The centenary of a famous Belfast labour strike when Catholic and Protestant workers united briefly will be marked in Dublin tomorrow.
More than 5,000 dockers downed tools in the Belfast Lockout from May until September 1907 to win better pay and conditions from their employers.
Royal Irish Constabulary police later mutinied when they were forced to escort "scab" workers to the docks and British troops were called in to end the strike.
The strike was led by trade union crusader "Big Jim" Larkin who is now commemorated with statues in Belfast and Dublin.
Union leaders from Northern Ireland and the Republic will gather tomorrow at Larkin's grave in Dublin's Glasnevin Cemetery where they will lay a wreath to mark the Lockout's centenary.
Larkin's niece, Stella McConnon Larkin, is due to attend tomorrow's commemoration.
Catholics and Protestants were just as divided by politics and religion in those days, but Larkin achieved a fragile unity for several months as Falls Road and Shankil Road came together, says political historian Eamon Phoenix.
"Larkin was a giant of a man and he used his charisma and oratorical skills to articulate grievances of the working classes. Sectarianism was sidelined and Home Rule dropped off the agenda for a short period in 1907," he said.