The Irish War of Independence had begun in 1919. While the Labour Party had a policy in favour of Irish self-determination, many Irish people considered that it had done little to act on it. A leading Irish trade unionist and secretary of the Irish Labour Party, William O'Brien, was interned by Britain for his role in the conflict, and he decided to stand in the by-election as a platform for his cause, and in an attempt to embarrass the British Labour Party into action. On the ballot, he insisted that he was described as the "Irish Republican Workers Party" candidate, even though no such organisation existed.