William X. O'Brien

William X. O'Brien ( born January 23, 1881 in Clonakilty, County Cork, † October 31, 1968 ) was an Irish trade union official and politician of the Irish Labour Party.

Life

O'Brien founded in 1912 with James Connolly and James Larkin, the Labour Party as the political wing of the Irish Federation of Trade Unions Irish Trade Union Congress. In 1913 he was first involved President of the Irish Trade Union Congress ( ITUC ) and as such instrumental in the so-called Dublin Lockout. After Larkin was in 1914 emigrated to the United States, he succeeded him as a union leader and was first again in 1918 President of the ITUC and its Secretary General from 1918 to 1920.

In 1922 he was a candidate of the Irish Labour Party in the constituency of Dublin South for the first time MPs ( Teachta Dala ) in the lower house ( Dáil Éireann ) is selected, but suffered already in the elections of 1923 a defeat, so he had to resign from the House of Commons again. After Larkin returned to Ireland in April 1923, there were disagreements between this and O'Brien, lasting for more than twenty years and also the office of the Chairman of the Labour Party, William Norton impressed. O'Brien finally officially took over in 1924, the function of the Secretary of the Irish Transport and General Workers ' Union ( ITGWU ) of Larkin and held that office until 1946. Moreover, it was 1925 President of the ITUC.

In the elections in June 1927, he was again elected Teachta Dala, lost his seat in the constituency of Tipperary, however, already again at the general election in September 1927. Recently, he was elected in July of 1937 as a representative of the constituency of Tipperary in the Dáil Éireann, retired but again from the elections in May 1938 from the House of Commons. In 1941 he was finally the fourth and final time president of the Irish Trade Union Congress.

In 1944 he resigned from the Irish Labour Party and saw the establishment of the National Labour Party.