The funeral of James Nolan on the 3rd of September 1913 attracted over 30,000 people and was guarded by ITGWU stewards with pickaxe handles for protection against attacks from the police.

Towards the end of October Jim Larkin announced that a citizens army was being organised to defend the workers. On November the 13th James Connolly declared that the citizens army was being organised along military lines and called for volunteers. The first public appearance of the Irish Citizens Army (ICA) was on November 23rd, 1913.

As can be clearly seen the Irish Citizens Army was not a nationalist organisation with republican ideas but a republican organisation with socialist principles initially geared towards defending the rights of the Irish working class.

Ironically, after the formation of the ICA they were never called into action in any major way during the lock-out. This could have been due to the ICA being armed and being prepared to use them. This in turn kept the police at a distance. The employers by this time had changed tactics away from direct confrontation with the strikers in favour of an approach designed to starve the workers into submission.