Irish Transport and General Workers' Union: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 20:55, 21 June 2017

Revision as of 21:05, 21 June 2017

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The ITGWU was at the centre of the [[syndicalist]]-inspired [[Dublin Lockout]] in 1913 and the events left a lasting impression on the ITGWU and hence on the Irish [[Labour Movement]].

After Larkin's departure for the [[United States]] in 1914 in the wake of the Lockout, James Connolly led the Transport Union until his execution in the wake of the 1916 Rising. In turn, [[William X. O'Brien]] became the union's leading figure., Heand laterultimately served as general secretary for many years. Throughout World War I, the ITGWU consistently opposed Irish belligerence, and staunchly supported the advanced nationalist cause. In fact, ITGWU members, in the uniform of the Irish Citizen Army, played a leading role in the Easter Rising, while the Transport Union led a national strike that crippled an attempt to introduce conscription to Ireland in 1918.<ref>Phelan, Mark, 'World War I and the Legacy of the Dublin Lockout, 1914-1916', in Éire-Ireland (Winter, 2016)</ref>

In 1923, Larkin formed a new union, the [[Workers' Union of Ireland]], to which many of the ITGWU's [[Dublin]] members affiliated.<ref>[http://www.nli.ie/pdfs/mss%20lists/itgwu.pdf Irish Transport and General Workers' Union papers], National Library of Ireland. Retrieved 2013-06-01.</ref> The ITGWU nevertheless remained the dominant force in Irish [[trade unionism]], especially outside the capital. William O'Brien and James Larkin remained bitter personal enemies, and when Larkin and his supporters were readmitted into the [[Labour Party (Ireland)|Labour Party]] in the early 1940s, O'Brien engineered a split in the party, with the new [[National Labour Party (Ireland)|National Labour Party]] claiming that the main party had been infiltrated by [[communist]]s. A further split occurred in the [[Irish Trade Union Congress]] when that body accepted the WUI's membership in 1945. The ITGWU left the Congress and established the rival [[Congress of Irish Unions]].

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[[Category:Trade unions established in 1909]]

[[Category:Transport trade unions in Ireland]]

Phelan, Mark, 'World War I and the Legacy of the Dublin Lockout, 1914-1916', in Éire-Ireland (Winter, 2016)