Citizens Lockout 1913 - 2013: Episode 2 Part 2

Citizens: Lockout 1913-2013. An audio history series made by Athena Media with the funding support of the BAI.

By 1913 the elements and characters that dominate the six month Lockout are coming in place with the growing strength of Larkin's new Irish union the Irish Transport and General Workers Union. The Cork-born businessman Martin Murphy dominates Irish enterprise as President of the Dublin Chamber of Commerce and leader of the Dublin Employers Federation but his energy is also focused on blocking the proposed Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery which results in a cultural war between him and poet W.B Yeats as author Ciaran Wallace details. Actor Barry McGovern depicts Murphy through his lengthy letters to his own newspaper the Irish Independent where he attacks both Lane and the proposed gallery while we hear WB Yeats' response in his poem September 1913. Murphy's biographer Thomas Morrissey brings us into the mind of the man who refused a knighthood in 1907 and leads, not just the employers in 1913, but the newly launched Rathmines and Rathgar Musical Society. Ruth Dudley Edwards shares her critical take on the leadership of Larkin, James Connolly, Larkin's second in command, and Constance Markievicz, “Larkin was a terrible leader. He was utterly ruled by emotion. He didn’t know where he was taking people. Connolly wasn’t much better.” Labour historian Francis Devine brings to life the songs and stories of the labour movement from 1911-1913 including ballads written by Connolly himself and the song which became the anthem of the workers 'Who Fears to Wear the Red Hand Badge'.