, therefore, Larkin decided to make a speaking tour in America to raise the necessary funds for the rebuilding of his union.