Strikes, syndicalism and soviet: a comparative study of the labour movements in Cork and Derry, 1914-24

This thesis a comprehensive study of the labour movement in Cork and Derry, two disparate cities, from 1917-24 – the ‘Irish revolution’. Cork and Derry were both afflicted by the radical political agitation and upheaval that characterised this period, especially their labour movements. This thesis is a thorough study of rank-and-file workers in Cork and Derry. It revises labour historiography’s emphasis on biography of people and institutions. It brings workers, the protagonists of labour history, to the heart of academic analysis. It examines the extent to which labour was susceptible to local political influences, how the nationalist insurrection shaped labour, and how labour shaped the revolution. It elaborates how Derry labour responded to unionist reaction in the years following partition. This dissertation highlights working-class experiences in both cities, showing how extensive political changes informed class consciousness and class conflict. It analyses the class nature of the nationalist revolution, its relationship with and attitudes to labour, and what that revolution meant for workers in Cork and Derry. Ulster unionist reaction is also explored. Strong emphasis is placed on the interactions between Derry’s minority unionist working class and official Ulster unionism. Labour loyalism is also elaborated upon and contrasted with the hegemony of republicanism in Cork during these years. This work enhances scholarly understanding of the forces that moulded Irish labour, one of which was gender. The experiences of women workers are meticulously illustrated, thereby helping to rectify the disregard shown to Irish women’s history. The state’s role in industrial disputes is examined to illustrate the class nature of both Irish states, thus revealing the class nature of the Irish revolution and the Ulster unionist counterrevolution