OscailtThe IRA In The 1960s: Rethinking The Republic?Critical review article by Anthony Coughlan on Matt Treacy, "The IRA 1956-69: Rethinking the Republic", MUP, 2011
Breaking news: Italian MP, Sgarbi denounces the Statistical Fraud on COVID-19. The speech of the Member of Parliament Vittorio Sgarbi in the session of the Italian Camera, Meeting no. 331 of Friday 24, April, 2020. Vittorio Sgarbi, denounces the closure of 60% of the businesses for 25,000 COVID-19 Deaths, of which the National Institute of Health says 96.3% died NOT of COVID-19 but of other pathologies. That means only 925 have died of the virus. 24,075 have died of other things.2011-05-30T10:27:33+00:00Indymedia Irelandimc-ireland@lists.indymedia.iehttp://www.indymedia.ie/atomfullposts?story_id=99779http://www.indymedia.ie/graphics/feedlogo.gifReply to Anthony Coughlanhttp://www.indymedia.ie/article/99779#comment2809992011-05-30T10:27:33+00:00Matt Treacytreacyma at tcd dot ieI appreciate Anthony Coughlan’s review and wish to respond to some of what he ha...I appreciate Anthony Coughlan’s review and wish to respond to some of what he has to say, although the book covers a much wider area than the issues he focuses on. The most interesting aspect of his review is the ideological debate around what took place within the Republican Movement (RM) in the 1960s, and I hope to return to that at some later stage. However, his specific criticisms and claims of factual errors require a more immediate response. <br />
<br />
I do not accept that the book purports to support a ‘conspiracy theory’ and would point out the issues involved are not the main focus of the book. However, it would be impossible to write about the events leading to the split in the Republican Movement without dealing with the issue of alleged infiltration by people perceived to be promoting policies in close sympathy with those of the British Communist Party (CP) and of their Irish co-thinkers. <br />
<br />
The claim was not merely central to the split in 1969, as evidenced by the founding statements of the Provisional IRA and Provisional Sinn Féin. It was made continually over the course of the previous five or six years, not only by traditionalists within the RM, but also by left wing critics of the modernisers. It also regularly featured in confidential reports by the British and Irish security services and by senior government officials and diplomats. Anthony Coughlan may claim that this is evidence of a combination of polemics and anti Communist paranoia, rather than of the actions of communists, but of course it may also be a combination of both. <br />
<br />
For example an extensive Garda report from1966, that I cite in the book, referred to the fact that Roy Johnson’s position within the IRA represented the reversal of a prohibition on people from a Communist background,. That confidential report can have had no influence on the views formed by those republicans whose opinions I cite on the subject of Johnson’s influence and actions, and on the influence of Communists and former Communists in the movement. Incidentally (on what appears to be a bit of a running sore point, which, thankfully, has not been placed in the hands of Messrs Sue, Grabbit & Runne), I cite Anthony Coughlan’s assertion that he was never a member of either the Irish or British CP. <br />
While much of the official intelligence regarding ‘communism’ within the IRA may have been exaggerated, and while traditionalists within the IRA may have overly emphasised the influence of certain individuals, it would nonetheless be impossible to write meaningfully about the period without devoting considerable attention to the issue. My sources for the discussion, apart from two individuals who requested anonymity, are all clearly referenced and verifiable. More importantly, and indeed this is the part on which Coughlan himself focuses, is the ideological debate and the undoubted and central influence which Connolly Association strategy had on people like Cathal Goulding after 1962.<br />
With regard to Anthony Coughlan’s dismissal of a ‘communist plot’, on the basis that there was no plan to have the RM adopt socialism, I make no claim that there was.<br />
Indeed, I point out that those who clearly favoured an alliance, formal or otherwise, with the communist parties, envisaged a ‘national liberation front’ which would not be overtly socialist and in which the communists would operate in the same manner as for example the SACP within the ANC, and the Communist Parties in other colonial liberation movements, where an alliance was formed with ‘bourgeois nationalists’ and other ‘progressive’ elements.<br />
I also believe that the decision by SF in 1967 to adopt ‘socialism’ did annoy some advocates of an alliance with the communists and indeed the later attempts by the Officials to become a Marxist party caused friction with the CPI in the 1970s (as documented in Hanley and Millar’s history of the Official side of the republican split, p. 412).<br />
<br />
It is interesting as I also point out that while Costello was the main mover of the motion to adopt socialism and was also disciplined by the IRA for having tried to manipulate an Ard Fheis to overturn abstentionism, he was clearly at odds with other of the ‘politicisers.’ I suggest that this may have been because Goulding and those closest to him did not want to provoke a split before other parts of their strategy were in place. I also suggest that the focus of that was to create an alliance involving the communists within the National Liberation Front. <br />
<br />
In the April 1967 paper which I suggest may have been written by Greaves, but which Coughlan states may actually have been written by himself or Jack Bennett, some of that is verified. The author advises that the movement ought to concentrate on an ‘alliance with Labour’, clearly meaning the ‘labour movement’ rather than the Labour Party, ‘international connections’ and that the moves towards publicly committing to that ought to be done in a way that would avoid a ‘schism.’<br />
Anthony Coughlan also takes issue with my use of the terms ‘traditionalists’ and ‘modernisers’ to describe the two factions within the RM. Coughlan prefers the term ‘politicisers’ for the faction with which he was associated. I do not accept that designation as it implies that the traditionalists were somehow apolitical or even anti political. Coughlan himself describes them as ‘physical-force men.’<br />
<br />
That is to neglect the fact that the RM prior to the ‘politicising’ influence already had a comprehensive social and economic programme, something with which I deal at length in Chapter Two. It is also the fact that SF was in the process of drawing up a new social and economic programme in the early 1960s but that this was overtaken by the new policies supported from outside the movement by Coughlan. The traditionalists had already decided on the need to “go political” but of course did not accept that that meant participating in parliament. Seán O Bradaigh says that the draft of the programme that was set aside in 1964 later emerged as the basis for the Provisionals ‘Eire Nua’ policy, so people can judge for themselves the extent to which the traditionalists were a- or anti- political. <br />
<br />
In relation to ‘the crisis of August 1969’ Coughlan says that ‘Cathal Goulding’s attempt to ride two horses undid him.’ That implies that Goulding’s error was in not completely disavowing a military response. I would argue on the basis of the evidence that the split was caused by the leadership’s perceived misreading of the crisis and their clinging to the belief that the civil rights movement, without the marches, which Coughlan and others condemned as ‘provocations’, would win over Protestant working class support.<br />
<br />
Like other counter factuals that view is unverifiable because events took a different course, brought about by the violent reaction of the Unionist state and loyalism, subsequently backed with force by the British Army, to the demands of the nationalist population.<br />
<br />
It is also worthy of note I think in relation to the modernisers/politicisers being regarded as a greater threat than the ‘proto Provos’ that both Irish and British officials expressed the hope that the advice of Johnson and Coughlan regarding the republican response to the crisis would be heeded by Goulding. Indeed the only people alleging that ‘Communist’ IRA agitation was responsible for the breakdown was the RUC Special Branch and that was dismissed, on the basis of MI5 intelligence, in the Scarman Report (p. 168). It is clear that they regarded the more militant sections of the civil rights movement and the possibility of the IRA becoming militarily involved as the greatest dangers.<br />
Coughlan, in his review states: “The origin of the communist takeover-bid thesis which Matt Treacy’s book gives far too much credence to is in the polemics the newly formed Provisionals used in 1970 to justify their reversion to military activity in the North.”<br />
<br />
Given that my book ends with the split, the polemics of either the Provisionals or the Officials are the origin of nothing in the book, although obviously the events of the period were the basis of those polemics.. My references to the ideological debates of the 1960s are all based on contemporary sources and the opinions of people involved on both sides. As for the Provisionals having used whatever concerns they might have had about an alleged ‘communist takevover’ to ‘justify their reversion to military activity’ I think perhaps that the events in Derry and Belfast might have been a more immediate cause. <br />
<br />
Having expected the British Government to have ‘done its duty’ and describing Goulding as a tragic figure might be construed as an attempt to avoid accepting that the belief that the civil rights movement would win over substantial Protestant working class support and lead to ‘progressive politics’ within Stormont was mistaken if not naïve. Now as then there also seems to be a tendency on the part of some to attribute and even to blame the loyalist reaction on ‘arch Catholics’ and ‘ultra leftists’, a combination that most would consider bizarre outside of Stalinist (or Eoghan Harris) discourse.. The theory seems to be that if there had been no attempt at self defence on the part of the nationalists, a defence in which Goulding supporters fully participated (despite the advice of their interlocutors,) that the British would have put manners on the loyalists and the plan would have proceeded apace. Perhaps. We shall never know. However, it illustrates, surely the failure of schematic politics in which reality is expected to unfold from the tenets of a plan. ‘Events, dear boy, events’ (to cite Harold Macmillan’s explanation of his unexpected, to him, downfall in the early 1960s), and a failure to adapt, played a greater role in the outcome. <br />
<br />
My empathy or lack of it with people who were supporters of the then USSR is neither here nor there. No more so than is my empathy or lack of it with republicans in the narrative who were persuaded of the benefits of fascism. I examine both as influences on the ideology of republicanism during the period under review. Left wing views, of which Coughlan’s was merely one variant, were clearly the more influential.<br />
<br />
I accept that Irish communists did not form a ‘monolithic’ block and, as Coughlan recognises, that debate and the ostensible radical shift in communist attitudes and strategy towards the Irish republican movement features in the book. Indeed I suggest that the orientation of people from that background towards republicanism in the early 1960s had less to do with any change in republican politics and perhaps more to do with common opposition to the Irish state’s application to join the EEC. Indeed, it is fair to say that was probably the only thing that united traditionalist republicans and communists or those influenced by Marxism.<br />
<br />
Regarding some of my alleged factual errors, in relation to the IRA members (Goulding, Seán O Bradaigh, Seán Bermingham, Eamonn Mac Thomais and Tony Meade) who Coughlan claims were not members of the Wolfe Tone Society in 1966, they are all in fact listed in the Society’s minutes in 1966, which Anthony Coughlan allowed me to see a number of years ago. O Bradaigh said that he left the Society in 1967. All of that is more apparent in my PhD thesis, on which the book is based, .<br />
THE CONNOLLY ASSOCIATION A "COMMUNIST FRONT”: Leading members of the CA were also members of the CPGB and later members of the Irish Communist parties. It was also generally considered both by the British and Irish authorities (as referenced in my text), by the British TUC and Labour Party and by Irish republicans to be linked to the CPGB. Whether the word ‘front’ is the apposite term is debatable and not one I would tend to use. .Of course, it may be that Desmond Greaves infiltrated the Communist Party and attempted to use it, through the vehicle of the Connolly Association, to achieve his well worked out political ends. <br />
<br />
I also refer to an August 1969 meeting at which Michael O’Riordan of the Irish Workers Party, Hughie Moore and James Stewart of the CPNI (both parties amalgamated in 1970 to form the CPI), John Gollan, George Matthews and Palme Dutt of the CPGB, and Greaves and Sean Redmond of the Irish Committee of the CPGB were present. Both Greaves and Redmond were also leading members of the Connolly Association. That meeting was called to discuss the crisis in the north and suggests a the very least a common approach on the part of the organisations, including the CA, represented at the meeting. <br />
<br />
Elsewhere in his review, Coughlan states that the organisation for which the Connolly Association was alleged, by a wide range of people across the political spectrum to be a ‘front’, the Communist Party of Great Britain, no longer exists and that the CA has survived it by 20 years.<br />
That is true. However, it is also the case that the Communist Party of Britain also survived the demise of the CPGB and indeed would claim to be its spiritual, historical and ideological heir. It is interesting then that the CPB and the CA continue to enjoy close relations. They have organised joint events and both the current and previous online editors of the Connolly Association Irish Democrat are members of the CPB. That may or may not signify anything in the context of the current debate although it might be taken as a token of the ongoing strong links between the orthodox, or what used to be, orthodox Communist movement and the Connolly Association. <br />
<br />
The MCF (MOVEMENT FOR COLONIAL FREEDOM) AS “EFFECTIVELY ANOTHER CPGB ORGANISATION” (p.153): My comment regarding the MCF is actually a quote from a 2006 article by Josiah Brownell in the Canadian Journal of History In which he says that in the 1960s ‘the MCF had effectively become a Communist front.’ (p238). It did have its offices in the same building as the Connolly Association. <br />
<br />
JACK BENNETT “A MEMBER OF THE NORTHERN IRELAND COMMUNIST PARTY"(CPNI) (pp. 64 and 76): <br />
Bennett was involved in a key internal debate within the CPNI on the latter’s attitude towards the national question. <br />
<br />
JUSTIN KEATING AND MICHAEL O'LEARY: Both O’Leary and Keating had been members of the Connolly Association and both remained close for a number of years to people close to the republican movement. Keating was a member of the Wolfe Tone Society, as recorded in the minutes, and O’Leary spoke at meetings organised by the WTS. Members of the WTS, including Coughlan, assisted in O’Leary’s successful election campaign for Labour in 1965. I doubt that Greaves was referring to Keating with contempt in 1965. We must await the making available to researchers of the Greaves Journals to find out. <br />
<br />
GREAVES BOOK “THE IRISH CRISIS”: The reason I refer to Greaves “The Irish Question and the British People” is because it was published (1963) during the period under review and was circulated to people within left and republican circles in Ireland in typescript. It had a direct influence at the time unlike his later work ‘The Irish Crisis.’ <br />
<br />
GREAVES DENOUNCING REPUBLICANS TO THE IRISH EMBASSY IN LONDON: The report to which I refer is available in the National Archives and clearly conveys Feehan’s view that Greaves had sought him out at the march in order to let him know that Greaves was opposed to Clann nhEireann. Feehan also says in the report that Greaves said that he believed that the Clann had been responsible for the petrol bomb. <br />
<br />
Finally, my reference to the Wolfe Tone Society minutes now being in Roy Johnson’s possession was based on my having been told by another researcher that Dr. Johnson had been given the documents that formerly had been in possession of Anthony Coughlan and Cathal MacLiam. Hopefully they and the Greaves Journal will eventually enter the public domain. Perhaps, as Greaves executor, Anthony Coughlan might consider donating them to the National Library.<br />
<br />
Rethinking the Republic [1]http://www.indymedia.ie/article/99779#comment2830192011-08-25T14:21:52+00:00Matt Treacytreacyma at tcd dot ieThe Phoenix carries a piece today outling evidence which would appear to indicat...The Phoenix carries a piece today outling evidence which would appear to indicate that Coughlan was in fact a member of the Irish workers Party in the 1960s.<br />
<br />
Coughlan & CPIhttp://www.indymedia.ie/article/99779#comment2830232011-08-25T16:06:41+00:00Malachy SteensonThough they also say that Coughlan says it was planted. Stranger & stranger.Though they also say that Coughlan says it was planted. Stranger & stranger.Rethinking the Republic [2]http://www.indymedia.ie/article/99779#comment2830352011-08-26T00:20:37+00:00Matt TreacyThey could not possibly have been planted Malachy.They could not possibly have been planted Malachy.Malachyhttp://www.indymedia.ie/article/99779#comment2830432011-08-26T12:26:42+00:00pat c"Though they also say that Coughlan says it was planted. Stranger & stranger."
..."Though they also say that Coughlan says it was planted. Stranger & stranger."<br />
<br />
Well he would say that, wouldn't he?<br />
<br />
How Coughlan has sunk: working with racists like JUstin Barrett and Maurice Colgan and raising anti-immigrant hysteria.Rethinking the Republic [3]http://www.indymedia.ie/article/99779#comment2830752011-08-27T20:31:21+00:00Matt TreacySeems as though the discussion on this was sufficiently annoying people on Cedar...Seems as though the discussion on this was sufficiently annoying people on Cedar Lounge Revolution to have the threads taken down!<br />
<br />
Puzzled to hear that Matt.http://www.indymedia.ie/article/99779#comment2830872011-08-28T11:36:45+00:00WorldbyStorm
Matt, I'm very puzzled that you would say something that is absolutely incorrec...<br />
Matt, I'm very puzzled that you would say something that is absolutely incorrect. <br />
<br />
<em>No</em> post or accompanying thread has been taken down relating to your book on the CLR. In the past three months by contrast we've had five posts relating to your book. Each of those remains online and can easiliy be found by googling the name of your book along with the Cedar Lounge Revolution. Each one has been extremely positive about the book itself and recommended people get out and read it.<br />
<br />
During that period you and I were in direct communication by email over it where at all points I expressed my hope and support that various issues faced by the publication of the book would be surmounted. As recently as a week or two ago Garibaldy in his post on books to read this Summer named it as one along with Conor McCabe's Sins of the Father that was essential. Here are the five posts and accompanying threads.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://cedarlounge.wordpress.com/2011/08/21/rethinking-the-republic-matt-treacy-on-newstalk-on-sunday-8-pm/" title="http://cedarlounge.wordpress.com/2011/08/21/rethinking-the-republic-matt-treacy-on-newstalk-on-sunday-8-pm/">http://cedarlounge.wordpress.com/2011/08/21/rethinking-...8-pm/</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://cedarlounge.wordpress.com/2011/08/18/extremely-belated-summer-reading-post/" title="http://cedarlounge.wordpress.com/2011/08/18/extremely-belated-summer-reading-post/">http://cedarlounge.wordpress.com/2011/08/18/extremely-b...post/</a> - [where Garibaldy recommended it to people to read!]<br />
<br />
<a href="http://cedarlounge.wordpress.com/2011/07/30/rethinking-the-republic-redux/" title="http://cedarlounge.wordpress.com/2011/07/30/rethinking-the-republic-redux/">http://cedarlounge.wordpress.com/2011/07/30/rethinking-...edux/</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://cedarlounge.wordpress.com/2011/05/30/the-ira-1956-69-rethinking-the-republic/" title="http://cedarlounge.wordpress.com/2011/05/30/the-ira-1956-69-rethinking-the-republic/">http://cedarlounge.wordpress.com/2011/05/30/the-ira-195...blic/</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://cedarlounge.wordpress.com/2011/05/20/the-ira-1956-69-rethinking-the-republic-matt-treacy/" title="http://cedarlounge.wordpress.com/2011/05/20/the-ira-1956-69-rethinking-the-republic-matt-treacy/">http://cedarlounge.wordpress.com/2011/05/20/the-ira-195...eacy/</a><br />
<br />
The only intervention in threads on the topic were in relation to one person commenting who kept naming names despite repeated requests from me that s/he desist and who then when onto insult others on the site who had any sort of critique of the book. I think that that was fair process given the disruption that individual was causing and even still we haven't banned that person.<br />
<br />
Rethinking the Republic [4]http://www.indymedia.ie/article/99779#comment2833802011-09-07T14:16:14+00:00Matt TreacyTom Redmond of the CPI has joined the fray. In the latest issue of Socialist Voi...Tom Redmond of the CPI has joined the fray. In the latest issue of Socialist Voice he claims that the membership lists for the Irish Workers Party on which Anthony Coughlan and Roy Johnston are included over the period from 1963 to 1968, are in fact subscription lists for Irish Workers Voice.<br />
<br />
Apart from the fact that the lists refer to 'membership' and 'members' and a CPI members confirmed to the Phoenix that all of the other names on one list alongside Coughlan and Johnston in 1968 were members, to claim that the sums paid were subscriptions for a newspaper is absurd.<br />
<br />
IWV was a monthly that sold for a few old pence. I don't have a copy to hand but I would imagine that it was no more than 2 or 3d.<br />
<br />
In 1965 Coughlan is shown to have paid £8, five shillings. That would have been enough to buy the Workers Voice for over 2000 months!<br />
<br />
Lies, damn lies, and anti-communismhttp://www.indymedia.ie/article/99779#comment2834032011-09-08T00:11:52+00:00Mark GunningArticle from current (September) edition of “Socialist Voice” monthly publicatio...Article from current (September) edition of “Socialist Voice” monthly publication of the Communist Party of Ireland<br />
<br />
Lies, damn lies, and anti-communism<br />
by Tom Redmond (National Executive Committee, CPI)<br />
<br />
THE publication of a book by Matt Treacy, The IRA, 1956–1969, has caused some contro- versy around the question whether the Communist Party, and some individuals linked to it, may have directly intervened in the republican movement to promote a swing to the left in the 1960s and 70s.<br />
<br />
The author is an active member of Sinn Féin who writes for An Phoblacht and is an adviser to the party in Dáil Éireann. The allegations mentioned in the book are not new—they have surfaced before in books on and by veteran republicans, such as Mac Stiofáin and Ó Brádaigh—and range from a Moscowinspired conspiracy channelled through the Communist Party of Great Britain by way of C. Desmond Greaves of the<br />
Connolly Association to Irish communist parties and the utilising of the services of Anthony Coughlan and Roy Johnston. Variations on these allegation surfaced in this book and, recently, in the Phoenix.<br />
<br />
I say Irish communist parties, because until they unified in 1972 the communist party in Ireland took the form of the Irish Workers’ Party in the South and the Communist Party<br />
(Northern Ireland) in the North. I feel qualified to answer these allegations with some degree of authority because I was a member of the Connolly Association and the CPGB from 1957 to 1968 and, on my return to Ireland, of the IWP and then CPI from 1968. I was a member of the leadership in most of these parties throughout those years and—the left being a small place—knew these individuals personally as well as politically.<br />
<br />
While I am more concerned with the politics behind all this, it is as well to clear the decks of claims and counter-claims. They may hold a fascination for the sensation-hunters, but they are also part of the quagmire of anti-communism.<br />
<br />
Anthony Coughlan has answered the claim that he was a member of the CPGB and the IWP, and all the related claims, in an open letter to Matt Treacy. The latter does not accept this and supports the counter-claim in the current issue of the Phoenix. Roy<br />
Johnston has documented openly and in detail his affiliations (in his book A Century of Endeavour), although, being in the CPGB on his return to Ireland, he did not join the IWP.<br />
<br />
Tony Coughlan was a leading member of the Connolly Association and is in fact the executor of Desmond Greaves’s will. He returned to Ireland in 1962 and played a role in the Wolfe Tone Society and wrote and spoke for left-wing and radical groups, including<br />
Sinn Féin. He never joined the CPGB, IWP, or CPI.<br />
<br />
The Phoenix, hot on the muckraking trail, has gone trawling through the CPI archives, recently handed over to the Gilbert Library in Dublin, looking for any mention of Anthony Coughlan. Lo and behold, they did find references to him in a list of donors<br />
and, worse still, with a C behind some of these, indicating, they claim, “cleared.” The Phoenix and Matt Treacy suggest that this is proof of a membership subscription and arrears.<br />
<br />
The real explanation is that the IWP produced a weekly bulletin, Workers’ Voice, in exchange for a monthly subscription. It was a newsletter as well as a means of appealing for donations. <br />
<br />
Tony Coughlan subscribed to this bulletin; hence the financial transactions. I often wrote it and can remember receiving friendly criticism from him. Tony also wrote a monthly<br />
column for the Irish Democrat, the Connolly Association’s paper.<br />
<br />
Another reference in the Phoenix is an extract from the minutes of the Executive Committee of the IWP, which states: “It was agreed that Cde.O’Riordan should arrange to discuss Cde. Coughlan’s articles in the Irish Democrat.” Does the title “comrade”<br />
imply membership? Or what is suggested?<br />
<br />
I can’t remember the detail but imagine that some comrades felt that the Irish Democrat articles were a bit dodgy—not unusual in those fluid days, and it would be common to discuss fraternal differences with someone seen as a political ally and, in minutes, using the term “comrade.” <br />
<br />
All this could be seen as irrelevant except that it smacks of anticommunism and the witch-hunting of individuals. It reminds me of an incident in Dáil Éireann when Justin<br />
Keating of the Labour Party, a member of the coalition Government of the time, was shouted at for being a communist. The haranguer was able to produce the minutes of the Executive Committee of the Irish Workers’ League (precursor of the IWP), where he was listed.<br />
<br />
It’s true that Keating had briefly been a member; but the purpose, in the tradition of Joe McCarthy, was to do lethal political damage to the individual and to the Labour Party and to keep aflame the anti-communism of the Cold War. The information had obviously been passed from the Special Branch to Fianna Fáil.<br />
<br />
But to get to the meat—the real politics. In the mid-1960s Irish society had begun to awaken from the dark of its inward-looking conservatism. The answers were not just “blowing in the wind,” they were being sought in social agitation and industrial militancy. The fiftieth anniversary of 1916 had kindled an appreciation of, above all, Connolly and his glossed-over role as a Marxist.<br />
<br />
The fresh thinking, particularly among young people, was to fuel 1968 Paris and Prague Springs, in the United States the civil rights and antiwar movements, and of course our own civil rights movement. Social agitation, mass movements and the questioning of orthodox thinking affected all those seeking alternative strategies.<br />
<br />
This was the background of the republican movement encouraging a process of re-evaluation. It was to be a painful process, even before the pogroms of 1969, and the repressive response to civil rights demands increased divisions.<br />
<br />
In looking for answers, many in the republican movement, often characterized as the Cathal Goulding leadership, looked for guidance in socialist republicanism.<br />
<br />
At different times and in different circumstances the Wolfe Tone Society served as a think tank, and people like Peadar O’Donnell, George Gilmore, Tony Coughlan, Kader Asmal, Brendan Scott, Mick O’Riordan (and even myself) had an input to their journals, seminars, and debate. Roy Johnston has documented his role in all this.<br />
<br />
The main point I want to stress is that this political process came from within as part of a quest for ideas and discussion from all levels of their movement. The politicising of individuals and the volatile debates were part of a movement in transition under its own<br />
contradictions.<br />
<br />
The idea that all this took place as a result of “outside infiltration” is a mere conspiracy theory. “Éire Nua” was as much a necessary contribution to their internal debates as was Séamus Costello’s national liberation concept. In that milieu it was obvious that views, polemics and debates of the broad left, including communist viewpoints, would be avidly read and debated. Personal contacts helped this process and established initial mutual<br />
respect. <br />
<br />
Eoin Ó Broin of Sinn Féin has produced a valuable book, Sinn Féin and the Politics of Left Republicanism, tracing the development of their movement through previous generations and the lessons for today. Matt Treacy, also of Sinn Féin, should reread<br />
it and devote his energy to focusing his party to define and practice what is modern socialist republicanism rather than playing the witch-hunter.<br />
<br />
IWVhttp://www.indymedia.ie/article/99779#comment2835052011-09-13T11:43:27+00:00J.P. DoyleIf Matt Treacy checked the archives he would have discovered that the IWV (Irish...If Matt Treacy checked the archives he would have discovered that the IWV (Irish Workers Voice) was a newsletter published weekly and distributed widely by the CPI. If my memory is correct a list of subscriptions was published in the newsletter either in the first or last edition each month. Rethinking the Republic [5]http://www.indymedia.ie/article/99779#comment2835092011-09-13T14:18:39+00:00Matt TreacyJP, it was Tom who referred to 'monthly subscriptions.' Not I.
Anyway, the list...JP, it was Tom who referred to 'monthly subscriptions.' Not I.<br />
<br />
Anyway, the lists (note the plural there) are NOT subscription lists to any newspaper or journal. Nor are they the records of voluntary donations. They are membership lists for the Irish Workers Party. <br />
<br />
Anyone wishing to contradict that is going to have to up their game. <br />
<br />
And possibly even go beyond calling people liars and muck raking anti-Communists. <br />
<br />
Hill 16 ticket for Sunday to the first person to call me a Trotskyite-fascist-Japanese spy :-)Hill 16 tickethttp://www.indymedia.ie/article/99779#comment2835302011-09-14T10:03:00+00:00MalachySend me the ticket first and I will oblige. <br />
Send me the ticket first and I will oblige. <br />
Irish Workers Voice (IWV)http://www.indymedia.ie/article/99779#comment2835332011-09-14T12:03:12+00:00J.P. DoyleMatt, you stated: “IWV was a monthly that sold for a few old pence. I don't have...Matt, you stated: “IWV was a monthly that sold for a few old pence. I don't have a copy to hand but I would imagine that it was no more than 2 or 3d.”<br />
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I stated in response “If Matt Treacy checked the archives he would have discovered that the IWV (Irish Workers Voice) was a newsletter published weekly and distributed widely by the CPI. If my memory is correct a list of subscriptions was published in the newsletter either in the first or last edition each month.”<br />
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What I stated is a fact - the IWV was a weekly newsletter published by the CPI (and its predecessor the IWP). The list of subscriptions received was published in the Newsletter once a month. There was no price on it and it was not sold. It was sent out free by post to party members, supporters and to many others in the broad left and trade union movement. The IWV was always on the counter in New Books/Connolly Books for customers to take with them, and there was no charge for it. <br />
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I am not accusing anyone of being a liar and/or a muck raking anti-Communist. I am only stating the facts. <br />
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I assume that the back issues of the IWV are available in the archives – which will confirm what I have said is correct.<br />
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JPhttp://www.indymedia.ie/article/99779#comment2835362011-09-14T13:47:43+00:00Matt TreacyThis business about the IWV is a red herring.
The fact is that the lists in the...This business about the IWV is a red herring.<br />
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The fact is that the lists in the CPI archives are membership lists. People claiming otherwise are only making fools of themselves although it has not prevented them calling myself and others liars. <br />
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By the way, it matters to me not one whit whether Coughlan or anyone else was a member of the IWP, other than it does change the historical understanding of what was happening in the RM in the 60s. But I showed that anyway in the book without having such proof.<br />
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Perhaps that is what is annoying people. <br />
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More from the archives.http://www.indymedia.ie/article/99779#comment2838552011-09-22T13:41:28+00:00Matt TreacyThe current issue of Phoenix carries further update on the CP archives and membe...The current issue of Phoenix carries further update on the CP archives and membership lists.<br />
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Quite clear that the lists are membership of the Irish Workers Party and nothing at all to do with the Irish Workers Voice.<br />
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Paperback due.http://www.indymedia.ie/article/99779#comment2861122011-11-30T13:22:41+00:00Matt TreacyBook has sold over half the original print run despite the prohibitive price tag...<P>Book has sold over half the original print run despite the prohibitive price tag! </P>
<P>Plans to issue in paperback after Christmas.</P>
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<P>Then who knows, perhaps a more in depth look at some of the isses adverted to above but hwich have since been clarified by the Muse of History!</P>
<P> </P>Matts Bookhttp://www.indymedia.ie/article/99779#comment2861172011-11-30T16:17:07+00:00Malachy SteensonPrice was clearly an issue for most who did not have an academic or serious inte...Price was clearly an issue for most who did not have an academic or serious interst, should get more debate in paperback, glad to see it sold well They are Mouldering in their graves.http://www.indymedia.ie/article/99779#comment2861192011-11-30T17:45:33+00:0021st Century Guy.They are as forgotten as yesterday's fart.They are as forgotten as yesterday's fart.Thanks Malachyhttp://www.indymedia.ie/article/99779#comment2861402011-12-01T08:45:55+00:00Matt TreacyHope things are well with you. To be honest most I ever spent on a book was £60 ...<P>Hope things are well with you. To be honest most I ever spent on a book was £60 and I still wake up in the middle of the night thinking about it!</P>
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<P>Paperback ought to have a bigger take up.</P>The IRA in the 1960shttp://www.indymedia.ie/article/99779#comment2904972012-06-29T02:02:33+00:00Matt TreacyWell, we've put that red herring about whether certain people were members of th...Well, we've put that red herring about whether certain people were members of the Party - one of whom was threatening to ban my book in the traditional Stalinist manner - to bed.<br />
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Oh. next book shall be interesting :-)Matthttp://www.indymedia.ie/article/99779#comment2904982012-06-29T03:09:56+00:00pat cDiscussion of the meeting on Tuesday is at: http://www.politics.ie/forum/history...Discussion of the meeting on Tuesday is at: <a href="http://www.politics.ie/forum/history/191571-audio-public-meeting-republicanism-1960s-26-6-2012-a.html" title="http://www.politics.ie/forum/history/191571-audio-public-meeting-republicanism-1960s-26-6-2012-a.html">http://www.politics.ie/forum/history/191571-audio-publi....html</a><br />
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Recording of Talk on 1960s Republicanism by Brian Hanley and Matt Treacy 26-06-12<br />
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Audio from public meeting in the Ireland Institute on Pearse Street on Republicanism in the 1960s. The speakers were historians Brian Hanley and Matt Treacy and the meeting was chaired by Tommy Graham. Includes contributions (from the floor) from many people active in the Republican movement.<br />
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<a href="http://www.mixcloud.com/dublincommunitytv/recording-of-talk-on-1960s-republicanism-by-brian-hanley-and-matt-treacy-26-06-12/" title="http://www.mixcloud.com/dublincommunitytv/recording-of-talk-on-1960s-republicanism-by-brian-hanley-and-matt-treacy-26-06-12/">http://www.mixcloud.com/dublincommunitytv/recording-of-...6-12/</a>New book on CPIhttp://www.indymedia.ie/article/99779#comment2925962012-10-10T09:12:28+00:00Matt TreacyMy new book on the history of the Communist Party of Ireland, published by Broca...My new book on the history of the Communist Party of Ireland, published by Brocaire Books, went up on Lulu yesterday. Does going political equate with adopting bourgeois parliamentarianism?http://www.indymedia.ie/article/99779#comment2925972012-10-10T10:09:04+00:00An Draighneán DonnI always find it amazing when I hear people talking about "going political." As ...I always find it amazing when I hear people talking about "going political." As if the IRA wasn't a political organization in the 1920s, 30s, 40s and 50s. Or as if it is not possible to have a Proletarian politics, outside bourgeois structures. When people talk about "going political," are they not really denying any political possibility outside the bourgeois régime? In effect, are they not doing the enemy's dirty work? Or is it just mental laziness? Either way, it denies real politics, i.e. politics that has not been castrated and corralled by the interests of the ruling class. Leinster House was set up for one reason, and one reason only, i.e. to exclude the vast majority of the Irish people from effective political participation, and, thus, maintain the power, wealth and privilege of the native Irish comprador class, and their British, and later, US, overlords.