Just Finished Reading: 1916 – Ireland's Revolutionary Tradition by Kieran Allen (FP: 2016) [196pp] 

This was yet another one of those books that turned out not to be exactly what I’d expected. Indeed, it was far more about its sub-title than its main title. Although the author did discuss the events of the Easter Rising in Dublin in 1916 (briefly) as well as the underlying reasons for both the event and its failure (briefly), the main thrust of this often deeply political work was what happened next and how those events echoed through the following century until the present. 

After the failure of the Uprising and the quite brutal British response (things never go well when you’re firing artillery down streets into enemy held buildings) Ireland secured partial independence from the British Empire followed by a short bloody Civil War and counter-revolution. Here I learnt exactly why southern Ireland became the poster child for religious conservatism on steroids. I never fully realised before just how much of a stranglehold the Catholic church had over just about every aspect of Irish life south of the border with Northern Ireland. Coupled with the political power they had access to 24-7 it’s hardly surprising that a clamp down on unions, socialist politics in general (the fear of *communism* was the foundation of much of this and, it seemed, communism was defined as anything that even smelt of social justice or freedom of thought), abortion, divorce, women in any position of power or influence, women in higher education, essentially women as anything other than baby factories (within wedlock naturally) chained to the kitchen sink. Oh, and no access to contraception of any kind, indeed no universal access to healthcare of any kind – unless you could pay through the nose for it, or travel to England which amounted to the same thing. This didn’t really begin to change until the 1970’s and only really got going in the 80’s and beyond.  

On top of this was, as we know, the situation in the North with the minority Catholic community in the separated 6 Counties living under the heel of the majority Protestant community. As you might expect it wasn’t long until fighting broke out as it had been bubbling under for some time. As you’d also expect the Catholics got the rough end of things which prompted both a backlash from organisations like the IRA and the involvement of the British military – AKA ‘The Troubles’.  

Looked at from a very Left-wing perspective - (I hesitate to go so far as to say Marxist, but Karl does come up quite a bit throughout the book) as much of the countries revolutionary tradition/history centres around the life and thought of James Connolly (who I definitely need to read up about!) who was a devoted Socialist/Syndicalist and was a big fan of the bearded one – this was an often fascinating, if at times deeply political look at Irish history post-1916. I think I had a fair, if general, knowledge of Irish history over the last 100 years but I learnt a LOT in less than 200 pages which is cool. Definitely of interest to anyone who wants to dive deeper into Irish political history, though if you’re a novice to this country’s past I’d start with something a bit lighter! More on ‘1916’ to come. 

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