 Shirkie worked as a colliery engineman for twenty years, both in Scotland in the Transvaal Colony.He joined the United Enginekeepers' Mutual Protective Association of Scotland, becoming its chairman, and then during the 1910s was elected as secretary of the National Federation of Colliery Enginemen and Boilermen.He represented this federation at the Trades Union Congress (TUC), and in 1918 was elected to serve on the Parliamentary Committee of the TUC.