Many other key figures in this strike were Irish or of Irish descent - James Toomey, Patrick and John Regan, Dennis Driscoll and Michael Tighe - all signed the strike call in an Irish-owned riverside pub. Cardinal Manning supported their demands for better pay and working conditions, and funds to support the strikers were sent from Australian trade unionists, many also of Irish origin.

According to the historian, Lynn Hollen Lees, 'The strike signalled not only the increased consciousness of the low-skilled, casual port labourers but a great increase in Irish integration into organised London labour. Occupational loyalties helped break down ethnic separatism'.

The Dock Strike is seen by some as a turning-point in the history of trade unionism. The trade union leader, John Burns, speaking at a strike demonstration in September 1889, emphasised the international support it had attracted and claimed that 'the strike had great moral effects. It had struck a blow at the selfishness of the rich man and had put straightly the plain fact that a man had a right to live'.

The strike led to the formation of a new Dock, Wharf, Riverside and General Labourers' Union. Tillett was elected General Secretary and Tom Mann, President, and together they published New Unionism, a pamphlet calling for a "cooperative commonwealth".

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