Latest / The History of Ireland: Rebellion, Empire, and Independence — Fexingo History / The Tailor of Anfield: James Larkin and the 1911 Transport Strike
Transcript
- Lucas: So we've talked a lot about the big political battles — Home Rule, the Rising, the Civil War. But the fight for workers' rights was just as bloody, and it started earlier than most people think. I want to talk about a man who was basically a one-man wrecking ball against the Dublin establishment: James Larkin. Luna: The union leader. Liverpool-born, right? Lucas: That's right. Born in Liverpool to Irish parents, worked the docks as a kid. He was a big, loud, charismatic man who could hold a crowd in the palm of his hand. He came to Ireland in 1907 as a union organiser for the National Union of Dock Labourers. But he quickly fell out with the British union bosses — they thought he was too militant. So in 1909 he founded his own union: the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union, or ITGWU. Lucas: The ITGWU wasn't just a union — it was a weapon. It organised the unskilled workers that the craft unions ignored: dockers, carters, tramway men, labourers. And it was explicitly syndicalist — the idea was to build one big union for all Irish workers, capable of bringing the country's economy to a standstill if necessary. Luna: Which brings us to 1911 and the transport strike. Lucas: Exactly. The Dublin United Tramways Company was the biggest employer in the city. It ran the trams that clattered through every street. The chairman was William Martin Murphy — a ruthless businessman, newspaper owner, and the most powerful man in Dublin. Murphy was determined to keep unions out of his company. When ITGWU members among the tramway men demanded recognition, Murphy refused to even meet them. Lucas: On September 15, 1911, the tram drivers and conductors walked out. Within days, 30,000 workers were on strike — not just tram men, but dockers, carters, builders. The city was paralysed. The trams stopped running. Goods rotted on the docks. Murphy's newspaper, the Irish Independent, raged against Larkin as a foreign agitator. Luna: What was the actual trigger? Was it just recognition? Lucas: There were specific grievances — long hours, low pay, no overtime. But the core demand was union recognition. Murphy saw that as a threat to his entire business model. He refused to negotiate and instead brought in blackleg labour — men from outside Dublin, often from the countryside, who were desperate for work. The strikers picketed the tram depots, and there were daily clashes with the Dublin Metropolitan Police. Lucas: The most famous incident happened on August 30, 1911 — actually before the strike officially started, but connected. Larkin was arrested for sedition after a speech where he urged workers to 'remember the men of '98' — a reference to the 1798 rebellion. He was sentenced to 12 months in prison. But the public outcry was so huge that the government released him after three months. He was met by a crowd of thousands at O'Connell Bridge — it was like a hero's welcome. Luna: So the strike itself — did it succeed? Lucas: It's complicated. The strike dragged on for three months. In the end, the tramway men got a small wage increase and a reduction in hours, but they didn't get union recognition. Murphy won that round. But the ITGWU didn't collapse — it grew. The strike showed unskilled workers that they could organise and that their collective action could shut down the city. It was a dress rehearsal for the much larger 1913 Lockout. Lucas: One thing that often gets overlooked is the role of women. During the strike, Larkin and his sister Delia founded the Irish Women Workers' Union — or IWWU — to organise women workers, who were often paid even less than men. Women like Helena Molony and Rosie Hackett became key organisers. The IWWU would go on to play a major part in the 1913 Lockout and later in the fight for workers' rights. Luna: And Murphy's response to that was as aggressive as ever. Lucas: He tried to starve them out. He locked out any worker who refused to renounce the union. That's the 1913 Lockout, which we'll get to in another episode. But the 1911 strike established the template: Larkin's fiery speeches, Murphy's intransigence, the police violence, the solidarity among workers. It also exposed the deep class divide in Dublin — the slums of the northside versus the mansions of the southside. Lucas: There's a moment I love from the strike. Larkin was addressing a crowd outside the Custom House. He pointed at the building and said, 'There's your slavery — that's where you register for the boats to England. But we're going to change that.' He had this ability to make people feel that they weren't just fighting for a shilling more an hour — they were fighting for their dignity. Luna: And he did change things — eventually. The ITGWU went on to become the largest union in Ireland. Lucas: But the cost was enormous. Larkin himself was imprisoned several times. Many workers were blacklisted and could never get a job in Dublin again. And the battle with Murphy didn't end in 1911 — it just escalated. Larkin's legacy is complicated: he was a brilliant organiser but also a difficult man, prone to vanity and infighting. Still, for the workers of Dublin, he was the man who gave them a voice. Lucas: If you've been stepping into history with us episode by episode, you'll know we don't have advertisers or sponsors. This whole thing runs on listener support — a couple of dollars a month genuinely keeps these conversations going. If you've gotten something out of them, you can find us at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Luna: Yeah, it makes a real difference. Every little bit helps keep the show ad-free. Lucas: And on that note — I'm thinking the next episode we should properly dive into the 1913 Lockout. Because that's where Larkin and Murphy really went to war. The scale of it was staggering — 20,000 workers locked out for months, families starving, the British labour movement sending a ship with food to Dublin. It's an incredible story. Luna: Looking forward to it.