Back to index of Nerve 21 - Winter 2012

2013 is the centenary of the most severe and significant industrial dispute in Irish history. Celebrations will be held in Dublin and Liverpool to mark the occasion. Greg Quiery explains some of the background to the:

Dublin Lockout

Liverpool-born Jim Larkin (who inspired workers on both sides of the Irish Sea) with National Union of Dock Labourers. Painting by David Jacques in the Newz Bar, Water Street. From Nerve 11 - Winter 2007

In 1913 one third of Dublin's 300,000 population lived in damp overcrowded slums where sanitation was primitive, and diseases such as TB endemic. When two four-storey tenements collapsed that year seven were killed. Infant mortality was 14%. Low wages left families close to starvation.

When an alliance of 300 employers, under the leadership of Dublin business and media tycoon Martin Murphy, began sacking members of the Irish Transport and General Workers Union (ITGWU) in July 1913, strikes ensued. The ITGWU, founded by Liverpool union leader James Larkin specifically to unite skilled and unskilled workers in the one organisation, was leading the fight for better pay and conditions. The Irish socialist James Connolly - like Larkin a talented organiser and speaker - was also a Union officer.

By August 25,000 workers and 27 unions were locked out. On Sunday 31st Aug two people were killed and 400 injured when police attacked a mass meeting addressed by Larkin.

The conflict lasted seven months. Larkin and Connolly were both jailed. Employers locked union members out and used scab labour both local and English. When Larkin and Connolly pursued their strategy of sympathetic strikes in other workplaces, the struggle widened. In Liverpool workers refused to handle traffic from Dublin, but did not get union support.

As workers and their families faced starvation, funds were raised locally and in England. However, when British union leaders - including Ben Tillett - refused to allow sympathetic strikes, and eventually condemned the continued action, funds collapsed. The end of the strike began on Feb 1st, 1914, when 3,000 building workers signed a non-union 'yellow dog' contract and returned to work.

The consequences?

Employers - who suffered loss of profit and bankruptcy - never confronted unions in such a fashion again.

ITGWU membership grew steadily in the following decades. Wages and conditions improved.

The tradition of not crossing picket lines persisted in Ireland for a generation.

The Citizens Army - formed during the strike to protect workers from attack - became a key player in the armed revolution initiated two years later, which eventually ended British rule and established a domestic parliament.

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