92 Facts About James Larkin

James Larkin, sometimes known as Jim Larkin or Big Jim, was an Irish republican, socialist and trade union leader.

James Larkin 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 and the Workers' Union of Ireland.

James Larkin became a full-time trade union organiser in 1905.

James Larkin moved to Belfast in 1907, where he was involved in trade unionism and syndicalist strike action including organising the 1907 Belfast Dock strike.

James Larkin later moved south and organised workers in Dublin, Cork and Waterford, with considerable success.

James Larkin founded the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union after his expulsion from the National Union of Dock Labourers for his taking part in strike action in Dublin against union instructions, this new union would quickly replace the NUDL in Ireland.

James Larkin later moved to Dublin which would become the headquarters of his union and the focus of his union activity, as well as where the Irish Labour Party would be formed.

James Larkin is perhaps best known for his role in organising the 1913 strike that led to the Dublin lock-out.

Not long after the lockout James Larkin assumed direct command of the ICA, beginning the process of its reform into a revolutionary paramilitary organisation by arming them with Mauser rifles bought from Germany by the Irish Volunteers and smuggled into Ireland at Howth in July 1914.

In October 1914 James Larkin left Ireland and travelled to America to raise funds for the ITGWU and the ICA, leaving Connolly in charge of both organisations.

James Larkin then became involved in the early communist movement in America, and he was later jailed in 1920 in the midst of the Red Scare after being found guilty of 'criminal anarchy'.

James Larkin then spent several years in Sing Sing, before he was eventually pardoned by the Governor of New York Al Smith in 1923 and later deported.

James Larkin then returned to Ireland where he again became involved in Irish socialism and politics, both in the Labour Party and then his newly formed Irish Worker League.

Connolly by this time had been executed for his part in the Easter Rising and James Larkin mourned the passing of his friend and colleague.

James Larkin formed the Workers' Union of Ireland after he lost control of the ITGWU, the WUI was affiliated to Red International of Labour Unions soon after its formation.

Jim James Larkin served as Labour Party deputy in Dail Eireann from 1943 to 1944, leaving Dail Eireann for the last time in 1944, and dying in Dublin in 1947.

Larkin was respected by commentators both during and after his lifetime, with George Bernard Shaw describing him as the "greatest Irishman since Parnell", his friend and colleague in the labour movement James Connolly describing him as a "man of genius, of splendid vitality, great in his conceptions, magnificent in his courage", and Vladimir Lenin noting him as 'a remarkable speaker and a man of seething energy [who] performed miracles amongst the unskilled workers'.

James Larkin was said to have been born on 21 January 1876, and this was the date that he himself believed was accurate.

James Larkin was the second eldest son of Irish emigrants, James Larkin, from Drumintee and Mary Ann McNulty, from Burren, County Down.

The impoverished James Larkin family lived in the slums of Liverpool during the early years of his life.

James Larkin was unemployed for a time and then worked as a sailor and docker.

From 1893, James Larkin developed an interest in socialism and became a member of the Independent Labour Party.

James Larkin was elected to the strike committee and, although he lost his foreman's job as a result, his performance so impressed the National Union of Dock Labourers that he was appointed a temporary organiser.

James Larkin later gained a permanent position with the union, which, in 1906, sent him to Scotland, where he successfully organised workers in Preston and Glasgow.

In January 1907, James Larkin undertook his first task on behalf of the trade union movement in Ireland, when he arrived in Belfast to organise the city's dock workers for the NUDL.

In 1908, James Larkin moved south and organised workers in Dublin, Cork and Waterford, with considerable success.

Early in the new year, 1909, James Larkin moved to Dublin, which became the main base of the ITGWU and the focus of all his future union activity in Ireland.

In June 1911, James Larkin established a newspaper, The Irish Worker and People's Advocate, as a pro-labour alternative to the capitalist-owned press.

James Larkin did not hold his seat long, as a month later he was removed because he had a criminal record from his conviction in 1910.

In early 1913, James Larkin achieved some successes in industrial disputes in Dublin and, notably, in the Sligo Dock strike; these involved frequent recourse to sympathetic strikes and blacking of goods.

James Larkin coined the slogan "A fair day's work for a fair day's pay".

James Larkin advocated Syndicalism, which was a revolutionary brand of socialism.

James Larkin gained few supporters from within, particularly from the British Trade Union Congress who did not want strike action such as the lock-out to lead to a growth in radicalism.

For seven months, the lockout affected tens of thousands of Dublin workers and employers, with James Larkin portrayed as the villain by Murphy's three main newspapers, the Irish Independent, the Sunday Independent and the Evening Herald, and by other bourgeois publications in Ireland.

James Larkin knew it would play into the hands of the anti-union companies, and that he could not build a mass trade union by wrecking the firms where his members worked.

James Larkin tore off his beard inside the hotel and raced to a balcony, where he shouted his speech to the crowd below.

James Larkin was later re-arrested, charged with sedition and was handed a 7 months imprisonment.

On 4 October 1913 James Larkin spoke at the lock out Tribunal of Inquiry:.

Not long after the lockout Jack White resigned as commander and James Larkin assumed direct command of the ICA.

James Larkin's intention was to agitate in America rather than organise, but it is unclear whether he intended to return.

James Larkin found support from both socialists and Irish-Americans, who were eager to hear his position on the World War which was by now raging throughout Europe.

James Larkin claimed that in the process of receiving and protecting the guns, 100 of his men from the ICA with no ammunition or bayonets had faced and routed 150 of the King's Own Scottish Borderers, whom he disparagingly said had been referred to as 'England's best'.

James Larkin went on to say, in the same speech, that 'The time is ripe for an active movement.

James Larkin's speech was received well by the Clan and other nationalists, and his initial time with the clan was successful being asked to attend other speaking engagements.

James Larkin's speeches had attracted interest from the German embassy and he had been approached by military Attaches shortly after his speech in Philadelphia and offered $200 per week to undertake waterfront sabotage work.

James Larkin refused on humanitarian grounds and informed them that he was already engaged in organising strikes that would effectively hamper the Allied war effort through restricting American war-related industry, and that he had established the Four Winds Fellowship a society open to all trade unionists and socialists born in the British Empire and who were opposed to the war.

James Larkin had first hand knowledge of German sabotage operations, supplied them with intelligence and contacts and was involved in the transfer of monies from the Germans to Irish Republican causes.

James Larkin took advantage of the growing support for left-wing politics, and of the increasing support for Irish republicanism amongst Irish Americans to gain influence amongst its ranks.

Whilst in America, James Larkin had become an enthusiastic supporter of the Soviets and, following an address at the club by Jack Reed, who had recently returned from Russia, interest in the Bolsheviks was revitalised.

James Larkin decided to put all his efforts into reforming the SPA into a communist party.

In June 1919, James Larkin topped the polls for elections to the national left-wing council.

James Larkin was charged with 'criminal anarchy' due to his part in the publishing of the SPA's 'Left-wing manifesto' in Revolutionary Age.

James Larkin resumed his political activities but was under no illusion of what was to come, expecting to be handed a lengthy jail sentence.

New York State Prosecutor Alexander Rourke took advantage of a query from Scotland Yard as to whether James Larkin would be allowed to travel to South Africa to turn his allies in the Irish nationalist movement, including Devoy, against him.

Whilst at Sing Sing, James Larkin was supplied with books and the means to write and communicate with the outside world.

James Larkin was later moved to Great Meadow, a comfortable, open prison, where he was visited by Constance Markievicz who, whilst noting his apparent appreciation of his conditions, sensed his fretfulness at being cut off from politics.

On 6 May 1922, James Larkin was released before being rearrested shortly afterwards for another charge of criminal anarchy and served with a deportation warrant.

James Larkin appealed and, during his time out of jail, he was cabled by Grigory Zinoviev President of the Communist International who gave their 'warmest greetings to the undaunted fighter released from the "democratic" prisons'.

Foran cabled James Larkin to convey the ITGWU's satisfaction with the events and to seek the date of his return to Ireland.

James Larkin made a number of financial requests to the ITGWU, including asking them to cover the costs of purchasing passage on a steamer ship, although he, in characteristic fashion, did not reveal the reason.

James Larkin was then taken to the British consulate where he was given a passport to travel by ship first to the United Kingdom and then to Ireland.

However, he soon found himself at variance with William O'Brien, who, in James Larkin's absence, had become the leading figure in the ITGWU and the Irish Labour Party and Trades Union Congress.

James Larkin agreed with British and Soviet communists to take on the leadership of communism in Ireland and, in September 1923, James Larkin formed the Irish Worker League, which was afterwards recognised by The Communist International as the Irish section of the world communist movement.

The IWL enrolled 500 members on its inauguration and, following the death of Lenin on 21 January 1924, James Larkin led a march of 6,000 people to mourn his passing.

In March 1924, James Larkin lost his battle for control of the ITWGU and, in May, the army prevented his followers from seizing Liberty Hall.

In June 1924, James Larkin attended the Comintern congress in Moscow and was elected to its Executive Committee.

James Larkin later launched a vicious attack on Tom Johnson who was now leader of the Labour Party and who like James Larkin, was Liverpool-born.

James Larkin, although born to Irish parents, had spent as long in the US as he had in Ireland.

James Larkin ran in Dublin North and, in circumstances that surprised many, was elected, becoming the first and only communist to be elected to Dail Eireann.

Between November of that year and March 1928, six students including Larkin's son James Larkin Jnr were sent to Moscow to attend the International Lenin School.

In February 1928, James Larkin made what would be his penultimate visit to Moscow for the ninth plenum of the Executive Committee of the Communist International.

James Larkin endorsed the Comintern line that the Communist Party of Great Britain should adopt a hostile rather than fraternal attitude towards the British Labour Party as well as denouncing the CPGB's refusal to back the removal of British unions from Ireland and their record on trade unions in general.

In 1929, in a letter to Moscow, James Larkin announced his retirement from active political work.

However, he asked that the Irish at the Lenin School be supported, noting that James Larkin Jnr was 'his own man and an earnest communist'.

James Larkin did sever ties with Profintern, declaring that they had not given the WUI proper financial support and accusing Lozovsky of intriguing against him.

One of Larkin's primary ambitions from his association with the Soviet Union was to finance his new trade union, and thus many of the same issues that had arisen from his time with James Connolly arose again.

In 1934, Larkin gave important evidence on the 1916 Black Tom explosion to John J McCloy, allowing a case for damages against Germany to be reopened, presumably because of Germany's new Nazi government.

James Larkin then regained his Dail seat at the 1937 general election but lost it again the following year.

James Larkin later served as a Labour Party deputy in Dail Eireann from 1943 to 1944.

In late 1946, James Larkin fell through a floor whilst supervising repairs to the Worker's Union of Ireland's Thomas Ashe Hall in Dublin.

James Larkin suffered serious internal injuries and was rushed to hospital.

James Larkin survived the accident but he would never recover from his injuries and died in his sleep in the Meath Hospital on 30 January 1947.

James Larkin remained a Catholic throughout his life, and asserted there was no inherent conflict between his religious views and his politics:.

James Larkin Jnr represented both Dublin South and Dublin South-Central, and Denis Larkin represented one of his fathers' previous constituencies Dublin North-East and later served a term as Lord Mayor of Dublin from 1955 to 1956.

James Larkin's sister Delia James Larkin was a prominent trade unionist and a founder of the Irish Women Workers' Union.

James Larkin separated from his wife Elizabeth, and did not live with her again following his return from America, although her death in 1945 is said to have affected him a great deal.

James Larkin ran a cartoon aimed at a particular group of Jewish immigrants which were described as "foreigners masquerading under Irish names".

Strumpet City was later developed into a television mini-series in which James Larkin was portrayed by British-Irish actor Peter O'Toole.

James Larkin was memorialised by the New York Irish rock band Black 47, in their song The Day They Set Jim Larkin Free.

Donagh MacDonagh's The Ballad of James Larkin was recorded by Christy Moore, The Dubliners and The Buskers.

Paddy Reilly sings a song simply entitled Jim James Larkin that describes the lot of the worker and their appreciation of the changes made by James Larkin and Connolly.

The Transport and General Workers' Union activist Jack Jones, whose full name was James Larkin Jones, was named in honour of his fellow Liverpudlian.