The Battle for Liverpool and New York: The Irish Revolution in the Atlantic World
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Why are Liverpool and New York considered pivotal ports in the Irish War of Independence?
Liverpool and New York haunt the story of Irish independence in a way few other places on the planet do. Over 5,000 kilometers of Atlantic Ocean divide these two ports, yet both cities were part of an Atlantic world with Ireland sitting between them. And in the decades leading up to the Irish Revolution, both New York and Liverpool had witnessed a major influx of Irish immigrants. Indeed, by the 1920s, the two great ports of the Atlantic world had a distinct and unique Irish feel to them. Not only did they have major Irish communities and active IRA units, but the politics of Ireland shaped daily life on both sides of the Atlantic. Now, this politics was also infused by local factors in New York and Liverpool, such as race and sectarianism.
Yet what happened in these cities was keenly felt at home in Ireland, and indeed vice versa. Hello and welcome to the Irish History Podcast. My name is Finn Dwyer. This is part nine of a ten part series presented by Dr. Brian Hanley on the global history of Ireland's war of independence. Now Liverpool and New York have featured throughout this series. Indeed, it's kind of impossible to talk about the Irish War of Independence without reference to these cities. And this episode explores both Liverpool and New York, two cities that were heavily shaped by Irish politics. Perhaps the best way to summarise their relationship with Ireland is the saying, you can take the man out of Ireland, but you can't take Ireland out of the man, and the emigrants who settled in these ports brought Irish politics with them.
What is remarkable about the story you're about to hear is not only the support given to the Irish revolutionary movement by many people in Liverpool and New York, but also the way Irish opponents of independence at home made their voices heard. Now, this series, Brothers in Pain, A Global History of the Irish Revolution, is presented by Dr. Brian Hanley. If you've listened to previous episodes, you'll know Brian well. But if you're tuning in for the first time, Brian works in the History Department of Trinity College Dublin and is a leading historian of the Irish Republican movement. He's published extensively on Ireland's revolutionary history in the 20th century, our radical politics, and the wider Republican movement.
You can find the full list of his publications at the link in the show notes. Sound on this episode is by Kate Dunley.
Liverpool and New York were both global hubs for Irish revolutionaries during the struggle for independence. And in both cases, class, ethnicity, race, and religion were all significant factors in how these cities reacted to the Irish struggle and at particular moments how Irish revolutionaries mobilized. Liverpool was the most important port for communications between Dublin and the United States. And the European continent. Paddy Daly, who was the IRA commander in the city, recalled how The liners plying between Liverpool and New York, especially the White Star and Cunard boats, had Irishmen aboard who were employed to take dispatches from Liverpool for New York. Scarcely a boat left Liverpool for an Irish, continental or American port, which had not on board one or two Irishmen who were eager to do their part.
Almost all the munitions in the other great cities like Manchester, Newcastle, Birmingham, and Glasgow passed through it. So Liverpool was very important in terms of smuggling. arms and equipment to Ireland, but also in terms of smuggling people out of Ireland and to the United States, and also for transatlantic communications. Liverpool as a city was intimately connected to Dublin, but also connected by trade to Newry, Drahada, Dundalk, and other Irish port towns. As well as the transatlantic routes, Liverpool was connected to Hamburg and Genoa and elsewhere on the continent. By the mid eighteen fifties, Liverpool was Europe's premier port for emigration to North America. Of the five and a half million Europeans who crossed the Atlantic between eighteen sixty and nineteen hundred, almost three quarters of them sailed from Liverpool.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
Why are Liverpool and New York considered pivotal ports in the Irish War of Independence?
0:04–5:28
2
How did local race, class, and sectarian tensions shape Irish politics in Liverpool and New York?
5:28–10:29
3
What role did smuggling of arms, people and propaganda play between Liverpool, Dublin and the United States?
10:29–15:37
4
Why did sectarian conflict become a defining feature of Irish politics in Liverpool?
15:37–20:15
5
How did the 1920 Irish‑Patriotic strike in Liverpool emerge and what were its demands?
20:15–24:13
6
What sparked the 1920 Irish‑Patriotic strike on the New York waterfront and who led the women’s pickets?
24:13–27:55
7
How did workers of different ethnicities and races unite (or clash) during the New York strike?
27:55–32:44
8
What lasting impact did the Atlantic‑wide Irish revolutionary activity have on Liverpool, New York and the broader labour movement?
32:44–38:47