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History

An Overview

Although SIPTU was established in 1990 - with the merger of its two founding Unions - the former Irish Transport and General Workers' Union and the Federated Workers' Union of Ireland - the Union traces its lineage back to the early years of the twentieth century when "Big" Jim Larkin began organising among the transport and dock workers of Dublin. From those early beginnings Larkin's Union - the ITGWU- soon began to organise workers across a range of occupations around Ireland.

The advance of the ITGWU provoked an extremely hostile reaction from the Dublin employers, who in 1913 enforced a lock-out of all ITGWU members and supporters. The employers' aim was to smash the ITGWU. After a bitter struggle lasting six months, the lock-out came to an end - "a drawn battle" in the words of another ITGWU leader, James Connolly. For though the Union had been weakened, it had not been destroyed.

When Larkin left Ireland in 1914 for a speaking tour of the US, Connolly became Acting General Secretary of the Union. Many Union members took part in the Easter Rising of 1916 as part of the Irish Citizen Army under Connolly's command. Following Connolly's death in 1916, William O'Brien became Acting General Secretary and set about rebuilding the ITGWU, with membership swelling to over 100,000 within a few years.

On his return from the US in 1923, Larkin found a changed country and a changed Union. Friction between Larkin and the new leadership of the ITGWU eventually resulted in a split in its ranks - with a new organisation - the Workers' Union of Ireland - established in 1924 under Larkin's leadership. Both Unions continued to make an important contribution to economic and social developments in the country despite the difficult commercial climate of the depressed 1920s and the war-torn 1930s and 1940s.

Moves to re-unite the Irish labour movement in the 1950s - under young Jim Larkin and John Conroy - succeeded in creating the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and brought the ITGWU and the WUI to the brink of merger in 1969. However, the untimely deaths of the two leaders - within weeks of each other - meant that the momentum towards amalgamation stalled and awaited the efforts of a new generation to cement the historic merger in 1990.

While the former ITGWU and the former FWUI were the founding parnters in the new Union, they have since been joined by a number  of other Unions including – the Irish National Painters' and Decorators' Trade Union (INPDTU), the Marine, Port and General Workers' Union (MPGWU), the Irish Print Union (IPU), the Irish Writers' Union (IWU) and the Automotive, General Enginerring and Mechanical Operatives' Union.
(AGEMOU).

SIPTU has produced a number of publications on labour history. A brief history of the 1913 Lock-Out is  available directly on this website. Major works on Jim Larkin and James Connolly are available through the Store section of this website at a discount for SIPTU members..

Work is currently in progress on a majort history of the Union.




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