In this essay, we will examine the 1913 Lockout and how the Lockout influenced the future landscape of an Independent Ireland. We will look at the prelude to the Lockout and the outcomes of the Lockout. We will trace the issues that brought about the Lockout and we will analyse how the Lockout steered Ireland in a direction it could not change.
Throughout the United Kingdom, the divisions between the labour movement and employers had deepened greatly in the early years of the twentieth century. Strikes had occurred frequently in many places, but it seemed that industrial relations were becoming more settled in the beginning of the second decade of the century. For the most part, Dublin had escaped labour unrest. In 1900, the Dublin Chamber of Commerce confidently declared ‘We are pleased to note the growing disposition of all classes to unite in promoting the best interests of our country’. This harmony did not last and in 1913, the Labour movement in Dublin became involved in a serious conflict with the employers, known as the Lockout.
A major issue during this period was housing. Most people today would believe that everyone has the right to live in a clean and safe environment. This clean and safe environment certainly did not exist for all those who lived in Dublin. At the time of the Lockout, many unskilled workers lived in extreme poverty. Housing conditions were appalling and many people were exposed to disease and infection. Overcrowding in large houses called tenements aided this spread of disease. The slums of Dublin were as bad as anywhere at the time. Over twenty thousand families lived in a one-room dwelling. Upper class houses of past were converted to allow greedy property owners to have as many tenants as possible...
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... the Ireland of 1913’
Dorney, John, ‘Class War in Dublin – The Lockout of 1913’
O’Riordan, Tomás A, ‘Dublin, 1913—Strike and Lockout’ http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/ http://www.nli.ie/lockout/
Dorney, John, ‘Remembering the Lockout’. 27th August 2013 http://1913committee.ie/blog/ The Dublin 1913 Lockout
Yeates, Padraig, ‘The Dublin 1913 Lockout’ Published in 20th-century / Contemporary History, Features, Issue 2 (Summer 2001), Volume 9.
McCabe, Conor, ‘Your only God is profit’: Irish class relations and the 1913 Lockout ’ in David Convery (ed) Locked Out: A Century of Irish Working-Class Life (Dublin: Irish Academic Press 2013). http://www.ictu.ie/download/pdf/health_safetyclips.pdf Connolly, James, The Workers' Republic: A Selection from the Writings of James Connolly (NuVision Publications, LLC, 1951).
http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/E900007-005/index.html
The Pullman Strike of 1894 was the first national strike in American history and it came about during a period of unrest with labor unions and controversy regarding the role of government in business.5 The strike officially started when employees organized and went to their supervisors to ask for a lowered rent and were refused.5 The strike had many different causes. For example, workers wanted higher wages and fewer working hours, but the companies would not give it to them; and the workers wanted better, more affordable living quarters, but the companies would not offer that to them either. These different causes created an interesting and controversial end to the Pullman strike. Because of this, questions were raised about the strike that are still important today. Was striking a proper means of getting what the workers wanted? Were there better means of petitioning their grievances? Was government intervention constitutional? All these questions were raised by the Pullman Strike.
David Brody argues that the rise of contractual or collective bargaining relationships during the post WWII era formalized the relationship between employers and unions, but simultaneously began to put a break on shop floor activism. Explain Brody’s argument and, where relevant, incorporate Weber’s theory of bureaucracy.
In conclusion, the period from 1875 to 1890 brought many attempts at bettering the working conditions, but many of the working class’s attempts at being recognized went unnoticed. This resulted in violence, frustration, and unnecessary deaths. The series of failed strikes and attempts to receive government intervention resulted in heightened anger among the employees. Without an increase in wages, decrease in working hours, and improvement of working facilities, many workers left their jobs leaving the employer angry and in need of workers. None were available, however, because they were either protesting for better working conditions, signing a contract with a better company, or blocking rail and roadways in order to get their points across to the government.
Wolff provides a brief account of social and technological forces affecting membership and national authority of the steel union, violence and government intervention during the strike, and the profits of Carnegie and Frick and losses of union leaders during the strike’s aftermath.
In his book Death in the Haymarket, James Green recounted the American labor movement in the late 1800s. Green’s main focus in his book was the bombing of Haymarket, which occurred on May 4 of 1886. Beginning as a peaceful protest promoting the eight-hour work day, a bomb was thrown causing devastating consequences. The Haymarket bombing almost ended the labor movement altogether, with unjustified trials and fear implemented amongst all Americans. However, it is important to know that the Haymarket bombing is not just an isolated event. From starting out with wage cuts, to people going on strike, labor unions starting up, to almost losing the labor movement altogether. The Haymarket bombing
The unions of disunion were not only a major detriment to increasing the socio-economic standards of the laborer from 1875 to 1900, but also served to backpedal on the progress laborers had already gained out of respect. Perhaps the cornerstone of the unions’ policies was the fight for the improved working hours, specifically and eight hour work day, and increased wages for the laborer. However, Historical Statistics of the Unites States on Hours and Wages of Industrial Workers from 1875 to 1891 proves that no such improvements truly occurred. In fact, only a nominal 3.3 cent increase in wages from 1875 to 1891 occurred, and while it some may argue that the unions are then successful in achieving some increase in wages it is crucial to realize that this nominal increase came at the cost of hundreds, if not thousands, of laborer lives. Certainly a meager 1% increase in wages does not justify such loss of life, and if it is claimed that it does then that is also to warrant the trusts right to pay their laborers so little, as anyone who condones such little increase at such high costs automatically degrades the value of the life of the worker and thus reinforces the trusts’ right to combat unions. Furthermore, it should be noted that the average price of wages through those sixteen years was a measly 161.8, a decline of 8 whole cents from the starting point. Thus we can see that unions did not really gain 3.3 cents in wages, but rather caused a net loss of 8 cents. To even attempt to claim improvement for the laborer would be a completely ludicrous notion. Unfortunately for the laborer, the unions of disunion’s extent of their plight did not stop at the ruining of the worker’s economic position through the loss of wages, but also thr...
O'Connor, Thomas H. The Boston Irish: A Political History. Boston, MA. Northeastern University Press, 1995.
INTRODUCTION The history of Ireland "that most distressful nation" is full of drama and tragedy, but one of the most interesting stories is about what happened to the Irish during the mid-nineteenth century and how millions of Irish came to live in America (Purcell 31). Although the high point of the story was the years of the devastating potato famine from 1845 to 1848, historians have pointed out that immigrating from Ireland was becoming more popular before the famine and continued until the turn of the twentieth century. In the one hundred years between the first recording of immigrants in
Irish American Magazine, Aug.-Sept. 2009. Web. The Web. The Web. 06 May 2014.
In James Joyce’s Dubliners, the theme of escape tends to be a trend when characters are faced with critical decisions. Joyce’s novel presents a bleak and dark view of Ireland; his intentions by writing this novel are to illustrate people’s reasons to flee Ireland. In the stories “Eveline, “Counterparts”, and the “Dead”, characters are faced with autonomous decisions that shape their lives. This forlorn world casts a gloomy shadow over the characters of these stories. These stories are connected by their similar portrayal of Ireland. They clearly represent Joyce’s views on people’s discontent with Ireland.
Joyce, James. Dubliners. Edited by: Hans Walter Gabler 1993Library of Congress-in-Publication Data. Joyce, James, 1882-1941. Dubliners/ Joyce-1st vintage International. Afterword, Bibliography, and Chronology by: David Campbell 1991.
McCann et al. Belfast: Institute of Irish Studies, 1994, 95-109).
Labor relations emerged as response towards combating the economic unrest that accompanied the 1930 Great depression. At this period, massive unemployment, decreasing salary and wages, and over competition for jobs despite poor working conditions, was being experience; especially in the US. In turn employees were aggravated and therefore resorted to labor strike that often escalated to violence. To avoid such incident that could potentially harm further an ailing economy, the US government set precedent by passing their first related Labor relationship act, also referred to as the Wagner act. This act excluded public sector and some employees in the informal sector, farm workers to be specific. However, the progressive change in business and labor environment, necessitated changes in the labor laws to ensure they are more inclusive (Haywood & Sijtsma, 2000).
Tovey, H and Share, P. (2002). Sociology of Ireland. 2nd ed. Dublin: Gill & Macmillen.
During the twentieth century, Ireland was suffering through a time of economic hardship. “Economic growth was stagnant, unemployment was at a historic high and exceeded anywhere in the EU, except possibly Spain, and the state was one of the most indebted in the world” . Irish men and women who had received a formal education had immigrated to other nations due to the unavailability of jobs at home. This left Ireland in a state of further economic downfall, and the lack of skilled workers left Ireland stuck. The 1990’s were a turning point for Ireland. A rise in industry within the nation, as well as an increase in exports, led Ireland to become the “shining nation” in Europe. It became internationally linked with one of the biggest power nations, the United States, and international trade became Ireland’s new source for a booming economy. This brought the rise of what was known as the Celtic Tiger in Ireland.