Until its effective suppression in early-1916, it organised shop floor opposition to the policies of the Ministry of Munitions with regard to Leaving Certificates and Dilution of Labour.

Kirkwood was the convenor of shop stewards at Parkhead Forge of William Beardmore and Company, where, in January 1916 he helped to secure a dilution agreement.

In March 1916, as a result of a strike related to the implementation of the agreement, Kirkwood was arrested and deported from Glasgow to Edinburgh, an event which greatly increased his profile.

On 9 May 1924 the Speaker of the House of Commons adjourned the debate when Kirkwood and James Maxton caused an uproar after the Opposition talked out George Buchanan's Scottish Home Rule Bill.

In January 1931, the ocean liner Queen Mary was laid down in Kirkwood's constituency on the Clydebank by John Brown & Company for the Cunard Line.

[10] In 1935, Gilbert McAllister said that Kirkwood, "courteous to all men but bowing to none, divides his affections among porridge and politics, the Bible and Burns, Scottish Home Rule and Socialism, his family and "ma people in Clydebank".