A recent lecture by Labour historian, Emmet Larkin, to the SIPTU Dublin District Council on the career of Jim Larkin and his place within Irish trade unionism is now available online. In the lecture, delivered in late October in Liberty Hall, O’Connor places Larkin and his strategy of sympathetic strikes within the wider context of the British and European trade union movement of early 20th century.Although born in Liverpool, O’Connor says: “Larkin was Irish, he always saw himself that way. But it should be borne in mind that he was 33 before he first set foot in Ireland in 1907.“However, he grew up in Toxteth which was very much an Irish enclave in Liverpool”.He added: “He identified very much with the Irish Ireland movement and with Sinn Féin”.In the lecture, O’Connor deals with the conflicting approaches of Larkin to organising workers in Ireland. Initially, he worked to spread the reach of British trade unions in Ireland. However, Larkin later became a strong critic of British “interference” in the development of Irish trade unions.The event was organised by the SIPTU Dublin District Council in conjunction with the Irish Labour History Society.To see the whole of Emmet O’Connor’s lecture on Larkin click here
SIPTU Dublin District Council Larkin lecture now online
