Jim Gralton
Mayor pays tribute at Gralton grave in New York
SLIGO MAYOR alderman Declan Bree paid tribute to Leitrim socialist Jim Gralton, during a recent visit to New York.
Speaking at the Leitrimman’s grave in Woodlawn cemetary in the Bronx, Bree said that Gralton personified all that was positive about the Irish and American labour movements: “He was a life-long socialist and trade unionist and a fighter for the rights of ordinary people. Jim Gralton was a working class hero.”
Gralton was a native of Effernagh, Co. Leitrim and immigrated to America as a young man. It was in the United States that he became involved in the labour struggles of the time. Never breaking his links with Ireland he was active in the Connolly Club in New York, which also counted among its members Jim Larkin, Nora Connolly and Liam Mellows.
On his return to Leitrim in 1932, to help his aged parents, he became immersed in political activity. He joined the Revolutionary Workers Group, spoke at numerous anti-eviction meetings and re-opened the Pearse-Connolly Hall in Gowel, Co. Leitrim. When a massive ‘red’ scare enveloped the country in 1933, Gralton became the victim of a political witch-hunt and was deported from Ireland as “an undesirable alien”. Gralton was the only Irishman ever deported from his native land.
The Leitrim socialist was never allowed to return to Ireland and spent the remaining days of his life in the American labour movement. On his return to New York he again became involved in the Irish Workers Clubs and was active in assisting the organisers of the subway and bus workers, who were largely Irish.
In October 1933 he was an unsuccessful candidate for the Communist Party in the borough elections in New York. He also stood for alderman in the 13th district of Manhattan.
In the years following he reprinted James Connolly’s pamphlets, raised funds for the International Brigades in Spain and participated in the many campaigns of the period.
He died in New York on 29 December 1945 and was buried in the Bronx. A modest headstone erected by the Irish Workers Clubs marks his grave in the cemetery overlooking part of the great city where Gralton spent so much of his life.
This document was last modified by David Granville on 2005-06-08 10:36:13.
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JIM GRALTON
(1886 - 1945) radical
Born Effernagh, County Leitrim
Son of a small farmer. He joined the British army when young but, refusing to serve in India, deserted, worked on the Liverpool docks and Welsh coalmines, then went to sea in a tramp steamer. He settled in America, worked as a barman and taxi-driver, and became an American citizen in 1909. He joined the American Communist Party and became active in the trade union movement. He raised money for unfortunate fellow-workers and for the republican cause in Ireland. He returned to Leitrim in 1921 and with voluntary local labour built the Pearse-Connolly Hall on his father’s land, conducting there a court to settle local grievances, usually disputes about land. He was denounced by the local clergy as a professed communist leading a campaign of land agitation and went back to New York in 1922.
When Fianna Fáil came to power in 1932 he returned to Leitrim, took over the family farm, and reopened the hall for social events. He came under clerical attack again and the hall was burnt down on Christmas Eve 1932. He was served with a deportation order as an undesirable alien with effect from 4 March 1933, went on the run, and addressed meetings asking for a fair trial, supported by George Gilmore and Peadar O’Donnell. He was arrested on 10 August 1933 and put on board ship for America, where he spent the rest of his life. He was married shortly before his death, which took place in a New York hospital on 29 December 1945.
Source: A Dictionary of Irish Biography, Henry Boylan (ed.), Gill & Macmillan, Dublin, 1998.
