John Fitzpatrick, Labor Leader and Irish Nationalist Is Born in Athlone, Co. Westmeath

John Millington Synge, poet, playwright, and student of Irish language and culture, is born in Dublin

Joseph Shanahan, missionary bishop in Africa, is born near Templederry, Co. Tipperary

John Fitzpatrick, Labor leader and Irish nationalist is born in Athlone, Co. Westmeath

John Fitzpatrick (1871–1946) was an Irish-born American trade union leader. He is best remembered as the longtime head of the powerful Chicago Federation of Labor, from 1906 until his death in 1946.

John Fitzpatrick was born in Ireland on April 21, 1871. He attended grammar school in Ireland before coming to the United States in 1882, at the age of 11, settling in Chicago. Following completion of his formal education, Fitzpatrick went to work as a horseshoer, becoming involved in the International Journeyman Horseshoers’ Union (IJHU), with which he remained affiliated for the next three decades.