In this episode, we’re joined by Charles Tuba to discuss Seán Swan’s book, Official Irish Republicanism, 1962 to 1972, and the issues it raises around changing views of Republicanism, and the period leading to and following the Republican split in 1969. The book was published in 2007, and listeners who haven’t read it will find a chapter available for free on the CAIN website.

Before turning to the discussion of the book, we asked Charles about his own political background in Trade Unionism and the Industrial Workers of the World in the United States, and his interest in Irish Republican history.

This is one of a series of episodes we hope to do centred on particular books, to discuss key issues in the history of the Irish Left and Republicanism. For people who want to delve in further, there are numerous documents in the Irish Left Archive from the period.

View this episode on our website: #25: Official Irish Republicanism, 1962 to 1972, with Charles Tuba.

In this episode we talk to Allan Armstrong. Allan has been an activist on the Left in Scotland since the late 1960s. He was a member of the International Socialists (later the Socialist Workers’ Party) during the 1970s and was a convenor of Scottish Rank & File Teachers, leaving the SWP when it sought to dissolve the latter group. As a part of the Red Republicans, he was involved in the foundation of the Scottish Socialist Alliance, which became the Scottish Socialist Party. Within the SSP, he was part of the Republican Communist Network, which disaffiliated from the SSP in 2012. With the RCN, Allan is active in the Radical Independence Campaign, and the recently formed Republican Socialist Platform.

Along with several articles, Allan has published two books: From Davitt to Connolly, and The Ghost of James Connolly.

We’ll discuss Allan’s experiences and political trajectory in Left activism in Scotland, from socialist groups as a student in Aberdeen in the 1960s to the contemporary Republican Communist Forum; the politics of Republicanism and Internationalism from Below, and linking movements in Scotland, Ireland and across these islands; his perspective on Scottish Independence and the 2014 referendum; and the current political landscape.

Allan’s website is Internationalism from Below, available at intfrobel.com. The Republican Communist Forum (until recently known as the Republican Communist Network) has its ‘Emancipation & Liberation’ website at republicancommunist.org. In particular, listeners may be interested in these pages to explore further:

View this episode on our website: #24: Allan Armstrong: The Scottish Left, Republican Communist Forum and Internationalism From Below.

In this episode we talk to Lynda Walker. Lynda has been a political activist in Belfast since moving there from her native Sheffield in 1969. She is a long-standing member of the Communist Party of Ireland, and served as National Chairperson of the party from 2006 to 2017. She was active in the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association, and was instrumental in founding the Northern Ireland Women’s Rights Movement in 1975 and the establishment of Belfast Women’s Centre. Lynda is also an active Trade Unionist, on Belfast Trades Council, and represented ICTU as a Commissioner in the Equal Opportunities Commission. In the 1990s she was a founding member of the Northern Ireland Women’s Coalition, and stood as a candidate. In 2010 she helped form Reclaim the Agenda, a women’s organisation committed to radical change.

Lynda’s publications include Living in an Armed Patriarchy, published in 2017, and the edited volumes, Madge Davison: A Revolutionary Firebrand in 2011, and Breaking the Chains: Selected writings of James Connolly on Women in 2016.

We discuss Lynda’s political activism in the Communist Party, and the challenges of political activity during the Troubles; her work in civil rights and women’s rights, and some of the international connections made as part of the women’s movement; Lynda’s work in education and role in establishing the Women’s Studies course in what is now Belfast Met; the activity of the International Brigades Commemoration Committee; and some of the publications she has been involved in.

A more detailed biography of Lynda is available on the website, A Century of Women - which provides a wealth of information documenting women who have had an impact on the social, economic, cultural and political history of society.

Listeners can also read a blog post Lynda mentions, which she wrote for the Linen Hall Library, on the International Women’s Day Concert in Belfast in 1981 here: Music Making Change Happen

Lynda kindly allowed us to reproduce these photos from her political activism:

View this episode on our website: #23: Lynda Walker: Communist Party of Ireland, NICRA, Women's Rights Movement, Northern Ireland Women's Coalition, and International Brigades Commemoration.

In this episode we talk to Terry Dunne. As an activist, Terry has been involved in anarchist groups, and the anti-war, environmental and social justice movements. Terry has a PhD in sociology and an interest in the historical sociology of social movements. He has written particularly on agrarian social movements, and his work has been published in journals such as Saothar, Critical Historical Studies and Rural History. Terry also writes and hosts the Peelers and Sheep: Rebel Tales from the Land podcast.

We first get an overview of Terry’s own activism, from the anti-war movement, the non-hierarchical environmental and social justice movement, Gluaiseacht, and the broader activist context at that time. We then discuss Terry’s research in the area of agrarian agitation during the Irish revolutionary period, which is explored in Terry’s podcast, Peelers and Sheep, and how that fits with more traditional narratives of Irish history.

Terry’s podcast explores a fascinating history - look up Peelers and Sheep in your podcast app or you’ll find it at peelersandsheep.ie.

Terry mentions the influence of Peoples’ Global Action and their hallmarks - you’ll find their archived website here.

Listeners will find an overview of the Grassroots Gatherings and movements around that period in this article from Laurence Cox: The Grassroots Gatherings Networking a “movement of movements”

To explore Irish labour history further, two good sources of material are the Irish Labour History Society and Irish Centre for the Histories of Labour & Class.

View this episode on our website: #22: Terry Dunne: Anti-war and Activist Movements, Historical Sociology, and "Peelers and Sheep".

In this episode we talk to Ciara Galvin. Ciara is a Labour party councillor in Kildare for the Celbridge Local Electoral Area. She has been a member of Labour since 2010, and was involved in Labour Youth, serving as Trade Union Co-ordinator. She was elected to Kildare County Council in the 2019 local elections. Outside her local council role, Ciara works for SIPTU in the Workers’ Rights Centre.

We’ll discuss how Ciara got involved in politics and the Labour party; her experience as a member through the period of coalition government; standing in the local elections and the role of local politics; and the political and personal challenges of being a local councillor.

View this episode on our website: #21: Ciara Galvin: Labour.

In this episode we talk to David Costelloe. David 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 entitled “Ireland’s Wars”, which spans from the earliest recorded conflicts on the island right up to the revolutionary period.

We discuss with David his background and interest in history and in writing, and what led him to create the site and write about military history, before delving in to that history itself and David’s perspective on Irish revolutionary history in particular.

The Ireland’s Wars series of articles is indexed here

View this episode on our website: #20: David Costelloe: Irish Military and Revolutionary History.

In this episode we talk to Brian Hanley about his experience of Left activism as a member of the Socialist Workers Movement (SWM) in the late 1980s and early 90s. We discuss the cultural and political influences that led him to join the SWM as a teenager in Limerick; the nature and political position of the organisation at that time; the experience of being an active member; and how the SWM changed and grew during that period.

Brian is a historian in Trinity College Dublin. We’ve spoken to him previously in that capacity on the podcast in episode 13, where we discussed The Lost Revolution: The Story of the Official IRA and the Workers’ Party, which Brian co-authored.

Below are some links that might interest listeners in the context of this episode:

Brian provided a few additional clarifications to the discussion below:

Thanks again to Aonghus and Ciarán for the opportunity to do this. A couple of things struck me afterwards which maybe I wasn’t very clear on.

A couple of technical points, that might be lost on a ‘younger’ audience was that postering involved going out with buckets of paste and plastering up posters on anything that didn’t move. You postered until the paste or posters ran out, or you were stopped by the Guards. Generally they took the posters and your name, though I was never fined. Uniformed Guards usually couldn’t care less what the posters were about (as long as it wasn’t about them), but the Special Branch could give you more hassle.

The various trips to Marxism in London were by bus and boat, which if there was a few of you could mean a good drink on the ferry and trying to sleep until you got to Victoria.

View this episode on our website: #19: Brian Hanley: Socialist Workers' Movement, 1980s and 90s.

In this episode we talk to Danny Morrison. Danny is a writer and Republican political activist from West Belfast. He was national director of publicity for Sinn Féin in the 1980s, and editor, first, of the Sinn Féin paper Republican News in Belfast, and then of An Phoblacht when the two papers were merged. He is the author of several fiction and non-fiction works. He is also secretary of the Bobby Sands Trust, and was chair of the West Belfast festival, Féile an Phobail, until 2014.

Danny was spokesperson for Bobby Sands during the 1981 hunger strikes and subsequently called for a dual strategy of armed struggle and electoral politics in Sinn Féin. He was elected on an abstentionist ticket to the 1982 Northern Ireland Assembly. In 1990, he was charged and imprisoned in connection with the abduction of an IRA informer, and released in 1995. The charges were later overturned in 2008.

Danny’s books include Then the Walls Came Down, based on his prison letters, and the novels West Belfast, On The Back of the Swallow, The Wrong Man, which he later adapted as a play, and Rudi. He is also a regular reviewer and political commentator in newspapers.

We discuss Danny’s background and analysis of the political landscape during the Troubles; his work with Sinn Féin and as editor of Republican News and An Phoblacht; and his work as a writer, and how his creative work is informed by his experience and politics.

You’ll find more information on Danny’s writing and regular articles on his website at dannymorrison.com.

View this episode on our website: #18: Danny Morrison: Sinn Féin, An Phoblacht / Republican News, and Political and Fiction Writing.

In this episode we talk to Sarah Clancy. Sarah is a poet and activist from Galway, and currently based in Clare. Her published collections include Stacey and the Mechanical Bull in 2011, Thanks for Nothing, Hippies in 2012, and The Truth and Other Stories in 2014. Sarah has often performed her work both at literary and at political events.

We discuss Sarah’s background and how she came both to political activism and to poetry, how the two inflect each other, her experience of activism and analysis of the political Left. We also discuss the challenges for the contemporary Left in Ireland during the pandemic crisis.

During the episode you can hear Sarah recite her poem, “And Yet We Must Live in These Times”.

You’ll find a video of Sarah performing “Cherishing For Beginners” at the Stand for Truth rally during the visit of the Pope in 2018 on Youtube (thanks to the WSM).

Lyrikline.org has the text and a recording of the Rita Ann Higgins poem, “Some People”, which Sarah discusses.

View this episode on our website: #17: Sarah Clancy: Poetry, Activism, Politics, and the Contemporary Left.

In this episode we talk to Laura Broxson. Laura is an activist focused on animal rights and founder of the National Animal Rights Association (NARA). NARA is a non-hierarchical organisation, taking a radical animal rights and vegan perspective. We’ll discuss how Laura came to activism and founding NARA; the anti-fur and hare-coursing campaigns in which she’s been involved; different methods of campaigning, from street protest to legislative change; cooperation and interaction with Left parties and organisations; and how Laura integrates animal rights campaigning in a wider anti-fascist, anti-capitalist and Left perspective.

For more information on the National Animal Rights Association, you can visit their website at naracampaigns.org.

Here are some NARA leaflets included in our collection:

• Ireland's Official Animal Rights March to Close All Slaughterhouses
• Tell your TD to Vote in Support of the Prohibition of Fur Farming Bill
• It's Time to Ban Hare Coursing in Ireland

Some additional resources on animal rights suggested by Laura in the discussion:

View this episode on our website: #16: Laura Broxson: National Animal Rights Association (NARA).