This overview of Irish labour history serves both as an introduction for the general reader and as a synopsis for the specialist. Its basic concern is to outline the course of labour history, to illustrate the different phases of its chronology and to determine the forces behind its development. It also investigates some of the most persistent questions surrounding the history of labour in Ireland including why labour marginalized in disaffected 19th-century Ireland and why nationalism presented such a problem in the 20th century? This book looks at these, and other, issues in detail. Among these are the change in emphasis from craft unions to general unions in the early 20th century, the development of trade unions in the early 20th century and the relationship between trade unionism and nationalism. In particular this book broadens the definition of labour, arguing that the traditional focus on conventional trade unions is hopelessly inadequate. Instead, this book attempts to set the history of Irish labour in the context of mainstream political and economic trends.

A labour history of Ireland, 1824-1960

Business & Money

O'Connor, Emmet

Economics

Gill and Macmillan

By European standards, the left in Ireland has not been successful historically, yet its failure has concealed considerable achievement in the occasional great popular mobilisations of the past two centuries. In the process, virtually every shade of radical thought has found expression in Ireland at some point or other, and the country has produced a diverse and colourful range of social rebels. Studies in Irish radical leadership, an edited collection of nineteen biographies of labour leaders and radical activists, examines a sample of the men and women who made that history of protest. Looking over the shoulders of Connolly and Larkin, it provides fascinating insights into the careers and mentalities of Irish labour's second-string leaders. It ranges from the primitive rebels of the early nineteenth century to the parliamentarians of the late twentieth, and asks what kind of people they were, what motivated them, and what is leadership?

Studies in Irish radical leadership: Lives on the left

Biographies & Memoirs

CUNNINGHAM, John

Historical

Manchester University Press

Derry Labour in the age of agitation, 1889-1923: 1: New unionism and old, 1889-1906 (113) (Maynooth Studies in Local History)

Four Courts Press

Following on from volume 1 on new unionism and old (1889-1906), volume 2 reviews the impact of Larkinism and syndicalism on Derry. After impressive progress in the 19th century, Derry's industrial growth started to falter after 1904. Wages stagnated, prices rose relentlessly, and thousands of workers in the shirt-factories and on the docks grew restless. The city seemed ripe for one of the Larkinite revolts that shook Irish cities in the early 20th-century, from Belfast in 1907 to Dublin in 1913. However, unions in Derry - and local Labour leaders like James McCarron - had their own agenda. The First World War eventually brought both an economic boom and renewed militancy. Capitalism was confronted with a deadly cocktail of food and labour shortages, price and wage inflation, a discrediting of the ruling elites for blundering into a catastrophic war, and revolution at home and abroad. Irish Labour responded by reviving Larkinism and developing it into syndicalism. The Derry trades council struggled to reconcile the radical challenge from Peadar O'Donnell and the IT GWU with the more conservative policies of existing unions, all against the backdrop of the independence campaign, Unionist counter-mobilization, a miniature civil war in the city, a disastrous economic slump in 1920, and partition. (Series: Maynooth Studies in Local History, Vol. 126) [Subject: Irish History, Labor History, Ireland]

Derry Labour in the Age of Agitation, 1889-1923: 2: Larkinism and Syndicalism, 1907-23 (126) (Maynooth Studies in Local History)

Robert McElborough was a Belfast trade unionist of little education, who spent most of his life living in the Sandy Row district and working on the tramways and in the gas industry. An active organizer in two loyalist trade unions, he fought proudly "on the workers" side for wages and conditions as a descendant of an Ulster Scot. This selection from his autobiography provides a unique record of Protestant working-class life, and a trenchant commentary on the mistreatment of workers by their masters. It also chronicles the tension between English union bosses and Ulster trade unionists, and McElborough's support for Ulster-based unions uncontaminated by either red or green influences. The complexities of Belfast labor history are clarified in the editors' introduction and notes. Subjective, sometimes unreliable, yet authentic, McElborough's narrative is an essential source for the study of both loyalism and labor in Belfast.

Loyalism and Labour in Belfast: The Autobiography of Robert McElborough 1884-1952 (Irish Narrative Series)

Cork University Press

James Larkin (1876-1947) retains a central position in the pantheon of the Irish labour movement. In the popular consciousness he is most commonly linked to his role in the epic 1913 Dublin Lockout and to his turbulent leadership of the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union. Less well known is his role within international communism and his attempts to establish a significant socialist presence in southern Ireland during the 1920s. In general, labour historians have been kind to Larkin and his style of leadership, which was often abrasive and dictatorial, has often been portrayed as a form of improvisation engendered by contemporary exigencies. In this important new biography of Larkin leading labour historian Emmet O'Connor radically reassesses the man and asks whether he should be viewed as a "hero" of the working class, or as a "wrecker" whose difficult personality was detrimental to both trade unionism and an emerging Irish communist movement. O'Connor uses new archival sources, including declassified Soviet Union and FBI files, to cast new light on Larkin and on his relations with international communism. He aims to uncover the motivation behind Larkin's public persona, and to assess the reality obscured by the myth.

James Larkin (Radical Irish Lives)

In August 1922, at the height of the Civil War, when the Communist Party of Ireland could count on barely 50 activists, two agents of the Communist International held a secret meeting in Dublin with two IRA leaders. The four signed an agreement providing for the transformation of Sinn Fein into a socialist party. In return, Moscow was to assist with the supply of weapons to the IRA. The incident illustrates what made the Comintern a beacon of hope to beleaguered revolutionaries or an object of sometimes hysterical suspicion. From February 1918, when over 10,000 thronged central Dublin to acclaim the Bolshevik revolution, to July 1941, when the Party in Eire was dissolved by the votes of just 20 members, communists were involved with every radical movement, and demonised in every pulpit. Based on former Soviet archives, Reds and the Green shows why Irish Marxists and republicans turned repeatedly to Russia for support and inspiration, what Moscow wanted from Ireland, and how the Comintern was able to direct an Irish political party.

Reds and the Green: Ireland, Russia and the Communist Internationals, 1919-43

History

Europe

Univ College Dubli

In August 1922, two agents of the Communist International held a secret meeting in Dublin with two IRA leaders. The four signed an agreement providing for the transformation of Sinn Féin into a socialist party. In return, Moscow was to assist with the supply of weapons to the IRA. From February 1918, when over 10, 000 thronged central Dublin to acclaim the Bolshevik revolution, to July 1941, when the Party in Éire was dissolved by the votes of just 20 members, communists were involved with every radical movement, and demonised in every pulpit. Based on former Soviet archives, Reds and the Green shows why Irish Marxists and republicans turned repeatedly to Russia for support and inspiration and how the Comintern was able to direct an Irish political party.

s new edition of Emmet O'Connor's classic and pioneering work on Irish labor history, providing an introduction for the general reader and a synopsis for the specialist. The first edition, which covered 1824 to 1960, has been updated to the year 2000 with the inclusion of three new chapters on developments in the Republic and Northern Ireland. In addition to providing a challenging overview of labor's past, O'Connor addresses industrial relations and political issues of contemporary relevance. He has taken full account of new research on labor and argued that events in Ireland can only be understood in an international context.

A Labour History of Ireland 1824-2000

University College Dublin Press

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Books by O'Connor, Emmet

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by O'Connor, Emmet. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

A labour history of Ireland, 1824-1960

A labour history of Ireland, 1824-1960

Studies in Irish radical leadership: Lives on the left

Derry Labour in the age of agitation, 1889-1923: 1: New unionism and old, 1889-1906 (113) (Maynooth Studies in Local History)

Derry Labour in the Age of Agitation, 1889-1923: 2: Larkinism and Syndicalism, 1907-23 (126) (Maynooth Studies in Local History)

Loyalism and Labour in Belfast: The Autobiography of Robert McElborough 1884-1952 (Irish Narrative Series)

James Larkin (Radical Irish Lives)

Reds and the Green: Ireland, Russia and the Communist Internationals, 1919-43

Reds and the Green: Ireland, Russia and the Communist Internationals, 1919-43

A Labour History of Ireland 1824-2000