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ABSTRACT
The far left, defined as those to the left of orthodox communism, with few but important exceptions defined the Northern Ireland Troubles in essentially republican terms as a struggle to complete Irish national self-determination. Despite this lack of independent orientation, far left ideas fertilised both republicanism and loyalism in the 1970s. They are an important element in understanding the dynamics of ideological conflict in the period.
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Notes
1. Julius Caesar, (Act-IV, Scene-III). Quoted by Trotsky, In Defence of October, 6.
2. See English, Armed Struggle.
3. Notably Purdie, Politics in the Streets and Prince, Northern Ireland’s ’68.
4. Crossey and Monaghan, “The Origins of Trotskyism in Ireland,” 56.
5. “Minutes of Organisational Sub-committee”.
6. Whelan, The Socialist Labour League, 7.
7. Birchall, Tony Cliff, 277; and O’Connor Lysaght, “Early History of Irish Trotskyism,” unpaginated.
8. ‘Manifesto’ of the Irish Workers’ Group (1967).
9. O’Connor Lysaght, “History of Irish Trotskyism”.
10. McCann, War and an Irish Town, 31.
11. Ibid., 33.
12. Ibid., 43.
13. Ibid., 50.
14. Arthur, People’s Democracy, 32, 143.
15. Ibid., 39.
16. Hastings, Ulster 1969, 75.
17. Arthur, People’s Democracy, 38.
18. Devlin, Price of My Soul, 120.
19. Heatley, “PD and Burntollet”.
20. Egan and McCormack, Burntollet, 18.
21. Van Voris, Violence in Ulster, 95.
22. Arthur, People’s Democracy, 42.
23. Lilley, “Ready to Fight On …”.
24. Heatley, “The NICRA Split”.
25. Devlin, Price of my Soul, 64, 87, 90, 119.
26. Levin, Pendulum Years, 262.
27. Devlin, Price of My Soul, 205.
28. McClean, Road to Bloody Sunday, 81.
29. Doherty, Paddy Bogside, 173–4.
30. Arthur, People’s Democracy, 68–9.
31. Ibid., 87.
32. See Ballie and Mills, The Manipulators; Smyth, Ulster Assailed.
33. Fitzpatrick, Boys of St Columb’s, 111.
34. Tagart, Bernadette, 369.
35. Mitchell, Come the Revolution, 241.
36. Purdie, “I Remember,” unpaginated.
37. Robinson, Reluctant Judas, 19–20 and passim.
38. Mac an Ali, “The Provisional IRA,” 143.
39. Nursey-Bray, “The Irish Marxists,” 9.
40. Provisional IRA, Freedom Struggle, 27–28, 35, 37, 39, 44.
41. Mair, “Marxist Left,” 168–9.
42. Callaghan, British Trotskyism, 137–8.
43. Shipley, Revolutionaries, 118–19.
44. Ali, Coming British Revolution, 229–30.
45. Shipley, Revolutionaries, 119.
46. Ibid., 134–35, 146.
47. McCann, War and an Irish Town, 88.
48. Reed, Ireland, 179–181.
49. Shipley, Revolutionaries, 144.
50. Callaghan, Far Left, 135.
51. Shipley, Revolutionaries, 144.
52. R.C.G., Revolutionary Road, 84.
53. Irish Freedom Movement. Irish War.
54. “Queen’s University Law Lecturer”.
55. Bell, Troublesome Business, 37.
56. Arnliss, “Nature of Strategy”.
57. Saunders, Alternative London, 174.
58. Ali, 1968 and After.
59. Mason, Paying the Price, 228–30.
60. Shipley, Revolutionaries, 197.
61. See for example, Geoff Bell, British Labour and Ireland, 6–7, 29. This was an IMG pamphlet.
62. See for example, the SWP pamphlet, The Irish War, 25–26.
63. O’Dowd, Rolston and Tomlinson, Northern Ireland, 201–02.
64. Anon., “Unity and Irish Labour,” 6.
65. Crick, March of Militant, 157–58. On the origins of the L&TUG, see Hadden, Common History, Common Struggle, 378.
66. NIC, Committee Minutes 1/9/71.; NIC, Committee Minutes 25/8/71.; “Trade Union Peace Corps”.
67. Bell, British Labour and Ireland, 33–4. For Militant, see Hadden, “Shankill Peace March”.
68. Hadden, Troubled Times, 131 and passim.
69. Workers Association, One Island, Two Nations, 19, 27, 41.
70. Robert Fisk called the Workers’ Association “a vaguely lift-wing and virtually Stalinist loyalist pressure group”. The Point of No Return, 118.
71. Dillon and Lehane, Political Murder in Northern Ireland, 172.
72. Austen Morgan, “Socialism in Ireland,” 210.
73. Woods, Crimes of Loyalty, 57–8.
74. Nelson, Ulster’s Uncertain Defenders, 194–96.
75. Godson, Himself Alone, 29–30.
76. Hanley and Millar, Lost Revolution, 206.
77. Sinn Féin, Eire Nua, 2.
78. White, Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, 172.
79. Fennell, A New Nationalism, 10. The idea of ‘community of communities’ stretches back to anti-Jacobin Catholic social teaching. Adam Müller, Die Elemente der Staatskunst (1809).
80. Whale and Ryder, “Hot Line between the Hard Men”.
81. Freeman, “Talk of an Independent Northern Ireland”.
82. Feeney, Sinn Féin, 273.
83. Farrell, Northern Ireland, 285.
84. Kelly, Longest War, 203.
85. Holland and McDonald, INLA, 86.
86. Adams, Before the Dawn, 214–15.
87. Kelly, Longest War, 203–05.
88. Farrell, Struggle in the North, 34.
89. Mitchell, Native vs. Settler, 156–57.
90. Peoples Democracy, Fascism.
91. Purdie, “Why Sunningdale Collapsed”; Cf. Purdie, ‘Loyalism—Where is it going?’.
92. Brownie, “Peace”.
93. Anon., “Freeman: Devisive”; Anon., “RN answers ‘Freeman’’. See also Anon., “Freeman’s views” and; Anon., “Freeman Hasn’t a Clue”.
94. Billy Mitchell quoted in Edwards, UVF, 147.
95. See Bruce, The Red Hand; for a leftist conclusion on these lines, see Probert, Beyond Green and Orange, 144.
96. Arnliss, “Split in People’s Democracy”.
97. Brownie, “The Orange State”.
98. Ó Broin, Sinn Féin, 231–32.
99. Drake, “The Provisional IRA: A Case Study,” 46.
100. Walsh, Irish Republicanism, 175–76.
101. Adams, Free Ireland, 124.
102. Morrison, Walls Came Down, 206.
103. Flynn, Labour and Ireland.
104. See Deutsch, Mairead Corrigan,129–143.
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Marc Mulholland
Marc Mulholland is Professor of Modern History at Oxford University. His publications include Terence O'Neill (2013) and The Murderer of Warren Street: The True Story of a Nineteenth-Century Revolutionary (2018).