In 1919, Limerick City became Ireland’s first and only Soviet enclave. Workers took control of the city and it’s operation, from running the public transport system, to printing it’s own currency. This year marks the 90th anniversary of the Limerick Soviet. Historian Dominic Hough will be running two walking tours this Easter Saturday. You can find details of this here. He has kindly taken the time out to write a piece on the soviet for The Limerick Blogger.
The 15th April 1919 saw the beginning of one of the most momentous events in Irish Labour History. On that day a general strike began in Limerick. Over the next 12 days the workers of Limerick ran the city, controlling food prices and the distribution of food, provision of transport, publication of their own newspaper among other things. The strike committee even went as far as printing it’s own money. The strike achieved worldwide notoriety and became known as the Limerick Soviet.
This year sees the 90th anniversary of the Limerick Soviet. It is an event that is very much forgotten in Irish history but one that deserves to be recognised and celebrated.
The event that sparked the Limerick Soviet was the death of an IRA volunteer named Robert Byrne on April 6th. Robert Byrne had been jailed some weeks previously and as a result of going on hunger-strike he was moved from Limerick prison to the City Infirmary (now St. Camillus Hospital). During a rescue attempt by a local IRA unit, Robert Byrne was fatally injured. His funeral saw 15,000 people attending in an open act of defiance against the British Authorities in the city. In response The British commander, Brigadier Griffin, issued a proclamation declaring Limerick a Special Military Area. As a result a cordon was placed around the city with the River Shannon as the western boundary. In order for any of the citizens to pass the military cordon a permit had to be sought from the local RIC. This meant that workers travelling to work over the Sarsfield Bridge and Thomond Bridge required permits.
The workers of Limerick had been growing in radicalisation over the previous year and a half. Members of the Trades Council had produced a workers paper called The Bottom Dog. The Irish Transport and General Workers Union was established in Limerick in September 1917 and had quickly recruited three thousand workers, and along with other unions organised strikes and won significant pay increases for workers in the city and county. On Mayday 1918, 15,000 workers and their families congregated in the Markets Field to listen to speeches from three different platforms and unanimously passed a motion welcoming the Russian Revolution that had occurred six months earlier.
On 12th April 1919 in response to the declaration of a Special Military Area, the 600 workers at the Condensed Milk Company in Landsdowne (members of the ITGWU and the Irish Clerical Allied Workers Union) went on strike. The following morning the Limerick United Trades and Labour Council met at the Mechanics Institute (then located in Lower Glentworth Street). At the insistence of the ITGWU and the ICAWU, the LUTLC continued to meet until 11pm and called a general strike against the imposition of permits for the following morning at 5am.
So began the Limerick Soviet. The Trades Council transformed itself into the strike committee and set about the work of organising the distribution of food and supplies to the workers in the city. The Limerick Soviet achieved international fame with articles being carried in many international newspapers. Journalists from many parts of the world happened to be in Limerick to report on an international air race because refuelling was due to take place at Bawnmore.
Both the Limerick Chamber of Commerce and the British Authorities attempted to find a compromise but the Soviet strike committee rejected all approaches out of hand. The leadership of the Irish Labour Party and Trade Union Congress had promised to organise a countrywide general strike in support of the Limerick Soviet if the British Authorities didn’t reverse the declaration of a Special Military Area and withdraw the permits. However, the nationwide general strike never materialised. Instead, on 23rd April, Congress proposed that the workers of Limerick and their families should evacuate the city and leave it as an ‘empty shell’ for the authorities. The Soviet Committee realised that this was a non-runner. From then on the end of the Soviet was in sight. The Soviet Committee realised that without the calling of a nationwide general strike they could not sustain the Soviet indefinitely. By 25th April the local bishop, Dr. Hallinan and the Sinn Fein Mayor, Alphonsus O’Mara, had begun to pressurise the Soviet Committee to call off the strike. On 25th April the strike committee issued a declaration that any worker who did not require a permit should return to work Within a couple of days most workers returned to work and the strike eventually petered out when the British Authorities lifted the proclamation a week later.
Despite the defeat of the Limerick Soviet, the radicalisation of workers in Limerick city and county continued to grow. The period between 1919 and 1922 in Limerick saw such intense class conflict that it was dubbed the ‘red flag’ years. The following three years saw ongoing and intense strike activity. Soviets were established in Knocklong in 1921 and in Bruree and Castleconnell in 1922. When workers took over the factories in these towns they would hoist a banner, like in Bruree, where they declared ‘Bruree Soviet Mills – We Make Bread Not Profits’. A general strike also took place in Kilmallock in November of 1921 when the local IRA attempted to break a strike by farm labourers in Bulgaden. The ‘red flag’ period culminated in the Munster Soviets which began in April 1922. Workers occupied over 120 plants belonging to the Cleeve’s family from Limerick to Carrick-on- Suir. Cleeve’s were attempting to cut their workforce by a third and impose a 25% pay cut on the workers who remained. The Muster Soviet was finally supressed by Free State troops as they advanced from Cork during the course of the civil war. When entering a town under the control of the Munster Soviet they would arrest the strike leaders and force the workers out of the occupied factories.
This year marks the 90th anniversary of the Limerick Soviet. It is appropriate that the workers of the city celebrate this event. The city museum contains many items of memorabilia from the ‘red flag’ years. For those who are interested, it is well worth a visit to remember a forgotten piece of Limerick’s history.
