Red Roses for Me | Historical Context

Red Roses for Me Historical Context

The Great Dublin Lock-Out of 1913

In his stage directions, O'Casey is vague about when the play is supposed to take place. But as Maureen Malone says in her 1966 article on the play in Modern Drama, "The period of the play, mentioned in the directions merely as 'a little time ago,' is clearly in the year 1913, the time of the great Transport and General Workers Union Strike in Dublin." This strike occurred during a time of unrest between employers and workers in Dublin. The event happened after transport employers, worried about their employees getting involved in labor leader Jim Larkin's new trade union, locked out these employees. The employers said that the employees could not return to work until they renounced their membership in Larkin's union. The move backfired on the employers, however, when Larkin and several others organized a strike among the majority of Dublin's laborers. During the strike, Larkin was arrested, and...
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