Irish Left Archive Podcast

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...