The 1913 Lockout

Graffiti Art commemorating the 1913 lockout Memorial Garden Marino College  Dublin

This year is the centenary of the 1913 Lockout. A hundred years ago  Dublin was a very poor city and many people lived in tenements. Many families shared the same tenement building and these were very run down. Jobs were scarce and most people lived on tea and bread. One quarter of the children that were born around that time in Dublin died before their first birthday. 

The graffiti shows the lock being broken but poverty and hunger drove the workers back to work without benefiting from the strike

James Larkin  was a union leader who came over from Liverpool.In 1913 he encouraged the people to go on strike in order to get an increase in their wages.The employers locked the workers out. 
What started as a strike ended up with thousands of workers going without pay for many months.This meant that a lot of people suffered starvation  because there was no money. Ships brought food from England to help the strikers.
The people suffered great hardship and in 1914 many of the people who were locked out returned to work even though they didn't get any more money

There is a statue of James Larkin in O'Connell Street. When the strikers returned to work he left Ireland and went to live in the USA.