Disturbances delay start of trade union conference in Dublin
Women lead assault on Labour Congress amid chants of “Release the Prisoners” and “Up Larkin”
Dublin, 7 August 1923 - There were extraordinary scenes in Dublin yesterday as protests prevented hundreds of delegates from attending the annual conference of the Irish Labour Party and Trades’ Union Congress.
A crowd of several hundred men and women blockaded the entrance to the Mansion House and used umbrellas to attack those seeking access to the building. A fight also broke out during which sticks and umbrellas were used and punches thrown, a number of people suffered head wounds as a result, among some women who emerged bleeding and without their hats from the fracas.
Indeed, it was women who led the protest: with the Congress set to commence at 11am, about 90 women arrived at the Mansion House entrance on Dawson Street at 10.45 am and demanded admission. Their purpose, it appears, was to present before the Congress the case of the anti-Treaty prisoners and internees. Delegates attempting to enter the building were heckled and treated to shouts of ‘release the prisoners’ and ‘up Larkin.’
Later, when a delegate wearing an ITGWU badge arrived at the venue, he was attacked by half a dozen women who punched him and dragged him to the far side of the street. A DMP Superintendent, mistaken for a Labour delegates, was also set upon and a press photographer had an expensive camera kicked out of his hand.
The effect of these disturbances was to disrupt and delay the Congress proceedings. Indeed, with only 66 of 241 delegates having managed to gain admission by the appointed time, the start of the conference was deferred for two hours.
During that time, a heavy police presence was established so that by lunchtime - 1 pm - about 60 members of the DMP were in position. It is believed that Madame Gonne MacBride arrived on the scene and advised the women present to allow the delegates access to the building, but to no effect. Mrs. Despard and Mrs. Sheehy Skeffington were also present at the scene, but only, it is understood, as spectators.
The chairperson, Mr. Luke Duffy of the Distributive Workers’ Union, placed the responsibility for the absence of some delegates and for the disturbances outside, at the feet of Mr. James Larkin - a man who, he said, ‘was once known in the trade union movement in the country.’
According to Duffy, Mr Larkin had attempted to use the machinery of the law to prevent the Congress being held and once that failed he had enlisted the support of a rabble - some of whom were undoubtedly sympathetic to the Congress’s aims - to prevent delegates from attending.
In his contribution, Mr. Thomas Nagle TD remarked that those outside the Mansion House who were clamoring for prisoner releases and the remedying of all manner of other grievances and who had attempted to intimidate them from holding the Congress had never given the Labour Party any assistance to redress the grievances of which they complained.
Another delegates, Mr. Thomas Irwin, said that it was a shame that some of the women outside, who had children in prison, were being exploited. The four day Congress continues today and delegates attending have been urged to be in their places by 9.30 am.
Report of the Proceedings of the 29th Annual meeting of the Irish Labour Party and Trade Union Congress (Full PDF embeded)
[Editor's note: This is an article from Century Ireland, a fortnightly online newspaper, written from the perspective of a journalist 100 years ago, based on news reports of the time.]
