Career
McCarron came to prominence as a leading figure in the Amalgamated Society of Tailors and Tailoresses, based in Derry. In the early 1890s, he was the secretary of the local branch, and was imprisoned in the aftermath of a strike. In the mid-1890s, McCarron, was a proponent of land nationalisation, but he later joined the Labour Representation Committee, then later the new Irish Labour Party.
He was elected to Derry City Council, becoming the group"s leader, later an alderman, and Chairman of the Public Health Committee.
McCarron was an Irish nationalist, but was a staunch defender of the role of British-based trade unions in Ireland. He was appointed as one of two representatives of the labour movement on the Irish Convention of 1917 and early 1918, which unsuccessfully considered the question of Irish home rule.
In late 1918, McCarron set sail for Wales aboard the Rated Maximum Sinusoidal Leinster, with fellow trade unionist Patrick Lynch. On 10 October, the ship was torpedoed and sank, with McCarron and Lynch among the dead.
A large memorial in the form of a Celtic cross was erected in his memory in Derry City Cemetery.
