Jim Larkin - O'Connell Street, Dublin, Ireland
N 53° 20.947 W 006° 15.597
29U E 682379 N 5914607
This statue of Jim Larkin is located in the centre of O'Connell Street, close to the Post Office, in Dublin. The statue by Oisin Kelly was unveiled in June 1979.
Waymark Code: WMQWAF
Location: Dublin, Ireland
Date Posted: 04/05/2016
Views: 13
The statue of Jim Larkin, that is larger than life-size, is cast in bronze and mounted on a large granite plinth. The statue shows Larkin in jacket and trousers with his extremely large hands held high. There are inscriptions on the plinth that read:
Jim
Larkin
1874 - 1947
A bronze plaque, beneath the name in French, Gaelic and English reads:
The great appear great because we are
on our knees - let us rise.
Another plaque reads:
... He talked to the workers, spoke as only Jim Larkin
could speak, not for an assignation with peace, dark
obedience, or placid resignation; but trumpet-tongued
of resistance to wrong, discontent with leering
poverty, and defiance of any power strutting out
to stnad in the way of their march onward.
Sean O'Casey
Yet another plaque reads:
And tyranny trampled them in Dublin's gutter
until Jim Larkin came along and cried
the call of freedom and the call of pride
and slavery crept to its hands and knees
and nineteen thirteen cheered from out the utter
degradation of their miseries.
Patrick Kavanagh
The Archiseek website tells us:
Facing Clery’s, Jim Larkin (1874-1947) is remembered on Dublin’s main thoroughfare for his dedication to worker’s rights. In 1909 Jim Larkin founded the Irish Transport & General Worker’s Union catering for unskilled workers such as carters, dockers, labourers, and factory hands, who lived in conditions of great misery in the slums of Dublin, then probably among the worst in Europe. By 1913 his union had over 10,000 members and had its headquarters in Liberty Hall.
His success caused apprehension among the employers, who, led by William Martin Murphy, banded into a federation and insisted that all employees leave “Larkin’s union”. When they refused, the great lock-out of 1913 followed. Other unions supported their fellow-workers, and about 100,000 were thrown out of employment. Despite being reduced to starvation they kept up the struggle for eight months.
In 1912, along with James Connolly, he founded the Irish Labour Party of which he was the first leader. Jim’s life was a continual struggle for the betterment of all workers both through the Unions and through his service on Dublin Corporation and in Dail Eireann as a TD.
The statue was criticised at the time of its erection for the outsized hands encouraging the workers to rise up.