Life
1876-1947; b. Liverpool of poor Irish parents; raised Newry, Co. Down,
with grandparents, 1881-85; went to work in Liverpool as labourer, 1885;
later seaman and docks foreman, dismissed for striking in sympathy with
the men; became organiser of National Union of Dock Labourers (founded
in the London dock strike of 1889); sent to Belfast to represent Trades
Union Movt. in disputes, Jan. 1907, the year of Edward VII’s visit;
involved in disputes in Cork and Dublin; alienated NUDL and moved to Dublin,
1908; launched Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union (ITGWU),
Dec. 1908-Jan. 1909; expelled from Irish Trades Union Conference for strike
tactics, 1909; consolidated a brief non-sectarian workers’ front;
fnd. with his sister Delia, and with Helena Molony, Irish Women Workers’
Union; fnd. Irish Worker and People’s Advocate, May, 1911,
reaching 95,000 in 3 months; imprisoned on charge of misappropriation
of Cork NUDL funds, June-Oct. 1910; ITGWU affiliated to ITUC, 1911; Larkin
elected President of ITUC, 1911; acquired Liberty Hall as premises of
the Union, 1912; rented Clontarf estate as recreation centre for workers
and their families; supported James Connolly’s call for an Irish
Labour Party; opposed by William Martin Murphy, organising Irish Employers
Federation; great labour meeting at Beresford Place, and speech from balcony
of Imperial Hotel; Bloody Sunday, 13 Aug. 1913; Great Lock-Out Strike,
organised against him by William Martin Murphy, 1913, involved 20,000
workers and their 80,000 dependents; manages Fiery Cross US and British
support campaign for Dublin workers; fnd. Citizen Army with Connolly;
Irish Worker suppressed, Aug. 1914; departed to America to raise
funds, late Oct. 1914; ITGWU managed at home by Connolly and William O’Brien;
involved with American syndicalism; sentenced to 10 years hard labour
in US for ‘criminal syndicalism’ [var. ‘anarchy’]
in 1920, and served sentence of 3 years in Sing Sing; annually re-elected
as ITGWU Gen. Secretary up to release; pardoned in interests of free speech,
largely through intercession of Joseph Connolly, Jan. 1923 (‘We get
Larkin released’); returned to Ireland; met resistance to his attempted
take-over from William O’Brien and others, incl. Thomas Johnston,
then leader of Labour; suspended as gen. secretary of ITGWU, and then
expelled; sued and lost, being declared bankrupt; fnd. Workers’ Union
of Ireland in splinter from ITGWU, 1923, with br. Peter and son James
(Jnr.); visited Soviet Union as rep. of Irish Section of Comintern, 1924;
Dáil deputy, 1927, but did not take his seat; re-elected 1937; re-admitted
to Labour Party, with his son, 1943-44; secured amendments to Trade Union
Act, and campaigned against Wages Standstill order, 1941; won labour nomination
and seat against opposition of O’Brien; ITGWU disaffiliated from
Congress, 1945; attained fortnight’s annual leave for workers, and
contested rising prices; the standard biography (1965) is Emmet Larkin
[unrelated], Professor of British and Irish History at Univ. of Chicago;
a br. Peter and a sis. Delia were also involved in Labour organisation;
there is a bust of Larkin by Mina Carney as well as pencil sketches by
Seán O’Sullivan (NGI) and William Orpen (‘Larkin at Work
in Liberty Hall’); he is Red Jim in O’Casey’s labour play,
The Star Turns Red (1940). DIB [DIW] DIH FDA DUB OCIL
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Criticism
R. M. Fox, Jim Larkin (1957).
Emmet Larkin, James Larkin: Irish Labour Leader 1876-1947 (1965; rep. 1968).
Emmet Larkin, In the Footsteps of Big Jim: A Family Biography ([Dublin:] Blackwater Press 1996), 252pp.
Donal Nevin, James Larkin: Lion of the Fold (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan 1998).
J. Anthony Gaughan, ed., Memoirs of Senator Joseph Connolly, 1885-1961: A Founder of Modern Ireland (IAP 1996) [on Larkin in Belfast and America].
John Newsinger, Rebel City: Connolly and the Dublin Labour Movement (Merlin [UK] 2004), 192pp.
George Dangerfield, The Strange Death of Liberal England
(?1932; and rev. ed. 1972), ‘From the sordid and somewhat bloodstained
complecities of the Great Dublin Strike, two figures emerge – those
of William Martin Murphy and James Larkin; Larkin, poss. illegitimate
son of Phoenix Park assassin. [q.p.]
Sean O’Casey’s account of Larkin, as P. Ó Cathasaigh [sic], The Story of the Irish Citizen Army (Maunsel 1919), Chap. VI, pp. 36, [42] See also Drums Under the Windows (1963 Edn.), p.221.
Emmet Larkin, ‘The Man who became the Irish labour movement incarnate’, The Irish Times, 30 Jan. 1996; being part of the text of a Thomas Davis Series lecture, RTÉ, 17 Feb 1997, p.14.
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Notes
R. F. Foster, Modern Ireland (London: Allen Lane
1988), bio-note records that reformed Irish branch of Independent Labour
Party and fnd. ITGWU, 1908; Pres. Irish Trades Union Congress, 1911; imprisoned,
1913-14; denounced Treaty [from prison], 1922; tumultuous welcome in Dublin;
expelled from ITGWU by anti-socialist committee; secured the Trade Union
Act and opposed Standstill Order, 1941.
Seamus Deane, gen. ed., Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing (Derry: Field Day 1991), Vol. 3, selects Larkin’s ‘Scathing Indictment of Dublin Sweaters’ [707-11] BIOG 809-10 [b. 1876]. Joseph Lee, Ireland 1912-1985 (1989) adds. bibl. E[mmet] Larkin, James Larkin, Irish Labour leader 1876-1947 (London 1968 ed.)
The Irish Worker, the ‘first successful Labour
publication’ and the Larkin edited voice of the ITGWU (Arthur Mitchell, Labour in Irish Politics 1890-1913, IUP 1974, p.79; quoted in Cheryl
Herr, For The Land They Loved, 1991, p.54. And NOTE, character
in James Plunkett’s Strumpet City; also, biog. memoir in Frank
Harris, Contemporary Portraits, and R. M. Fox, Louis Bennett.
ADD, James Plunkett, ‘Jim Larkin’, in J. W. Boyle, ed., Thomas
Davis Lectures (Cork 1966).
Literary tributes: Brendan Behan’s poem on Larkin is given in Donal Nevin, ed., Trade Union Century (Mercier/RTE/ICTU 1995); see also a Patrick Kavanagh: ‘And thus I heard Jim Larkin’s ghost above / The Crowd who wanted to turn aside / From reality coming to free them. / Terrified / They hid in the clouds of dope and would not move.’
Peter Wood, The Price of a Cigar (London: Anchor Books 1997) is a documentary novel dealing with the London dock-strike of 1889.
Arnold Wright, Disturbed Dublin: The Story of the Great Strike of 1913-1914 (London: Longmans 1914), was commissioned by William Martin Murphy to put the employers’ side.
Portraits: Anne Crookshank, Irish Portraits Exhibition (Ulster Mus. 1965) lists James Larkin by Mina Carney, bust; see also pencil on paper by Seán O’Sullivan RHA [NGI] and there is a pencil sketch of ‘Larkin at Work in Liberty Hall’ by William Orpen
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)