James Larkin in the United States, 1914-23

In 1913 James Larkin was at the height of his fame as a powerful orator and flamboyant and egotistical, but successful General Secretary of the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union. Following the traumatic defeat of the ITGWU in the 1913 lock-out, Larkin tired of Union work, embarked for the USA and - he hoped - a world lecture tour. However, his increasingly quarrelsome character made it hard for him to survive as a public speaker. Facing financial difficulties in 1915, he accepted money from German agents to engage in anti-war agitation. After the Germans broke with him in 1917, possibly for his refusal to undertake violent sabotage, he worked chiefly with the New York left, helping to lay the foundations of American communism. His imprisonment for 'criminal anarchy' in 1920 led to international protest and his release in 1923. Since 1914 Larkin neglected the ITGWU and had little grasp of how Ireland or the Union were changing. His self-indulgent lifestyle in the USA made him more egocentric, while imprisonment, his absence from the Irish independence struggle and his failure to achieve anything permanence, all made him more insecure and prone to egomania. On the other hand, ITGWU leaders were determined not to accept the restoration of his domineering leadership. The stage was set for split on Larkin's return to Dublin in 1923.