Born in Croom, County Limerick, Drumgoole moved to New York in 1899, where he worked at Lord & Taylor and lived with his uncle.
In 1902,[1] he returned to Ireland, where he joined the Irish Drapers' Assistants' Association (IDAA) in 1905.
The IDAA was renamed the Irish Union of Distributive Workers and Clerks (IUDWC), and Drumgoole was elected as its General Treasurer in 1920.
[3] Drumgoole was also active in the Irish Trades Union Congress (ITUC), serving on its general council from 1931, and as its President in 1936/37.
[2] Drumgoole was an unsuccessful Labour Party candidate for Seanad Éireann at both the 1948 and 1951 elections.