1913 Irish Lockout

Between 1906 and 1914 strikes became common in Europe. A key figure behind strikes in Ireland was James Larkin. Larkin’s formation of the Irish transport and general workers union, and his involvement with the Irish Trade unions congress led to a dramatic lockout in 1913, against William Martian Murphy. In this essay I plan on describing the reasons and events leading up to the lockout. I plan of evaluating the lockout in its untimely failure as well as describing the key events during the lockout of 1913.

    Upon Larkin’s arrival in Dublin he enrolled 2,500 men in the Dockers union and in 1980 cause three successful strikes. When he was accused of misusing funds he was imprisoned, but after his release the ITGWU grew rapidly as a result of sympathy. By 1912 it has 18,000 members. Throughout 1912 he succeeded in gaining 25% wage increases for its members. The tactic used was the sympathetic strike. Larkin successes alarmed employers. The man who persuaded them to unite against “Larkinism” was William Martian Murphy.

    Murphy persuaded the employers to form an Employers Federation to resist Larkin’s attacks. He moved to stop Larkin’s attacks on the Dublin Tramway Company. On the morning of July 19th, 6 ITGWU men were sacked. Murphy referred to Larkin as the “labour dictator”. On the 15th of August, Murphy dispatched 40 men and 20 boys from the Irish Independent offices. Larkin, enraged from the Irish independent let off, and the treatment of the Tramway workers called for a general strike against the Tramway company.

    The strike began on Tuesday the 26th of August, at the start of the Dublin horse show. Larkin was hopefully going to paralyse the trams, however Murphy out manoeuvred him. ITGWU organisers could not reach the people inside the power station and so they did not strike. Only 200 out of the 650 tramway workers went on strike. Violence flared between strikers and the police, this resulted in Connolly being imprisoned. A ITGWU meeting planned for Sunday the 31st of August on Sackville street was banned. Protests ensued and over 300 people were injured. Larking vowed the meeting would go ahead as planned.

    Following Larkin’ s speech in Sackville street, he was arrested, this resulted in widespread riots. The worst incident occurred after people shouted abuse at the police from the corporation buildings. The police invaded the flats causing large amounts of damage to property and injuring the residents. Murphy undeterred by the violence called for a sympathetic lockout in response to Larkin’s sympathetic strike. The aims were to stop sympathetic strikes and destroy Larkin and his union. Over the next two weeks both lockout and strike spread. On the 1st of September members of the Irish Women’s workers union,  behind Delia Larkin, refused to handle goods from a firm which had locked out its workers. Jacobs factory locked out over 2,000 people.

    Throughout September 1913, strike and lockout engulfed Dublin. By the start of October over 20,000 men and women were on strike or locked out. British Trade unions were horrified by the events in Dublin. The TUC organised aid that Hardie promised. The Hare was sent to Dublin and 9,000 parcels were distributed. Some nationalists like Griffith and Moran used this against Larkin, showing that he was not a successful trade union leader. In 1913 the Liberal Party was in power and depended on the Irish vote, and therefore had to take into account the feelings of the Irish people. Home Rulers backed “Larkinism”, and Home Rule leaders hated William Martian Murphy, therefore siding with Larkin and the ITGWU.

    Larkin’s careers developed further when chief secretary Augustine Birrell, on the 24th of September, announced a public enquiry into Murphy and his companies. The Askwith Enquiry was held in public where Larkin questioned Murphy about working conditions in his companies. This trial illustrated the appalling conditions in the Dublin slums, a key success in Larkin’s career. Askwith’s judgement on October 6th condemned sympathetic strikes and the employers demand that workers leave the ITGWU. The Employers Federation refused the terms of the document/

    Larkin’s leadership of the union suffered a hit on the 18th of October when Montefiore arrived in Dublin with several assistants, to organise the Dublin’s Kiddies Scheme. Parents agreed to let their children take part and be housed in Britain till the lockout ended. Archbishop Walshe denounced the scheme as it endangered the Catholic youth to Protestant ideals. For devout Catholics it was an outrage and Larkin lost support, and this anger also deflected the popular hatred for the Employers Federation for their rejection of the Askwith proposal.

    The Employers Federation was looking for ways to break the strike. One was to transport coal using lorries as opposed to carts. Another was looking for “free labourers”, poor people who had lost their jobs as a result of the strike. Union members regarded these people as “scabs”. Late in October, Murphy sought help from the British Shipping Federation, which supplied 600 workers and £10,000 to help destroy Larkin. However, when the Shipping Federation arrived in Dublin, Connolly closed Dublin port to all shipping on the 12th of November. While the British TUC hated the Shipping Federation, they also disagreed with sympathetic strikes, and so called a meeting with Larkin in on the 9th of December. When the 600 delegates met, Larkin received little support, this hurt Larkin’s movement and injured his leadership of the union.

    By January 1914, it was clear that the ITGWU has lost. Lucky people got their jobs back if they left the union. By April 1914, when the dispute had finally ended, about 2,000 people were unemployed. After December 1913 the ITGWU members had declined and Larkin, tired from dispute emigrated to America, leaving Connolly in charge. He created the Irish citizen army, and defended workers against police brutality. The great Dublin lockout ended in triumph for William Martian Murphy, however though the workers had lost the battle they had won the war. No future employer attempted to destroy a trade union, the right of the workers to organise themselves into unions and choose their leaders was finally established

    James Larkin’s careers ended in defeat, however his involvement in workers rights and opposition to capitalism left its mark. He succeeded in planting a seed of hope. His career as a trade union leader showed early successes against the employers, however his downfall after 1913 attributed to criticism and his alliance with Britain lost nationalist support. His career successes in the Dock Labourers Union allowed him to gain support and is year long struggle against William Martian Murphy proved this support existed.