Jim Larkin

Artist Mina Carney (1892 - 1974)

Datec. 1930

MediumBronze

Dimensions36.8 cm x 19.5 x 28 cm

ClassificationsSculpture

Credit LineCollection & image © Hugh Lane Gallery. Donated by the Executive Committee, Workers' Union of Ireland, 1937. © The Estate of Mina Carney.

Object number795

DescriptionIn 1912 James Larkin helped set up the Irish Labour Party to represent workers in the new government when the forthcoming Home Rule Bill was passed. By 1913 the increasing success of the ITGWU caused apprehension amongst employers. In reaction to the growth of trade unions, employers organised themselves into the Dublin Employers Federation. Under the leadership of William Martin Murphy, the Federation urged workers to leave the unions. Taking a hard line, Murphy fired workers in his Tramway Company when they joined a union. As a result Larkin organised a strike in the Tramway Company during Horse Show Week, August 1913. Attempts to prevent workers from joining the ITGWU in 1913 led to a lockout where Murphy instructed employers to lock out workers. About 100,000 workers were thrown out of employment for up to eight months, reducing many to near starvation. Larkin was arrested after making a public speech, which caused street riots and clashes with the police. This violent event became known as Bloody Sunday. Larkin advised the workers to go back to work and eventually workers were allowed to join the ITGWU. Larkin’s main achievement was the foundation of workers solidarity which others built on. Mina Carney (1892-1974) was an American sculptor. She received part of her training in Vienna and Rome and travelled to Mexico to work in sculptors’ studios there. Like Jim Larkin, Carney was a socialist and travelled to parts of the world including Russia to see how socialism was implemented. After World War Two Carney decided to give up her art practice and devoted herself to her political commitments. Her husband Jack Carney was a colleague of James Larkin. It is probable that it through this connection that the bronze portrait of Larkin came about. Jack Carney worked with Larkin in the Irish Labour and socialist movements before emigrating to America. He edited the Irish Worker and he later founded the Communist Labour party of Minnesota in 1919.

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