Thomas H. O'Shea

Thomas H. O'Shea (1898–1962) was an Irish revolutionary and one of the founders of the Transport Workers Union of America (TWU), subway workers in New York City that expanded to represent members in other forms of transit nationwide. O'Shea was appointed the first President of the TWU in 1934 and later ousted and replaced by longtime TWU President Michael J. Quill. O'Shea subsequently spent many years battling reported Communism within the union culminating in his 1940 testimony before the House Committee on Un-American Activities chaired by Rep. Martin Dies of Texas and commonly referred to as the Dies Committee at the time.

Early Years in Ireland

O'Shea was born in Queenstown (now Cobh), County Cork, Ireland on October 21, 1898 son of a former Royal Irish Constabulary officer and Royal Navy clerk Patrick O'Shea and farm owner Mary Kirby. A school trained chemist, his Irish Volunteers activity during the Irish War of Independence began in 1915 with the 1st Cork Brigade and ended shortly after the Irish Civil War came to a close in 1923. He spent several months after the official end of the war engaged in guerrilla activities. During his time in the war of independence and the Irish Civil War, he conducted numerous raids against the British Army, RIC, Black and Tans and Royal Defense Corps and manufactured land mines and grenades, using them with frequency. As the Irish Volunteers morphed into the Irish Republican Army, O'Shea was incarcerated 5 times during the wars he led a hunger strike at Wormwood Scrubs (HM Prison) in London from April to May 1920, escaped from Cork Male Prison with 30 men in August 1922 and led a 2nd hunger strike in October 1923 at Mountjoy Prison that, despite Irish Free State media suppression, spread across Ireland with 8000 jailed strikers participating. The 4th arrest was immediately after release from Mountjoy at Sinn Féin Headquarters during Dennis Barry's funeral. He escaped Cork Court House two weeks later. On May 9, 1924 he was arrested for the fifth and final time but released shortly thereafter in a general amnesty.

TWU

O'Shea spent the next 3 years in Liverpool mobilizing Irish revolutionary expatriates. He immigrated to New York in October 1927 along with a number of former Irish Volunteers: Daithi O'Brien, Thomas Walsh, Gerald O'Reilly, Austin Hogan and Mick Leahy. By early 1932 O'Shea was involved with the expat movement Clan na Gael, attempting to organize New York City subway employees and soon seeking the support of the Communist Party USA in the formation of the TWU. The TWU declared its aim to represent all public transit workers in the City, regardless of craft and fight all wages cuts. Many of the unions early secret meetings took place at O'Shea's apartment in the Bronx. Two incidents furthered strengthened the TWU: strikes of 1935 and an attack on O'Shea, Quill and other organizers by beakies that, ironically, led to the TWU men's arrest, creating much popular support.

Dies Committee

Growing dissolution with the Communist Party, a tendency to advocate for violence as an organizing device and losing the presidency to Quill led to O'Shea's expulsion from the union. In April 1940 O'Shea testified at the Dies Committee or the House Committee on Un-American Activities against his former union compatriots, particularly Michael Quill. He said that the union was in the complete control of US communists and among their goals was revolution through strikes. Quill vehemently denied the charges but later purged communists from the TWU after the 2nd World War.

Bouts with alcoholism and other problems landed O'Shea homeless on the Bowery for the mid to late 1950s finally taken in by the Bowery Mission. 1960 his wife, Hilda, accepted the sober O'Shea back to the home in the Bronx. He died June 6, 1962 and is buried in Saint Raymond's Cemetery.

In 2013, O'Shea's work as a union activist was posthumously honored with an Irish Echo Labor Award during a ceremony at the Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel.

Sources

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