About
This site aims to give a summary history of the Irish labour movement, with sections on culture, ideology, trade unions, and social and political organisations.
It also hopes to provide an online resource for students and practitioners of Irish labour and working class history. Each section has links to relevant primary and secondary source material.
A bibliography is provided in order to give the current state of research in the subject.
The definition of Irish labour history studies used by this site is taken from the Irish journal Saothar, which sees Irish labour history as the history of the Irish working class.
“By the history of the Irish working class, we mean waged and unwaged workers, their lives, work, economic conditions, social and cultural relationships, leaders, organisations, movements, values and ideas. Studies of anti-labour organisations or anti-socialist groups are also of relevance [as are] studies that focus on the everyday life of workers and their families.”
In short, it is the study of “the economic, social and political formation of the Irish working class; the labour movement and working class culture; and the experiences of Irish working people abroad.”