Irish Left Archive Podcast

In this episode, we talk to Aileen O’Carroll of the Workers Solidarity Movement (WSM). Aileen first became politically active via Student Union and pro-choice politics, and joined the anarchist WSM in the early 1990s and remains a member, having been involved in several prominent campaigns. She is a trade union activist, and chaired the Maynooth branch of IFUT for three years and remains on the branch committee.

As a sociologist she has written a history of Dublin dockers, about working time in the software sector and she is a board member of the Four Day Week Campaign. She currently works for the Digital Repository of Ireland and is a project lead on a Wellcome Trust funded project which is archiving material from the Repeal campaign.

We discuss Aileen’s politicisation and path to anarchism and the Workers Solidarity Movement; her involvement in campaigns including water charges, abortion and the Repeal referendum, Shell to Sea, Reclaim the Streets protests and her role as the Dublin Grassroots Network media spokesperson for the 2004 May Day protests, which resulted in the first use of water cannon in the south of Ireland. We also discuss the approach of the WSM to organising, how it has developed, how it works with the broader left in campaigns and Aileen’s own view of the role of activism.

View this episode on our website: #31: Aileen O'Carroll: Workers Solidarity Movement.

In this episode we talk to Dr. Jack McGinley. Jack is the Principal of Umiskin Press - a not-for-profit publishing house focused particularly on labour and trade union history. He has been active in the Trade Union movement since joining the Workers’ Union of Ireland in the 1970s, which later formed part of SIPTU. Among other roles, he was on the National Executive Council of SIPTU for several years, and is active in the SIPTU Cuba Solidarity Campaign.

We discuss Jack’s political background and involvement in trade unionism; his participation in the Divorce Action Group campaign and Cuba solidarity; and his work with Umiskin Press and how the publisher has developed.

You can find out more about Umiskin Press on their website at umiskinpress.wordpress.com, including the recently published fourth volume of their Left Lives in Twentieth Century Ireland series, which is a collection of ten essays on leading women in Ireland, edited by Mags O’Brien.

View this episode on our website: #30: Jack McGinley: Umiskin Press.

In this episode we talk to Adrienne Wallace. Adrienne is an activist and local councillor for People Before Profit (PBP). She has been active with PBP since the early 2010s and is the party organiser for the South East. She was elected to Carlow County Council in 2019. She also stood as a Dáil candidate in the 2015 Carlow/Kilkenny by-election and subsequent general elections, and in the South constituency for the 2019 European Parliament election.

We discuss how Adrienne came to political activism and joined People Before Profit; the campaign to repeal the eighth amendment and water charges campaign; her experience as a local councillor; and her views on activism and electoralism, and maintaining a radical anti-capitalist perspective.

View this episode on our website: #29: Adrienne Wallace: People Before Profit.

In this episode we talk to Roger Cole. Roger has been involved in politics in Ireland since joining Labour as a student in the late 1960s. He was involved in the Liaison Committee of the Labour Left, and subsequently became General Secretary of the Socialist Labour Party (SLP). After the SLP, he re-joined Labour and remained a member until leaving in recent years in response to their lack of support for neutrality when in government. He is currently a member of Sinn Féin.

In 1996 Roger founded, with Carol Fox, the Peace and Neutrality Alliance (PANA), which describes itself as seeking to “advocate an Independent Irish Foreign Policy, defend Irish Neutrality and to promote a reformed United Nations as the Institution through which Ireland should pursue its security concerns”, and to which several political parties, unions and organisations are affiliated.

We’ll discuss Roger’s political background, his experience of political parties, and his identification with the values of Republicanism; the issue of Irish neutrality, the PANA organisation, and EU and international militarism; his involvement in organising the huge march against the war in Iraq in Dublin in 2003; and his involvement in centenary commemorations in recent years and the effect of the centenary on people’s assessment of Republicanism and Ireland’s history.

To find out more about the Peace and Neutrality Alliance, you can visit pana.ie.

Please note this episode was recorded prior to the US withdrawal from Afghanistan.

View this episode on our website: #28: Roger Cole: Peace and Neutrality Alliance.

A quick update on the podcast and forthcoming episodes. We’ll be back with new episodes every fortnight from next Monday, and we have several activists lined up from across the Irish Left to talk to us about their experience of organising and campaigning.

Thanks to everyone who has listened so far, and thanks to all our guests who have taken the time to talk to us!

View this episode on our website: #27: New Episodes Coming!.

This is a quick round up on the current series of the podcast and plans for the future. We’ll be back with more guests in the early Autumn. Thanks again to everyone who has spoken to us so far.

Also, thanks to those who have provided documents for inclusion in the Irish Left Archive over the years; they are all listed in the acknowledgements on our content submissions page. If you have any documents relevant to the archive, we always appreciate receiving new material - you can contact us on the website.

View this episode on our website: #26: Round Up! More to Come.

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".