Irish History & Politics

Labouring Beside Lough Erne. A Study of the Fermanagh Labour Movement, 1826-1932.

Unknown Author

Struggle or Starve. Working-Class Unity in Belfast's 1932 Outdoor Relief Riots

Seán Mitchell

The story of how thousands of Catholics and Protestants united to challenge poverty and unemployment in Belfast, Ireland.

Ireland: The Promise of Socialism

Joe Craig, John McAnulty & Paul Flannigan

Hesitant Comrades. The Irish Revolution and the British Labour Movement

Geoffrey Bell

The first published history of the troubled relationship between the British working class and the movement for Irish independence covering the revolutionary period of 1916-21 .

People's Champion. The Life of Alexander Bowman. Pioneer of Labour Politics in Ireland

Terence Bowman

When Alexander Bowman was elected in Belfast Corporation as Labour member in Duncairn in 1897, the very idea that he would still be remembered a century later for his relentless championing of the working class cause appeared unthinkable. Yet Bowman, a near penniless flaxdresser from a humble farming background, richly deserves his place in Irish political and labour history. Twelve years earlier in 1885, following his key role in the birth of organised trade unionism in Belfast, he had been the first working-class Irishman to seek a seat at Westminister. His subsequent support for Gladstone's Home Rule bill and the Dublin parliament which he believed offered the best hope of bringing together Irish people of all persuasions, attracted much criticism. Forced to leave Belfast in 1888, he found himself immersed in the embryonic socialist movements first in Glasgow and then in London. Returning with new ideas to the Belfast trade union fold in 1895, he won the Corporation seat two years later and in 1901 was elected President of the Irish Trade Union Congress. This biography, by his journalist great-grandson Terence Bowman, pays long-overdue tribute to a labour pioneer who, at great personal cost, dedicated his life sufficiently to the welfare of the working classes to earn their, and now our, respect as a People's Champion.

Northern Ireland After the Good Friday Agreement. Victims, Grievance and Blame

Mike Morrissey & Marie Smyth

The difficulties that have dogged the Northern Ireland peace process and the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement are rarely out of the headlines. This book gives a uniquely up-to-date insight into one of the issues at stake for the people of Northern Ireland – the long-term impact of political violence on the civil population.The result of extensive research among local communities, and drawing on survey and interview evidence, Northern Ireland After the Good Friday Agreement sets this issue within the context of past conflict and the continuing sectarian violence of the present. In particular it presents the views of ordinary people about their personal experiences of political violence and the impact it has had upon their lives. Moreover, it shows how the Troubles have affected the young people of the region, and looks at the problems facing a society coming out of a protracted period of low-intensity conflict.

War and an Irish Town

Eamonn McCann

War and an Irish Town is Eamonn McCann's classic account of growing up Catholic in a Northern Irish ghetto.

The Hidden Famine. Hunger, Poverty & Sectarianism in Belfast 1840-50

Christine Kinealy & Gerard MacAtasney

Written by one of the outstanding historians of modern Ireland, The Hidden Famine examines the impact of Ireland's Great Famine on the city of Belfast.

Fragments of Victory. The Contemporary Irish Left

Oisín Gilmore & David Landy (eds)

Inspiring insiders' accounts of modern Irish activism under austerity and beyond

Repealed: Ireland's Unfinished Fight for Reproductive Rights

Camilla Fitzsimons & Sinéad Kennedy

A celebration and analysis of a 35-year long grassroots movement that successfully overturned the ban on abortion in Ireland

Austerity Ireland. The Failure of Irish Capitalism

Kieran Allen & Brian O'Boyle

Ireland has been marketed as the poster boy of EU austerity. EU elites and neoliberal commentators claim that the country's ability to suffer economic pain will attract investors and generate a recovery. In Austerity Ireland, Kieran Allen challenges this official narrative and argues that the Irish state's response to the crash has primarily been designed to protect economic privilege. The resulting austerity has been a failure and is likely to produce a decade of hardship. The book offers a deeply informed diagnosis of Ireland's current socio-economic and political malaise, suggesting that a political earthquake is underway which may benefit the left. Austerity Ireland is essential reading for students of Irish politics and economics, as well as those interested in the politics of austerity and the eurozone crisis.