James Larkin Jnr (20 August 1904 – 18 February 1969) was an Irish Labour Party politician and

trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...

official. He was born in

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

, England, the eldest of four sons of

James Larkin James Larkin (28 January 1874 – 30 January 1947), sometimes known as Jim Larkin or Big Jim, was an Irish republican, socialist and trade union leader. He was one of the founders of the Irish Labour Party along with James Connolly and Willia ...

, trade union leader, and Elizabeth Larkin (née Brown), daughter of a baptist lay preacher from

County Down County Down () is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of and has a population of 531,665. It borders County Antrim to the ...

. After the family's move to Dublin in 1909, James was educated at St. Enda's School,

Rathfarnham Rathfarnham () is a Southside suburb of Dublin, Ireland. It is south of Terenure, east of Templeogue, and is in the postal districts of Dublin 14 and 16. It is within the administrative areas of both Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown County Council a ...

, the only school that would accept the young Larkins owing to the reputation of their father. James endured much hardship as a child during the period of his father's intense union activity, including eviction from the family home in Auburn Street. He first stood for election as an

Irish Worker League The Irish Worker League was an Irish communist party, established in September 1923 by Jim Larkin, following his return to Ireland. Larkin re-established the newspaper '' The Irish Worker''. The Irish Worker League (IWL) superseded the first ...

candidate at the September 1927 general election for the Dublin County constituency but was unsuccessful. His father, James Larkin, was a successful candidate for the

Dublin North Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ce ...

constituency at the same general election. The younger Larkin was one of two candidates for the

Revolutionary Workers' Groups Revolutionary Workers' Groups (RWG) were left wing groups in Ireland officially founded in 1930 with the objective of creating a Revolutionary Workers' Party. Formed initially as the ''Preparatory Committee for the Formation of a Workers’ Rev ...

in the 1930 newly reformed Dublin City Council elections, and he was elected. He was also an unsuccessful independent candidate at the 1932 general election for the Dublin South constituency. On the foundation of the

Communist Party of Ireland The Communist Party of Ireland (CPI; ga, Páirtí Cumannach na hÉireann) is an all-Ireland Marxist–Leninist communist party, founded in 1933 and re-founded in 1970. It rarely contests elections and has never had electoral success. The part ...

in 1933, Larkin became its chairman. He attended the

International Lenin School The International Lenin School (ILS) was an official training school operated in Moscow, Soviet Union, by the Communist International from May 1926 to 1938. It was resumed after the Second World War and run by the Communist Party of the Soviet Uni ...

with Padraic Breslin and Sean Murray. He was first elected to

Dáil Éireann Dáil Éireann ( , ; ) is the lower house, and principal chamber, of the Oireachtas (Irish legislature), which also includes the President of Ireland and Seanad Éireann (the upper house).Article 15.1.2º of the Constitution of Ireland read ...

as a Labour Party

Teachta Dála A Teachta Dála ( , ; plural ), abbreviated as TD (plural ''TDanna'' in Irish, TDs in English), is a member of Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Oireachtas (the Irish Parliament). It is the equivalent of terms such as ''Member of Parli ...

(TD) for the Dublin South constituency at the 1943 general election, where he sat in the same Dáil as his father. He was re-elected at the 1944 general election for the same constituency. At the 1948 general election, when the constituency was divided, he was elected for the Dublin South-Central constituency and was re-elected at the

1951 Events January * January 4 – Korean War: Third Battle of Seoul – Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time (having lost the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950). * January 9 – The Government of the United ...

and

1954 Events January * January 1 – The Soviet Union ceases to demand war reparations from West Germany. * January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting. * January 7 – Georgetown-IBM experiment: The fir ...

general elections. He did not contest the 1957 general election.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Larkin, James Jnr 1904 births 1969 deaths Irish trade unionists Labour Party (Ireland) TDs Members of the 11th Dáil Members of the 12th Dáil Members of the 13th Dáil Members of the 14th Dáil Members of the 15th Dáil Politicians from County Dublin Presidents of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions International Lenin School alumni People educated at St. Enda's School

See also

References