Emergence of Trade Unions and the 1913 Lockout

Between 1902 and 1913, a series of local and national strikes over union recognition, led to the fusion of the national question and labour politics.

Early Strikes and Company Responses:

• 1902 Fitters and Turners Strike: This strike took place behind the high walls of the Railway estate. Strikers gave a week’s notice of their intention to withdraw labour, prompting the Great Southern & Western Railway to bring in strike-breakers from England and Scotland. Not all workers in the Works were unionized, and not all participated in the strike. It was a local and sectional dispute, with workers in the GS&WR’s county stations continuing to perform the duties of the Dublin strikers. The strike lasted almost six months, with the Railway Company ultimately prevailing and introducing piecework at a lower pay rate.
• 1911 Kingsbridge Depot Strike: Workers at the GSWR depot in Kingsbridge (Heuston) Station refused to handle a consignment from a company that had ‘locked out’ its own workers to prevent union organizing. The suspension of these workers led to a walk-out of over 400 at Kingsbridge. The strike quickly spread to the Great Midland and Western Railway. The Great Southern & Western Railway brought in strike-breakers from Belfast. After a month, the strike ended on the company’s terms. An estimated 10% of the strikers were branded as militants, resulting in the loss of their jobs, pensions, and homes.
• The 1913 Lockout:

The 1913 Lockout was a monumental labour struggle between workers, who sought to unionize for better pay and conditions, and employers, who aimed to dismantle the power of the unions. In August 1913, William Martin Murphy, Director of the Dublin United Tramways Company (DUTC) and one of the city’s largest employers, pre-emptively fired two hundred workers in the parcel office. He offered them re-employment only if they confirmed they were not members of the ITGWU. In response, the Unions called their members out on strike. Martin-Murphy retaliated by urging other employers to engage in sympathetic ‘lock-outs’ of their workers. By late September, over 20,000 workers in Dublin were either on strike or locked out.

The 1913 Lockout was a protracted and bitter industrial dispute. Employers adopted an uncompromising stance, using strike-breakers and deploying police and armed forces to intimidate and assault workers. Union leaders, including James Connolly and Jim Larkin, were arrested for sedition. The Lockout ended anticlimactically in January 1914, when economic hardship forced workers to return to their jobs.

The Kilmainham-Inchicore-Goldenbridge community was significantly impacted by the Lockout due to the presence of the Dublin United Tramways Company (DUTC) tramworks and depot in Inchicore, a major local employer. Approximately 80% of the Inchicore workforce went on strike at the outset. The DUTC attempted to maintain a minimal tram service under police escort.

On August 31st, 1913, a day subsequently known as Bloody Sunday, police brutally baton-charged a public meeting on Sackville (now O’Connell) Street in Dublin city centre, resulting in two fatalities and 600 serious injuries. Tram-cars on the city streets were caught in the violence and extensively damaged. Upon their return to Inchicore, drivers encountered a crowd blockading the depot. Local police, supported by soldiers from nearby Richmond Barracks, clashed with the crowd. They subsequently raided Emmet Hall, severely beating Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union (ITGWU) officials inside, and then raided private residences on Emmet Street and in the Richmond Cottages. The Inchicore Depot was closed for the duration of the Lockout on September 1st, 1913. In response to these events, the ITGWU later established the Irish Citizen Army to protect its members from police and military aggression.