The Legacy of James Connolly

Guess who’s back?
Historian Aindrias Ó Cathasaigh considers the life and ideas of Irish socialism’s most important thinker, whose legacy is crucial to shaping the new Ireland:
This year marks the centenary of James Connolly coming back to Ireland from the US, the start of six hectic years of activity ended only by the firing squad. But [...]

Frank Ryan – The street fighting years

Frank Ryan’s journey from Gaelic nationalist to republican internationalist was one marked by violence and complete political commitment writes Brian Hanley.
Frank Ryan remains one of Ireland’s best-known socialist republicans, revered for membership of the Republican Congress and leading anti-Fascists to Spain. However his early political life is less well known.
Ryan was one of a generation [...]

The race to save the trade unions

The race to save the trade unions Mandate General Secretary and Irish Congress of Trade Unions Vice President, John Douglas, delivers a hard-hitting assessment of the state of the Irish trade union movement, Kevin Brannigan reports.
A t a spritely 55 years of age Mandate General Secretary John Douglas has experienced trade union life in the [...]

The US Left – from McCarthy to Obama

Steeped in the tradition of the American radical Left, Fred Magdoff has committed his life to understanding society and how it can be progressively changed. Francis Donohoe reports.

Meeting him in a Dublin hotel, the bearded and spectacle wearing Fred Magdoff sitting at his laptop looks every inch the well-travelled intellectual that he is. Although [...]

Conscientious objector or principled pragmatist?

It’s easier to just keep your head down is the creed adhered to by most TDs in Leinster House. On budget day in early December, one newly elected TD bucked the trend and put his above the parapet, Kevin Brannigan met with Patrick Nulty to find out why.
Patrick Nulty comes from the working class estate [...]

Engels and ourselves

Friedrich Engels seems fated to be overshadowed by Marx, but that does a great injustice to one of socialism’s greats, writes Aindrias Ó Cathasaigh, author of a new biography of the German socialist.
It can be hard to get sight of Friedrich Engels as he still remains in the shadow of his great comrade Karl Marx. That’s [...]

Can trade unions lead a fight back?

Paul Dillon investigates the trade union movement’s strategy, North and South, and whether is it prepared to fulfill its historical role of giving political leadership to the Irish working class.
On icy Dublin streets an estimated 100,000 people marched in a mass protest organised by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) “There is a better, fairer [...]

Turf Wars in County Kildare

By the end of 2013 the Irish state and the EU will have closed 130 bogs across Ireland designating these raised bogs as Special Areas of Conservation (SACs). In effect they will prevent families and domestic turf cutters from cutting turf as they have done for hundreds of years.
The EU Habitats Directive was introduced fourteen years [...]

Ready for peace?

The UVF was involved in some of the most serious street disturbances Belfast has witnessed in a generation last summer, but according to Billy Hutchinson the leader of the paramilitary group’s political wing – the Progressive Unionist Party – its commitment to peace remains. Kevin Brannigan reports.
Billy Hutchinson is a complex individual. At the age [...]

Model Supporters

 

Supporters Direct are a not-for-profit organisation who promote the benefits of sustainability, community ownership and supporter involvement in the running of sporting organisations, mainly football clubs. Andrew Donlan met up with Kevin Rye of Supporters Direct to find out how their various Irish interests are coming along.
As of this week, the three League of Ireland [...]

Next Page »