Republicanism and the Irish Left

The Irish national revolution of 1916-23 left behind a partitioned island, with a northern segment that remained part of the United Kingdom and a southern 'Free State' - later to become a Republic - that was dominated by conservative forces. Most of those who had been involved in the struggle for national independence peeled off to form new parties in the 1920s, leaving behind a rump of militant Irish republicans. Sinn Fein and its military wing, the Irish Republican Army, would pose the greatest threat to political stability in the two Irish states. Although the Irish left has historically been among the weakest in Western Europe, repeated attempts have been made to fuse republicanism with socialism, from the Republican Congress in the 1930s to the Official Republican Movement of the 1970s and '80s. At present, Sinn Fein poses the main electoral challenge to the conservative parties in the southern state, while holding office in a devolved administration north of the border. Eoin O Broin's Sinn Fein and the Politics of Left Republicanism offers an assessment of these efforts from a leading Sinn Fein activist who maintains a certain critical distance from his own party's approach, while The Lost Revolution by Brian Hanley and Scott Millar and INLA: Deadly Divisions give comprehensive accounts of two earlier left-republican projects.