Joseph Patrick McDonnell
| Joseph Patrick McDonnell | |
|---|---|
| Born |
27 March 1846 Dublin, Ireland |
| Died | 20 January 1906 (aged 59) |
| Nationality | Irish, American |
| Occupation | Labor leader, journalist |
| Known for | Labor Standard newspaper |
Joseph Patrick McDonnell (27 March 1846 - 20 January 1906) was an Irish-American labor leader and journalist. He edited the New York Labor Standard, and was one of the founders of the International Labor Union.
Joseph Patrick McDonnell was born in Dublin, Ireland on 27 March 1846. He was born into a middle-class family, and after secondary school went to the University of Dublin to prepare for a career as a priest. However, as a Nationalist he would not take the Oath of Allegiance. He joined the Fenians, an Irish independence movement, and worked as an editor on Nationalist Irish newspapers. For this he was arrested and jailed for ten months in Dublin.
McDonnell moved to London in 1868, where he gave lectures calling for the release of Irish political prisoners and for Irish independence. He arranged demonstrations to publicize the cause of Irish freedom, and was twice arrested. He attended an International Peace Conference in Geneva and an International Prison Conference in London. During the Franco-Prussian War (1870–71) he organized an "Irish Brigade", planning to go to France to support the republicans against the Germans. He was again arrested for this. He shared the enthusiasm for the Paris Commune felt by many radicals and socialists in London.
McDonnell met Karl Marx on 18 June 1871, and Marx proposed him as a member of the general council of the International Workingmen's Association (IWMA - often called the First International). In August 1871 he was made IWMA secretary for Ireland and threw himself into organizing branches. In early 1872 branches were founded in Dublin, Cork, Belfast and Cootehill. The IWMA faced hostility from most Fenians, who thought it was responsible for the uprising in Paris in 1871 in which members of religious orders were killed.
In 1872 McDonnell sailed to New York City with his new bride, Mary McEvatt, to represent the IWA in America. From 1873 to 1878 McDonnell was very active in the socialist movement in New York, speaking at many venues. He edited a Marxist weekly paper, the New York Labor Standard, from 1876. The socialist and anarchist Marie Le Compte was one of the editors on this paper. He met Samuel Gompers, Peter J. McGuire and other labor leaders, and became more interested in labor reform than in socialism. They would often meet at the New York offices of the Irish World, where they would find men such as Philip Van Patten of the Socialist Labor Party and the Irish nationalist John Devoy. With Gompers and McGuire, he was one of the founders of the International Labor Union.
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