Luke Dineen will discuss the Cork General Lockout of 1909 at the Spirit of Mother Jones summer school on Saturday afternoon 29th July at 2:00 pm at the Maldron Hotel, Shandon.

In 1909 in America, Mother Jones was extremely active. The Miners’ Magazine, publication of the Western Federation of Miners (WFM) stated in 1909 quoting from her speech in South Dakota stated “Mother Jones in her speeches in the Black Hills wore no gloves but rapped Capitalism with bare knuckles”.  That year also she helped striking shirtwaist workers in New York City and Mexican revolutionaries jailed in the US. 

Here in her native Cork, throughout 1909 there was growing unrest in the Labour movement with thousands of workers either on strike or locked out of their jobs. Small local trade disputes multiplied, the City Docks quarrels of 1908 again came to the boil, James Larkin’s new Irish Transport and General Workers Union (ITGWU) was at the centre of several disputes as it had attracted large numbers of recruits from among various workforces in the city. 

By May 1909, the employers in the city formed the Cork Employers’ Federation (CEF) and appointed Belfast born, Sir Alfred Dobbin (owner of the Imperial Hotel and Palace Theatre and many other businesses) as chairman. Described by Luke Dineen as “Cork’s answer to William Martin Murphy” and “widely loathed”, Dobbin’s inability to negotiate resulted in a refusal to resolve disputes as more and more workers were locked out. 

Through the months of June and July 1909, Cork was the scene of violent street battles and baton charges by the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC). Anyone wearing an ITGWU union badge was targeted. On the night of 20th June, twenty people attended the North Infirmary hospital suffering from head wounds as a result of the street battles.

The end result was a total defeat for the workers, the recently formed ITGWU branch collapsed. Inter union conflict with the Workers’ Union,

the ruthlessness of the employers and RIC and the opposition from the local press ensured a comprehensive victory for the employers. Many workers were left destitute or in prison and their families in poverty.

In the later 1913 Dublin Lockout, Cork born William Martin Murphy acted in a similar manner to Dobbin and the Dublin Employers’ Federation (founded in 1911) adopted the same approach as the CEF. Murphy had the advantage of actually owning the Irish Independent newspaper thus ensuring the support of the press. For their part, the ITGWU learned that union unity and working class solidarity, along with appropriate financial resources, were all vital to success. 

During the bitter lockout, the ITGWU had organised some of the workers in Cork into protection groups, armed with hurleys and clubs whose role was to protect strikers on Cork’s docks. This became a precursor of the later Irish Citizen Army (ICA) of 1913 and while defeat was again the outcome in 1913 for the unions and workers, the men and women of the ICA were to prove a major catalyst for the 1916 Rising.  

Luke is the author of the recent Irish Labour History Society publication “A City Of Strikes: The Cork General Lockout of 1909”. 

He previously spoke about the 1909 Cork Lockout at the Spirit of Mother Jones Festival in 2013.