| Ceardchumann Iompair agus Ilsaothair na hÉireann | |
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| Predecessor | National Union of Dock Labourers |
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| Merged into | SIPTU |
| Founded | January 1909 |
| Dissolved | 1990 |
| Location |
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Key people | James Larkin |
The Irish Transport and General Workers Union (ITGWU) was a trade union representing workers, initially mainly labourers, in Ireland.
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The union was founded by James Larkin in January 1909 as a general union. [1] [2] Initially drawing its membership from branches of the Liverpool-based National Union of Dock Labourers, from which Larkin had been expelled, it grew to include workers in a range of industries. The ITGWU logo was the Red Hand of Ulster, which is synonymous with ancient Gaelic Ulster.
The ITGWU was at the centre of the syndicalist-inspired Dublin Lockout in 1913, the events of which left a lasting impression on the union 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 ITGWU until his execution in 1916 in the wake of the Easter Rising. In turn, William O'Brien became the union's leading figure, and ultimately 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. [3]
In 1923, Larkin formed a new union, the Workers' Union of Ireland, to which many of the ITGWU's Dublin members affiliated. [4] 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 in the early 1940s, O'Brien engineered a split in the party, with the new National Labour Party claiming that the main party had been infiltrated by communists. A further split occurred in the Irish Trades 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.
From the 1950s on proposals to merge the two unions were floated. Finally, in 1990, the ITGWU merged with the Workers' Union of Ireland to form SIPTU (Services, Industrial, Professional and Technical Union). [5]
The ITGWU should not be confused with the British-based Transport and General Workers Union, which organised in Ireland under the name Amalgamated Transport and General Workers Union (ATGWU) and is now Unite the Union.
The union absorbed numerous smaller trade unions: [6]
The Labour Party is a centre-left and social-democratic political party in the Republic of Ireland. Founded on 28 May 1912 in Clonmel, County Tipperary, by James Connolly, James Larkin, and William O'Brien as the political wing of the Irish Trades Union Congress, it describes itself as a "democratic socialist party" in its constitution.
The Irish Citizen Army, or ICA, was a small paramilitary group of trained trade union volunteers from the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union (ITGWU) established in Dublin for the defence of workers' demonstrations from the Dublin Metropolitan Police. It was formed by James Larkin, James Connolly and Jack White on 23 November 1913. Other prominent members included Seán O'Casey, Constance Markievicz, Francis Sheehy-Skeffington, P. T. Daly and Kit Poole. In 1916, it took part in the Easter Rising, an armed insurrection aimed at ending British rule in Ireland.
SIPTU is Ireland's largest trade union, with around 200,000 members. Most of these members are in the Republic of Ireland, although the union does have a Northern Ireland District Committee. Its head office, Liberty Hall, is in Dublin, and the union has five industrial divisions, three in the private sector and two in the public sector. SIPTU is affiliated to the Irish Congress of Trade Unions
James Larkin, sometimes known as Jim Larkin or Big Jim, was an Irish republican, socialist and trade union leader. He was one of the founders of the Irish Labour Party along with James Connolly and William O'Brien, and later the founder of the Irish Worker League, as well as the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union (ITGWU) and the Workers' Union of Ireland. Along with Connolly and Jack White, he was also a founder of the Irish Citizen Army. Larkin was a leading figure in the Syndicalist movement.
Events from the year 1913 in Ireland.
The National Labour Party was an Irish political party active between 1944 and 1950. It was founded in 1944 from a rebel faction of the Labour Party, inspired by the intransigence of the incumbent leadership of the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union (ITGWU) against the majority of the party on the basis that communists had infiltrated Labour at the turn of the 1940s.
The Dublin lock-out was a major industrial dispute between approximately 20,000 workers and 300 employers that took place in Ireland's capital and largest city, Dublin. The dispute, lasting from 26 August 1913 to 18 January 1914, is often viewed as the most severe and significant industrial dispute in Irish history. Central to the dispute was the workers' right to unionise.
William O'Brien was a politician and trade unionist in Ireland. While rarely dominating the political spotlight, O'Brien was incredibly powerful and influential behind the scenes, maintaining a firm grip over Ireland's trade unions for many decades. Besides his leadership in the trade unions, O'Brien was a founder, alongside James Larkin and James Connolly, of the Labour Party of Ireland. In later years a rift formed between Larkin and O'Brien that would last the rest of their lives and often divide the labour movement in Ireland.
The Irish Land and Labour Association (ILLA) was a progressive movement founded in the early 1890s in Munster, Ireland, to organise and pursue political agitation for small tenant farmers' and rural labourers' rights. Its branches also spread into Connacht. The ILLA was known under different names—Land and Labour Association (LLA) or League (LLL). Its branches were active for almost thirty years, and had considerable success in propagating labour ideals before their traditions became the basis for the new labour and trade unions movements, with which they gradually amalgamated.
The Labour Party has been part of the political scene in Ireland throughout the state's existence. Although never attracting majority support, it has repeatedly participated in coalition governments. The party was established in 1912 by James Connolly, James Larkin, and William O'Brien and others as the political wing of the Irish Trades Union Congress. It intended to participate in a Dublin Parliament that would follow passage of the Home Rule Act 1914, which was suspended on the outbreak of World War I. Connolly was executed following the Easter Rising in 1916, and was succeeded as leader by Thomas Johnson. The party stood aside from the elections of 1918 and 1921, but despite divisions over acceptance of the Anglo-Irish Treaty it took approximately 20% of the vote in the 1922 elections, initially forming the main opposition party in the Dáil Éireann (parliament) of the Irish Free State. Farm labourers already influenced by D.D. Sheehan's Irish Land and Labour Association (ILLA) factions were absorbed into urban-based unions, which contributed significantly to the expansion of the Irish trade union movement after the First World War. For much of the 20th century, the Irish Labour Party derived the majority of its Dáil strength from TDs who were relatively un-ideological and independent-minded, and were supported by agricultural labourers.
The Workers' Union of Ireland (WUI), later the Federated Workers' Union of Ireland, was an Irish trade union formed in 1924. In 1990, it merged with the Irish Transport and General Workers Union to form the Services, Industrial, Professional and Technical Union (SIPTU).
Anarchism in Ireland has its roots in the stateless organisation of the túatha in Gaelic Ireland. It first began to emerge from the libertarian socialist tendencies within the Irish republican movement, with anarchist individuals and organisations sprouting out of the resurgent socialist movement during the 1880s, particularly gaining prominence during the time of the Dublin Socialist League.
Delia Larkin was a trade union organiser, journalist and actress, born to Irish parents in Liverpool, England. She was influenced by the activities of her brother, James Larkin, to move to Ireland, and was prominent during the 1913 Dublin Lockout. She was active in Irish trade union activities and was a founding secretary of the Irish Women Workers' Union.
John Conroy was an Irish trade union leader.
The Irish Congress of Trade Unions, formed in 1959 by the merger of the Irish Trades Union Congress and the Congress of Irish Unions, is a national trade union centre, the umbrella organisation to which trade unions in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland affiliate.
Jimmy Somers is an Irish trade unionist.
Patrick Thomas Daly, known as P. T. Daly was an Irish trade unionist and politician.
Alice Brady (1898–1914) was a labour activist that was shot and killed during the 1913 Dublin Lock-out. She was shot accidentally in the hand by a worker and died two weeks later of tetanus. The worker was charged but acquitted of her murder. Members from the Irish Women Workers' Union used her funeral as a show of strength. A service was held on Saturday, 4 January 2014 to mark the centenary of Brady's funeral, and RTÉ One broadcast a documentary on the lockout involving descendants of participants and members of Brady's family.
The 1913 Sligo Dock strike in the port of Sligo in northwest Ireland was a labour dispute lasting 56 days from 8 March to 6 May 1913. During the strike, there were numerous clashes on the docks and riots in the town, resulting in one fatality. Occurring six months earlier than the Dublin Lockout, it was regarded as a precursor to that action and a successful application of the Irish Transport & General Workers Union’s strategy for workers rights by James Larkin and James Connolly. It resulted in victory for the workers. James Larkin considered the 1913 victory in Sligo to be a major achievement of the ITGWU.
Frank Robbins was an Irish trade unionist. Robbins came to prominence as a member of James Connolly's Irish Citizen Army, taking part in the Dublin Lockout in 1913 and the Easter Rising in 1916. Although Robbins did not involvement himself in the ensuing Irish War of Independence or Irish Civil War, he continued to influence events in Ireland through his leadership in the trade union movement and as part of the Labour Party. During the Irish revolutionary period, Robbins was frustrated by the notion that Labour was considered outside of Irish Republicanism, rather than a strand within it. He was also frustrated by the lack of willingness by the labour movement to involvement themselves directly in the War of Independence.
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