Tom Maguire (socialist)
{{Short description|British socialist, trade union organiser and poet}}
Tom Maguire (29 December 1865 – 8 March 1895) was a British socialist, trade union organiser and poet from Leeds.
Early life
Maguire was born to an Irish immigrant family in the poverty-stricken Bank area of Leeds.{{Cite book|title = Tom Maguire: Socialist and Poet|last = Battle|first = John|publisher = Medium Publishing/Ford Maguire Society|year = 1997}} As a young boy he sang in the choir at St Anne's Church where he was noted for his 'musical voice and poetic tongue'. He received part of his education at Sunday school. Growing up he showed appreciation of his Irish heritage and immersed himself in the music and literature. He was drawn to Romantic poets, such as Shelley and Keats, and began writing his own poetry around this time.
After leaving school, he took a job as a photographer's assistant.
Introduction to socialism
In 1883 Maguire came across a copy of The Christian Socialist in the local secular hall and was converted, helping to establish a branch of the Social Democratic Federation in September 1884.
In 1885, the Leeds branch of the Social Democratic Federation dissolved and declared themselves as members of the breakaway Socialist League headed by William Morris. Maguire's name appears under the Socialist League's manifesto published February 1885. It was here he met other leading Socialist figures in the area, including Isabella Ford, Edward Carpenter, Ben Turner and Alf Mattison.
Activism
The League organised open-air meetings at Vicar's Croft which Maguire and others spoke at, and it was from these that they made contact with building workers whom Maguire helped organise a successful strike in 1889 for a wage increase.Thompson, E. P. 'Homage to Tom Maguire' in Briggs, A. & Saville, J. (eds.) Essays in Labour History, London: Macmillan, pg. 295 This was the backdrop to the Leeds Gasworkers strike in June–July 1890 where Maguire helped organise the workers and other trade unionists to try to stop scabs (strikebreakers) entering the gasworks, which ultimately led to the strike's victory.Thompson, E. P. 'Homage to Tom Maguire' in Briggs, A. & Saville, J. (eds.) Essays in Labour History, London: Macmillan, pg. 300 After the Socialist League split, Maguire joined the Independent Labour Party and attended its founding conference at Bradford in 1893.{{Cite book|title = Tom Maguire, A Remembrance|publisher = Labour Press Society|year = 1895|location = Manchester}}
Poetry
Maguire had poetry published in numerous journals including The Commonweal (1887), To Day (1887), Labour Leader, Yorkshire Factory Times, The Leeds Labour Chronicle (1893) and Labour Champion (1893), the last of which he also edited. His poems published under the pseudonym Bardolph were primarily humorous commentaries on current events, which are discussed by Elizabeth Carolyn Miller alongside Maguire's poems highlighting the plight of the working classes and his popular socialist songs that were included by Edward Carpenter in his collection Chants of Labour (1888).{{cite book |last1=Miller |first1=Elizabeth Carolyn |title=Slow Print: Literary Radicalism and late Victorian Print Culture |date=2013 |publisher=Stanford University Press |location=Stanford |isbn=9780804784085 |pages=204–20}} Many of Maguire's poems from the Labour Leader about the lives of working-class women were gathered together for the collection Machine-Room Chants, which was published posthumously in 1895 and included a foreword written by Keir Hardie.{{Cite book|title = Machine-Room Chants|last = Maguire|first = Tom|year = 1895 |publisher=Labour Leader |location=London |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GZl2AZtyZdUC}}
Death
Maguire died on 8 March 1895 after collapsing of pneumonia earlier in the month.Thompson, E. P. 'Homage to Tom Maguire' in Briggs, A. & Saville, J. (eds.) Essays in Labour History, London: Macmillan, pg. 314 A week later, more than 1000 people turned out for his funeral. He is buried at Beckett Street Cemetery with the epitaph: 'socialist, bold, cautious, true and a loving comrade'.
His obituary in the Leeds Mercury read:
"He had long given thought to matters affecting capital and labour, and as a public speaker was logical and lucid, holding his own debate... His name as a Labour leader was known all over the North of England, and by his death the Labour movement has lost a keen sympathiser and an earnest champion."
He is commemorated by a [http://openplaques.org/plaques/30481 red plaque] in Leeds bus station, a site very close to his principal areas of activity, and in the Tom Maguire Memorial Lecture, a series to be given annually or bi-annually, organised by Richard Burgon, MP for East Leeds, and inaugurated in 2019.{{cite news|url=https://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/politics/unite-boss-len-mccluskey-delivers-first-tom-maguire-memorial-lecture-at-chapel-fm-arts-centre-in-leeds-1-9559285|title=Unite boss Len McCluskey delivers first Tom Maguire Memorial Lecture at Chapel FM Arts Centre in Leeds|newspaper=Yorkshire Evening Post|first=John|last=Blow|date=26 January 2019}}
References
External links
- Maguire's name is borne by the Leeds Radical History group the [http://fordmaguire.org/ Ford-Maguire Society]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20110904192621/http://www.dkrenton.co.uk/research/maguire.html Tom Maguire: Classical Marxist?]
- {{Librivox author |id=16255}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Maguire, Tom}}