Walter Carpenter was a prominent socialist and trade union organiser active in Ireland in the early 20th century.
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Early life
Walter was born in Kent in 1871. Worked as a chimney sweep as was his father before him. By the 1890 s he had moved to Dublin.
Activism and Trade Union organisation
He became an organiser for the ITGWU. By 1911 he was secretary of the Socialist Party of Ireland. He was the main speaker at the 1911 founding of the Sligo branch of the union.
Walter participated in the "Inquiry into the Housing conditions of the Working Classes of Dublin" which was instigated by Dublin Corporation after tenements had collapsed in Church St. in the city, killing seven people. The corporation itself was a major slum landlord at this time.
He believed in absolute equality between sexes.
In 1911 he was arrested for ‘using language calculated to lead to a breach of the peace and with having endeavoured to degrade the King in the esteem of his subjects’ at a public speech
The Times of 17th July 1911 reported as follows, "The police swore that the accused in his speech referred to the decorations which had been put up in the streets of Dublin in honour of the Royal visit, and said, "Do you know who you are honouring? Royalty who belong to the House of Brunswick. I do not know if you know the history of that House, but I can tell you. You are honouring the offspring of one of the vilest scoundrels that ever entered our country.""
In 1913 he became the general secretary of the International Tailors, Machinists and Pressers Trade Union. This union was founded in 1908 by Russian Jewish clothing workers in the city's Little Jerusalem district. The union later gave its support to independence, including financial support for "those taking strike action against the movement of war munitions by the British Army of Occupation during 1919".
He was active during the 1913 Dublin Lockout. During the strike he gave a speech welcoming the release of James Connolly, and another union leader William Partridge from prison. Connolly had been on hunger strike and the two of them had been arrested for "incitement to cause a breach of the peace". In this speech Walter revealed that the citys Chief Magistrate E. G. Swifte, notorious for harsh judgements during the strike and who had earlier jailed Connolly, was himself a shareholder in William Martin Murphys Dublin United Tram Company.
In 1921 he became editor of the socialist newspaper the Workers Republic.
Death and Legacy
He died in 1926 at the age of 55 from heart failure.
Two of Walters oldest sons Walter Patrick Carpenter and Peter Carpenter became members of the Irish Citizen Army and fought in the 1916 Easter Rising. Walter Jr. served in the G.P.O. under the command of James Connolly.