Irish Marxist archive

national | miscellaneous | press release

Wednesday August 06, 2003 13:27

by Jim Monaghan

History Documents of the mainly Trotskyist Irish Left. A new Archive.
If we are to succeed we must learn from history otherwise we will continue to repeat mistakes

Many generations have tried to end Imperialist and Capitalist exploitation and alas have failed. It remains to be seen whether the current generation will be any more successfull. The important thing about the people who wrote thses documents is that they tried. The earliest Irish Trotskyist was Tom O'Flaherty who was a founder of the American Communist Party and later of the American Trotskyist movement. He returned to Ireland in the thirties and died of heart failure. He was a brther of Liam O'Flaherty.Nora Connolly-O'Brien corresponded with Trotsky.
The movement proper was founded by an International Brigades veteran Bob Armstrong. His group included the later Trade Union Leader Matt Merrigan and the painter Paddy Trench who worked for the POUM in the Spanish Civil War.This group had friendly relations with Michael Price of the old Republican Congress.
Later veterans of the movement included Gery Lawless, Paddy Healy, Ranor Lysaght up to the current claiments to the roles in the variouys groups both large and small.

This is to announce a new Irish Marxist Archive, which can be found at:

http://homepage.eircom.net/~workersrepublic

We hope will be of interest to Irish leftists. The intention is to
present a number of historic documents which may not be readily
available and which give some idea of the history of the struggle for
socialism on this island. We don't want to ignore international
issues, but we doubt whether Irish left groups would have contributed
much original material to debates over the Iranian Revolution,
Afghanistan, Iraq, etc.

Why not put the documents on the Marxist Internet Archive?

Firstly, we don't want to limit the documents to those output by
people now dead. The aim is not to reproduce the Marxist Internet
Archive, but to supplement it with documents relating to Ireland,
sorted by subject. We also don't rule out stating an opinion where we
think that one is due - we aren't just archivists.

What can you do?

Firstly, if you are interested in what we are offering, read what we
are putting on the site. If you have any documents which you think
people might be interested in, contact us.

MATT.

---

'They say that leaders always emerge, no matter what the ideals or the
systems of democracy that are put in place. Well, this may or may not
be true, but what is the case is that arseholes certainly do.'

---

Éirigh lasadh as an splanc seo

mkavanagh@iol.ie

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Comments (5 of 5)

Excellent Idea

by Pablo Montana - Independant Socialist

Wed Aug 06, 2003 16:23

This archive should be an invaluable tool to pull together the splintered fragments of the FI in Ireland.

Marxist

by non trotskyist

Thu Aug 07, 2003 15:37

Jim et al,Fair play for providing web space for this subject. Some initial comments.

re Marxist archive? from the intro it appears to be a Trotskyist Archive?

Re the Links
I know it is only up and running but
why link to the British SWP and not their Irish web site?

Why no link to the Socialist Party in Ireland

Why is the link to the Communist Party not titled Communist Party of Ireland? Why no link to Sicialist Democracy?

(re Left republican links)Why no links to IRSP, Sinn Fein, Workers Party, Official Republican Movement?

Links to website

Thu Aug 07, 2003 16:21

It is a new site. I gather that it is intended to link at least the Trotskyist Parties active in Ireland. I will pass on any sites posted here.
It is meant to be an archive of basically early texts from the Trotskyist movement. I will suggest that they change the reference on the CPI.
The WSM has a good archival site on Anarchist figures including Jack White who was a founder of the Citizen army and who was in Spain during the Civil war.
The idea is not to duplicate stuff done elsewhere.For example there is an incredible amount of Connolly material available on the web and there is a site which is gathering and posting up all Marx, Engels, Lenin, Trotsky and other figures in a number of languages.
I am sure that the other ideological tendencies are doing similar things

Materials on Trotskyist archival website

Mon Aug 11, 2003 13:05

Added to Workers' Republic Website:

Report to Trotsky on prospects in Ireland (1935) and related to this, an interview with CLR James (1986)

Correspondence between Nora Connolly O'Brien & Leon Trotsky (1936)

Letter from Sherman Stanley (The New International, May 1939)

Michael Farrell, The Struggle in the North (1970)

DR O'Connor Lysaght, The Survival of the Irish National Question (1990)

Spartacist, 'Theses on Ireland' (1977)

Report of Engels' Tour of Ireland (1856)

Jim Connell & The Red Flag (1889)

These and more can be found at our new permanent home: http://www.workersrepublic.org

MATT.
---
'They say that leaders always emerge, no matter what the ideals or the systems of democracy that are put in place. Well, this may or may not be true, but what is the case is that arseholes certainly do.'

Workers' Republic Website

by Matt Kelly

Thu Aug 21, 2003 13:04

a.marxist at iol dot ie

I'm one of the people responsible for the Website, so I'll answer some of the comments so far.

Firstly, if you get past the intro, you'll see that the site isn't exclusively Trotskyist, though that is the background of the people involved.

The links have been improved. It no longer links to the British SWP. There is and always has been a link to the Socialist Party in Ireland. I would like to link to as many Irish left organisations as possible and am open to anyone who sends me a url for inclusion.

As Jim has said, it is meant to be materials which are not available elsewhere, so it will never duplicate what Republican organisations or the Marxist Internet Archive have done.

The site will be updated on a weekly basis. If anyone has documents they think people would be interested in, then I'm open to suggestions.

The url of the site has changed to a more memorable address: www.workersrepublic.org.

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Comments (5 of 5)