Start of 1913 Dublin Lockout

AT the start of the last century, workers in this country were not organised, had no rights or entitlements and were badly paid.
There was very little industry outside of Belfast and Dublin and what few unions did exist were for skilled tradesmen and were adjuncts to British unions. Conditions in Dublin were particularly bad. One-third of families lived in poverty in one-roomed tenements, the majority of the available work was on a casual basis, wages were low and unemployment was over 20%.
The Dublin Socialist Society hired James Connolly as an organiser in 1896 but by 1906, he despaired of success and left for the United States. James Larkin was sent to Ireland by the British-based National Union of Dockworkers. He was successful in Belfast, Derry and Cork before arriving in Dublin. He caused so much agitation in Dublin that he was eventually sacked by the union. In 1909 he formed his own union, the Irish Transport and General Workers Union and by 1913 it was the country’s largest union with 10,000 members. Connolly returned from America to work for them.
A six-month strike in Wexford was successful and encouraged workers in other parts of the country but it also made employers, particularly in Dublin, more determined than ever to break the power of the union.
The leader of the Dublin employers was a man named William Martin Murphy who, at 19 years of age, had taken over the family building business when his father died. He grew the business and eventually owned what was to become Cleary’s Shop, hotels, the Irish Independent newspaper and the Dublin Tramway Company.
Ironically, Murphy had a reputation of being a good employer who paid fair wages but he was totally opposed to unions and would not employ anyone who was a member. It was inevitable that confrontation would arise between Larkin and Murphy.
Early in the summer of 1913, Murphy refused to employ any ITGWU members on the staff of the Irish Independent and in July he extended the same ban to his Dublin Tramways Company. Larkin retaliated by calling a strike at the Tramways Company and the employer’s answer was a total lockout of all the employees. Larkin timed his strike to perfection. He chose the opening day of the Dublin Horse Show then, as now, one of the busiest days of the year in the city. The strike spread to other businesses and by the end of September, almost 20,000 workers were involved.
The police and authorities reacted violently and many were injured, with two killed. There were clashes between the strikers and those who continued to work.
At the start, the strikers received great support from the British unions but this dried up. Through months of sheer deprivation, the workers were gradually forced back to work and the employers defeated the strikers. There were two important lasting effects. It showed that workers were prepared to fight for their rights and saw the formation of the Citizens’ Army. It was used to protect the striking workers but played a prominent part in the 1916 Rising.
That 1913 great Dublin strike and Lockout started on the opening day of the Horse Show on August 26, 1913 – 98 years ago this week.