Foreign Language Federations (1890s - 1930) - Irish

THE IRISH WORKERSMOVEMENT IN AMERICA

Due to the fact that Irish workers used the English language in America, there was never any Irish Federation in either the Socialist Labor Party or the Socialist Party.
One of the first Irish-American socialist newspapers was The Harp, briefly published by famed Irish revolutionary socialist James Connolly in 1908.
The next effort at publication of a left wing Irish newspaper came in 1918, when Big Jim Larkin (later of the Communist Labor Party) produced a few issues of a paper called The Irish Worker.
During 1921, the Irish American League published for about 6 months a weekly newspaper called The Irish People. Thomas J. O'Flaherty was the editor of this publication. O'Flaherty was also a member of the underground Communist Party of America, using the pseudonym R. Ganley [Ganly] in this period.

T.J. O'Flaherty attempted to resurrect The Irish People as a monthly magazine in May of 1923. Business manager of this publication was M.J. Scanlan of the Amalgamated Street Carmen's Association, and included among the contributing editors was William F. Dunne.

The Workers Party of America made some effort at organizing Irish-American workers when they held a meeting in Cleveland, OH on Sunday, Feb. 10, 1924. The meeting was addressed by Albert F. Coyle, editor of the Locomotive Engineers Journal, and Thomas J. O'Flaherty, of the editorial staff of the Daily Worker. Coyle spoke on the communal system in ancient Ireland, while O'Flaherty spoke on the life and work of Jame Connolly and his influence in the labor movement in Ireland. The Daily Worker and the newspaper of the Irish American Labor League, The Irish People, were sold to the gathering.
At the close of the meeting a club was organized to carry the Communist message to the Irish workers of Cleveland, working in cooperation with the local section of the WPA.

[fn. "Irish Radicals Hold Meeting in Cleveland: Organize Connolly Club, Boost Daily Worker," in The Daily Worker, Feb. 12, 1924, pg. 5].