Irish Left Archive Podcast

In this episode we talk to Professor Helena Sheehan about her recent book, Until We Fall: Long Distance Life on the Left.

We discuss the lead up to and impact of the break up of the Soviet Union, Helena’s experience of post-apartheid South Africa and the changing role of the University in the contemporary period.

Helena is Emeritus Professor at Dublin City University (DCU) and has published and taught on culture, media, politics and philosophy. She has been active on the left in Ireland since the 1970s, with numerous campaigns and as a member, first, of Official Sinn Féin, then the Communist Party of Ireland and subsequently the Labour party.

In this episode we talk to Dr. Marisa McGlinchey about her book, Unfinished Business: the politics of ‘dissident’ Irish republicanism (Manchester University Press, 2019). Based on a series of interviews with radical Republicans from several organisations, the book discusses the development of ‘dissident’ Irish republicanism and considers its impact on politics throughout Ireland since the 1980s. It argues that, rather than being simply traditionalists left behind by the mainstream, the dynamics and trajectory of ‘dissident’ republicanism are shaped more by contemporary forces than historical tradition and that by understanding them we can better understand the emerging forms of political challenge in an age of austerity and increasing political instability internationally.

Marisa is an Assistant Professor in Political Science at the Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations at Coventry University. Her PhD thesis, carried out at Queen’s University Belfast, examined the decline of the Social Democratic and Labour party in the post-Good Friday Agreement period and is in preparation for publication by Manchester University Press. She is a regular contributor to media coverage of ‘dissident’ republicanism.

In this episode we speak to Sinéad Mercier. Sinéad is a lecturer in

Sinéad’s paper,

In this episode we discuss the recently published book,

John Cunningham works in the Department of History at the University of Galway

Terry Dunne has a PhD in Sociology and has published widely on agrarian social

Spirit of Revolution is published by

If you are listening to this episode at the time of publication in May 2024,

In this episode we speak to activist and academic Camilla Fitzsimons. Camilla’s academic work focuses in particular on education and social movements, and she is an Associate Professor in Maynooth University School of Education. Her publications include two books – Community education and neoliberalism: Philosophies, practices and policies in Ireland (2017) and Repealed: Ireland’s Unfinished Fight for Reproductive Rights (2021).

We discuss Camilla’s early political experience; her involvement in forming the Spectacle of Defiance and Hope in response to service cuts and austerity, which organised marches and workshops with a central focus on political education; her work on abortion rights and the Repeal referendum, and her book Repealed; feminism, and differentiating Left feminism from the right and liberalism; and Palestine solidarity activism in light of Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza, and Camilla’s work with Academics for Palestine, which seeks to build the campaign for an academic boycott of Israel and help create awareness in the higher education sector.

Camilla’s website is at camillafitzsimons.com.

You’ll find a video of the Spectacle of Defiance and Hope in 2011 on Youtube, and it also continues to have an active Facebook group. Other material mentioned in the discussion is linked below:

In this episode we talk to Jim Monaghan. Jim first became politically active as a student in the late 1960s in Dublin. We discuss the increasing politicisation in Ireland at that time, and Jim’s political activity, initially with Labour and Students for Democratic Action, the League for A Workers’ Republic, and briefly the LWR-breakaway, the League for a Workers Vanguard.

Jim then describes his move to Official Sinn Féin, the contrast of moving from a small left group to a larger party, and the direction of Republican politics at that time; his later involvement with the Movement for a Socialist Republic and People’s Democracy, after they merged; his involvement as Chair of the Dublin H-Block/Armagh Committee during the Hunger Strikes; and the contemporary political landscape, and the extent of the social and political change that has occurred since his early political involvement.

Throughout 2023 we have asked podcast guests if there are any cultural artefacts or events that they consider particularly influential on their politics.

This episode brings together responses from historian Mary Muldowney, anarchist activist Gregor Kerr, Republican activist Des Dalton, author Michael Flavin, historian Brian Hanley, and Irish Anarchist Network activists Nestor and Saornil. Below, in the order they are mentioned, are our guest’s choices for politically influential books, films, music, events and media.

(Where possible, we’ve linked to publicly accessible versions. Others are linked to further information.)

In this episode we’re joined by David Costelloe. Dave writes on history and politics on his website Never Felt Better, and in particular has written an extensive series of articles on Irish military history from the earliest records almost to the contemporary, Ireland’s Wars. We spoke to Dave previously in 2021, on episode 20 of the podcast, about his background and work on earlier military history, and he joins us again to discuss the period of the Troubles in particular and the comprehensive series of articles on the topic he has written since last speaking to us.

An introduction to our next series of episodes and discussion of the Irish Left Archive project and changes we’ve made in the past year.

The discussion includes mention of trying to keep all aspects of the project open. As such, we’ve made the website and podcast statistics publicly accessible, as well as any source code used in the project.

You can follow us on the Fediverse (Mastodon, Pixelfed, Peertube etc.) at @[email protected].

In this episode we talk to Des Dalton. Des is a long-term Republican activist who joined Republican Sinn Féin in the late 1980s and has served on the party’s Ard Comhairle and as party President from 2009 to 2018. Since leaving the party in 2021, Des has been an independent Republican activist.

We discuss Des’s political background and his Republicanism, which led him to joining Republican Sinn Féin from Ógra Fianna Fáil in his teens; the politics of Republican Sinn Féin, its position in Left politics and the role of Internationalism in Republicanism; his experience in the party as a member and later as President, and the party’s publications and newspaper, Saoirse; and finally his departure from the party and his perspective on contemporary Republicanism and its future direction.

Two articles written by Des, which are mentioned in the discussion, are linked below: