Irish Left Archive Podcast

Introducing the Irish Left Archive Podcast! In this episode, Ciarán Swan and Aonghus Storey discuss how the project got started in 2007 and how it has developed since then.

The Irish Left Archive was started as part of the Cedar Lounge Revolution (CLR) blog and later developed into the separate website at leftarchive.ie...

We talk to activist, writer and academic, Laurence Cox about publications in the archive in which he has been involved, the organisational and political aspects of those projects, and the contexts in Left politics and movements from which they emerged.

Laurence is an activist and writer on social movements, working class community activism, and global justice struggles...

In this episode we talk to Catherine Stocker of the Social Democrats. Catherine is a local councillor in Dublin City. She has been a member of the Social Democrats since 2016, and since then has been involved in policy formation, sat on the National Executive of the party, and in 2019 was elected to Dublin City Council for the Clontarf LEA...

In this episode we talk to Conor Kostick of Independent Left, and formerly the Socialist Workers Party, about a range of areas including his own history, activism and historical research, materials in the Left Archive that he has contributed to and issues like the use of social and other media in Left organising.

Conor is an activist on the left, an historian, a researcher, and a novelist in a range of genres...

In this episode we talk to Alan Kinsella about his Irish Election Literature collection, how it has developed, and the advantages of a wide online network that has spread internationally; how political activity has changed during the Covid19 pandemic; his podcast “The Others” and the histories that that explores; and also the state of the contemporary party system since the last election and the current coalition was formed...

In this episode we talk to Rhona McCord about her political background, the Right2Water and Right2Change campaigns, community organising, and the challenges for the left and Trade Union movement in the contemporary period.

Rhona is a longtime activist on the left, she has been involved in Militant, union activism, the United Left Alliance, and a number of campaigns including Right 2 Water and Right 2 Change...

In this episode we talk to Mary Muldowney about her political background and experience campaigning in the trade union movement and working in the Socialist Party; pro-choice campaigns including the Women on Waves ship and the abortion referendums; and her work as a historian, and how that relates to her activism.

Mary is a historian in residence with Dublin City Libraries. She is the author of The Second World War and Irish Women: An Oral History, originally her PhD thesis...

In this episode we are joined by Orla Egan of the Cork LGBT Archive. Orla founded the project in 2015, and has developed it to now encompass a digital archive available at CorkLGBTArchive.com, which is also retained as part of both the Digital Repository of Ireland and Europeana; a physical archive now housed in the Cork City Council Public Museum; a book entitled Queer Republic of Cork; and a number of exhibitions...

In this episode we are joined by Michael Pidgeon. Michael is a long-standing member of the Green Party and was elected to Dublin City Council in the 2019 local elections for the South West Inner City Local Electoral Area. He is chair of the city’s environment and climate policy committee, and leader of the Green Party group on Dublin City Council.

Michael is also the creator of the Irish Election Manifesto Archive site, which hosts manifestos from Irish parties going back to the 1950s...

In this episode we talk to Ber Grogan. As an activist, Ber was involved with the Abortion Rights Campaign, and was a co-ordinator in Dublin North West during the referendum to repeal the eighth amendment. She also ran a Seanad campaign for the NUI panel, and is currently active in Communities Against Racism...