An Irish revolutionary in Britain: Sean McLoughlin and the British socialist movement, 1920–22

Abstract

Sean McLoughlin was a significant figure during many of the tumultuous events that rocked Ireland throughout the 1916–23 period. He played a leading role in the Easter Rising of 1916 and was prominent in both the republican and socialist movements in the years that followed. But McLoughlin was also an activist in the British socialist movement, where he was noted both as an outstanding public speaker and an advanced thinker. This article examines McLoughlin's activities within the British socialist movement and looks both at his impact and the contribution to the development of socialist thinking he made whilst there.

Keywords:

• socialist
• revolution
• imperialism
• republicanism
• Ireland

Notes

 1. For more on McLoughlin's role in the Rising see McGuire, ‘Sean McLoughlin’, 26–30.

 2. The Socialist, 13 March 1919.

 3. For more on this see O'Connor, Reds and the Green, 32–3.

 4. The Socialist, 23 October 1919; 10 June 1920.

 5. Voice of Labour, 15 November 1919.

 6. The Forward, 3 January 1920, advertised the meetings in advance.

 7. For McLoughlin's speech in full, see British National Archives (BNA), Report on the Revolutionary Organisations in the United Kingdom (RRO), 9 January 1920, CAB24/96/cp429.

 8. Glasgow Observer, 10 January 1920.

 9. Glasgow Observer, 17 January 1920.

10. The Socialist, 12 February 1920.

11. Ibid.

12. BNA, RRO, 26 February 1920, CAB24/99/cp748.

13. BNA, RRO, 12 February 1920, CAB24/98/cp620.

14. BNA, RRO, 4 March 1920, CAB24/99/cp791.

15. Meeting advertised in The Socialist, 26 February 1920.

16. BNA, RRO, 10 March 1920, CAB24/100/cp840.

17. The Socialist, 18 March 1920.

18. The Socialist, 15 April 1920.

19. Ibid.

20. ILP Conference report, 1920, 70–1.

21. The Socialist, 15 April 1920.

22. Report of the Political Organisations of the Working Class, William O'Brien Papers, 15,674 (3) part 9, National Library of Ireland.

23. The Socialist, 25 March 1920.

24. The Socialist, 27 May 1920.

25. Ibid.

26. Of course, the proposition underlying James Connolly's core political ideology outlined some twenty-five years earlier – that only through socialism could Ireland be truly free and independent – was also that socialism could be developed in Ireland before Britain. At the same time, however, Connolly, although easily the most advanced Marxist theoretician ever to emerge from either the Irish or British socialist movements, did not focus on or address the dialectical relationship that existed between the two struggles in the way that McLoughlin did.

27. Russian State Social and Political Archives (RGASPI), Report of the ICLP to the Third International, 20 May 1920, Russian State Social and Political Archives, Moscow 495/89/2-3.

28. The Socialist, 15 July 1920.

29. The Socialist, 23 September 1920.

30. National Archives of Ireland (NA), Sean McLoughlin statement to Bureau of Military History, WS 290, 46.

31. Ibid.

32. The Socialist, 13 January 1921.

33. The Socialist, 3 February 1921. Henry Dubb was the hapless worker created by US socialist cartoonist Ryan Walker. Dubb's unquestioning acceptance of his wretched conditions of existence and the absurd logic offered by the capitalists to justify it formed the basis of many of Walker's satirical strips.

34. The Socialist , 3 February 1921.

35. RGASPI, Report of the SLP to the 3rd Congress of the Third International, 490/1–3/7.

36. See Challinor, Origins of British Bolshevism, 215–34.

37. The Socialist , May Day supplement, 1920.

38. Ibid.

39. The Socialist , 17 February 1921.

40. Ibid.

41. The Socialist, 14 April 1921.

42. BNA, RRO, 12 May 1921, CAB 24/123/cp2938.

43. Agenda of 18 SLP Annual Conference. The SLP voted against the establishment of such a full-time post at the conference.

44. The Socialist, 14 April 1921.

45. BNA, RRO, 20 December 1921, CAB 24/131/cp3579.

46. JT Murphy quoted in Challinor, Origins of British Bolshevism, 262.

47. The Socialist, 21 April 1921.

48. The Socialist, 28 April 1921.

49. C.H. Burden quoted in Challinor, Origins of British Bolshevism, 267.

50. Peter Brearey interview with C.H. Burden, 1975. I am obliged to Raymond Challinor for a copy of this tape.

51. The Socialist, 5 May 1921.

52. The Socialist, 7 July 1921.

53. BNA, RRO, 18 August 1921, CAB24/127/cp3252.

54. The Socialist, 7 July 1921.

55. Ibid.

56. Sean McLoughlin papers. I am obliged to the McLoughlin family for access to these papers.

57. The Socialist, 25 August 1921.

58. The Socialist, 8 September 1921.

59. Peter Brearey interview with C.H. Burden.

60. BNA, RRO, 29 September 1921, CAB 24/138/cp3350.

61. Peter Brearey interview with C.H. Burden.

62. Ibid.

63. Ibid.

64. Ibid.

65. NA, Sean McLoughlin, 47.

66. SLP, 18th Annual Conference Report.

67. SLP, 17th Annual Conference Report.

68. Peter Brearey interview with C.H. Burden.

69. RRO, 31 March 1922, CAB 24/136/cp3917.

70. RRO, 29 September 1921, CAB 24/128/cp3350.

71. RRO, 16 May 1922, CAB 24/136/cp3983.

72. Workers' Republic, 24 December 1921.

73. Milotte, Communism in Modern Ireland, 60.

74. For McLoughlin's views on the Civil War, see the Workers' Republic, 29 July 1922.

75. McLoughlin's activities as an IRA commandant were noted approvingly by Connolly in his Report of the CPI to the Comintern from October 1921–October 1922, RGASPI, 495/89/16–61.

76. Arrest noted in Military Archives, Dublin, Report of South-West Command, 18 December 1922, CW/ops/2B.