What terrified the State, employers, and major elements of the British Trades Union and Labour Movement was that the Dublin strikers were linked to an armed force of workers, the Citizens' Army. This was alien to any preceding political or industrial dispute. It was the first time in Ireland's, and Britain's, history that the main protagonists against the State were socialists, and indeed armed ones. British intelligence warned of the dangers of this strike, noting that this was not just an industrial dispute, and, if left its own devices, could lead to a Socialist revolution that might spread to the mainland. This fascinating period saw Sinn Fein, who were vehemently opposed to the strike, transformed during the unrest from a fringe group to a major party at the expense of Labour and socialism.
