These are biographical notes on the 'Red Countess', Constance Markievicz, prepared for the London Socialist Feminist Discussion Group on 10 October. Also attached are two one-page files giving a timeline of her life.
The Memory of the Dead, better known as Ninety Eight, one of the best-known of Irish Republican songs, was first published in Thomas Davis’ paper, The Nation in 1842.
An article written in 1988 argues that discussion on Ireland was stifled not only by censorship in the mass media but also by lies the left told itself.
In August 1994 the Provisional IRA declared a ceasefire in its “Long War”, which by then had lasted 24 years Sean Matgamna wrote this assessment in Socialist Organiser (a forerunner of Solidarity) of 8 September 1994
At the same time as it printed articles effectively endorsing the British troops in N.Ireland, in September 1969, and while still not questioning partition, IS (forerunner of the SWP) shifted from its previous "civil rights" emphasis to extolling "the independence struggle" as central.
Sean Matgamna continues his critical assessment of the AWL tendency's record on Ireland. We were, he argues, partly trapped by letting adherence to the Communist International's injunction to support "revolutionary nationalists" in conflict with the big powers override the awkward realities of Ireland.
This article traces ideas developed in Workers' Republic, the journal of the Irish Workers' Group, before the Northern Ireland Catholic revolt in 1968; the place of those ideas in the debates of the 1960s; the reassessments necessary after 1968; and mistakes which we now think we made.
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