Ireland

The Dublin Labour War 1913-14 (part 1)

Part of a series of articles on Connolly here Introduction by Sean Matgamna The Dublin Labour War of 1913-14 is one of the great epics of working class struggle and endeavour. Officially, it lasted from August 1913 to mid-January 1914, but some of the lockouts dragged on beyond that date. It is well known throughout the world because Vladimir Lenin wrote about it. That was in the first week, and therefore, many of his judgements were not true for the strike-lockout as a whole. Nor were the locked-out workers innocents picked upon by the 400 Dublin employers who banded together to fight them...

Catholicism and socialism

This is the title of a pamphlet by Patrick J. Cooney of Bridgeport, Conn., which we would like to see in the hands of all our readers, and especially those who are struggling towards the light out of the economic darkness of today.

Faith and Fatherland

We gather from the American newspapers that our countrymen in the United States army and navy have been highly distinguishing themselves in the cause of the war with Spain. This is as it should be and in consonance with all our Irish traditions. We are a fighting race, we are told, and every Irishman is always proud to hear our politicians and journalists tell of our exploits in the fighting line — in other countries, in other climes and in other times. Yes, we are a fighting race. Whether it is under the Stars and Stripes or under the Union Jack; planting the flag of America over the walls of...

Stalling in Kirklees union impasse

In mid-February, Paul Holmes, elected national president of Unison in June 2021, was re-elected as secretary of Kirklees local government branch. After the branch’s AGM in February, union officials said that the branch would be returning to normal functioning after two years under regional control while Holmes and other branch officers were suspended by the council. The council sacked Holmes on 2 February. He is appealing. Today, 28 March, we tried to contact the Kirklees branch office and got an answerphone message that the branch cannot respond to phone or email enquiries. Members wanting...

Notes from Ireland: Bigotry and agitation

This article from Forward , 10 May 1913, was reprinted in part in the 1975 pamphlet Ireland Upon the Dissecting Table , under the headline "Many-headed opposition". The part reprinted was the final few paragraphs, from "That our readers might understand the position..." During the past month the most outstanding features of the situation in the Labour movement here have been the signal advance made by the dock labourers on some of the cross-Channel steamers, the decision of the Recorder, Judge Craig, in an action by the relatives of a member against the Textile Operatives' Society of Ireland...

The United Irish League, the Labour Party, and "the Pleasant Relations"

This article from Forward , 3 May 1913, was published in part - the last third or so, starting with "From time to time in these Notes..." - under the headline "Catholicism, Protestantism, and Politics" in the 1975 pamphlet "Ireland Upon the Dissecting Table". One of the earliest of the pioneers of the modern Socialist movement in Scotland — poor Bob Hutchinson — whose death was recorded in Forward some months ago, was wont to say on Glasgow Green when interrupted by some of the rival gangs of Irish disputants — "The Irish question, do you say! Why, we are all Irish, only some of you came here...

Labour in the new Irish Parliament

What is to be the position of Labour in the first Irish Parliament? To judge by the written opinion of many of our friends we would be inclined to believe that the representation of Labour in that Parliament would be a certainty, and that it would not be a mere nominal representation, but rather on a large, and as one writer has said, a dominating scale. If this were so, then we might truly felicitate the Labour movement in Ireland upon its marvellous progress, and felicitate the Irish working class upon the keenness of their insight and the alertness of their intelligence. Writing as one who...

Kino Eye: James Joyce on screen

James Joyce’s semi-autobiographical A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man , published in 1916 and adapted for the screen by Joseph Strick in 1977, depicts the coming of age of Stephen Dedalus (Joyce) played by Luke Johnston (when Stephen was ten) and by Bosco Hogan (later in life). Irish actor T. P. McKenna plays Simon Dedalus, Stephen’s father. He features in one of the most memorable moments in the film: a dinner-table confrontation between Simon and Dante, Stephen’s governess. Simon laments that the Irish “are a priest-ridden race”. Dante angrily responds: “If we are a priest-ridden race...

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