James Gralton (17 April 1886 – 29 December 1945) was an Irish socialist leader who became a United States citizen after emigrating in 1909 and, later, the only Irishman ever deported from independent Ireland.

James Gralton was born on 17 April 1886 in the townland of Effrinagh in Kiltoghert parish, about six miles from Carrick-on-Shannon in County Leitrim. His parents were Micheal Gralton and Alice Campbell. There were four girls and three boys in the family: Winnie, Mary Ann, Alice and Maggie Kate were the girls, and the boys were Jimmy, Charles and a little boy who died young. Gralton was reared on a small farm of about twenty-five acres of bad land, which was surrounded by some good land. The people were too poor to buy fertiliser for the crops so they had to burn some of the topsoil, and this left the land poor and shallow. He received his only formal education at Kiltoghert national school, which he left at the age of 12 to go work as a grocery boy in Carrick-on-Shannon.

Gralton later went to work in Dublin as a bartender before joining the British army, serving first in the Royal Irish Regiment. However, after being disciplined for refusing to serve with his regiment in India, he deserted and spent some time working in the Liverpool docks and Welsh coalmines.

Gralton emigrated to the United States in 1909, where he was granted US citizenship after briefly joining the US Navy. He later worked around as a taxi-driver and barman. As Gralton became more absorbed in American culture and society he came to feel that Irish society was insular and conservative in comparison and also became unsure about some of the aspects of Irish Nationalism. Instead, c. 1919 Gralton joined the newly founded Communist Party USA, as well as setting up his own James Connolly clubs.

In 1922 Gralton returned to Ireland and Leitrim to fight in the Irish War of Independence. Gralton raised funds for the newly created Irish Republican Army as well as recruiting and training volunteers himself. As he did this, Gralton tried to instil in those recruits some of his social and political views. Around the same time Gralton built on his own land a Pearse–Connolly memorial hall with the aid of local volunteer labour, which was used to provide educational classes for young school-leavers and social events. The circle which gravitated around the hall included Republicans, farmers, and trade unionists, and the hall was also used as a Dáil Court (a judicial system run by Sinn Féin to counter the British court system). There in the Dáil court, local farmers settled land disputes.

Following the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, Gralton came to be viewed with suspicion, particularly by members of the National Army, who arrested him for taking forceful possession of disputed land. After his release and shortly after the start of the Irish Civil War, Gralton once again returned to the United States. While there he joined the Leitrim Republican Club of New York in 1927.

Following the death of his brother Charles, Gralton returned home again to County Leitrim to take over his farm and look after his parents. Gralton once again took up political activity. He ran the county's branch of the Revolutionary Workers' Group, a predecessor of the Communist Party of Ireland. Gralton reopened his old hall in Effrinagh and once again started to organise free events and spread his political views. Around the same time he joined Fianna Fáil. However, he didn't last long in the party and was expelled for his radical views. In August 1932 he rejoined the IRA.

As a "convinced communist and atheist", being expelled from Fianna Fáil and joining the IRA, Gralton was developing a reputation as an agitator in Leitrim. Local priests became to speak out against him and his hall, denouncing it as a "den of prostitution" and communism. This led to violent protests against these dances, which culminated in a shooting incident. In December 1932, the hall was burnt down.