attention and so consequently did the IWL. Larkin had advocated revolutionary socialism. However, neither Larkin nor Connolly had focused on building a revolutionary party, frequently seeing political developments as only ‘an echo’ of the industrial battle, and played down the need for a party that had a consistent and clear ideology and view of the world, thinking mass unionisation would be enough. At the height of the 1913 lock-out, when the men were at the height of their popularity, they made no particular concerted effort to recruit workers to a socialist party. This allowed other political parties to take advantage of much of their work, despite not having supported workers during the lock-out. Through a combination of a lack of cohesion and co-operation, an opportunity for a successful communist movement in Ireland, in a time where a revolutionary mentality still remained, was missed. This was perhaps a movement which only Larkin could have achieved, as an obvious figurehead who still remained widely popular amongst the Irish left, and with an Irish Labour movement which had swung towards Syndicalism. Communism in Ireland at this time also had a distinct lack of controversy surrounding it, with the IRA sending delegations to Moscow and maintaining a widespread and open association with Profintern. Following the Catholic Church's rallying against Communism from 1929 onwards, the mood quickly changed. In 1934, Larkin gave important evidence on the 1916 Black Tom explosion to John J. McCloy, allowing a case for damages against Germany to be reopened, presumably because of Germany's new Nazi government. During this period, he also engaged in a rapprochement with the Catholic Church, from whom he had become distant after the Church's vehement ostracisation of communism, which had followed a resurgence of Catholic social power, stemming from the centenary celebrations of Catholic emancipation in 1929, and the publishing of Quadragesimo anno in 1931. In 1936, he regained his seat on Dublin Corporation. He then regained his Dáil seat at the 1937 general election but lost it again the following year. In that period, the Workers' Union of Ireland also entered the mainstream of the trade union movement, being admitted to the Dublin Trades Council in 1936, but the Irish Trades Union Congress would not accept its membership application until 1945. Return to Labour Party In 1941, a new trade union bill was published by the Government. Inspired by an internal trade union restructuring proposal