The Story of the Limerick Soviet
The 1919 General Strikes against British Militarism
| Date: | 1981 |
|---|---|
| Edition: | 2nd |
| Author: | D. R. O'Connor Lysaght |
| Type: | Pamphlet |
| View: | View Document |
| Discuss: | Comments on this document |
| Subjects: | Limerick Soviet, 1919 |
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Commentary From The Cedar Lounge Revolution
25th November 2024
Many thanks to the person who forwarded this to the Archive.
This is an important addition to the Archive, a pamphlet written by the late D.R. O’Connor Lysaght (please click here to read an appreciation from the Irish Labour History Society ). In it he outlines the story of the Limerick Soviet of 1919. This was the 2nd edition and was published in April 1981. As the pamphlet notes:
This pamphlet is based on the text of a paper delivered by D.R. O’Connor Lysaght at a public meeting held in the Mechanics’ Institute in Limerick on 27th September, 1979. First Published by the Limerick branch of Peoples Democracy (P.O ), 39 Elm Place, Rathbane, Limerick, to mark the 60th anniversary of the Soviet.
The pamphlet has various sections, an Introduction, The Strike is Organised and so on.
He notes in the Introduction:
On 21st January, 1919, Dail Eireann held its opening session and the Irish Volunteers drew their first mortal blood since 1916 at Soloheadbeg, Co. Tipperary. These facts have set the seal for subsequent historians of the first months of the year. Yet such an emphasis is the product of subsequent events rather than of judgement of contemporary news. The first Dail and Soloheadbeg were, in their time, isolated incidents in a period that was more notable for industrial unrest.
And:
That such events have been downgraded in favour of the then less frequent acts of the national struggle is not altogether mistaken, however. The existence of the Dail provided a long term institutional focus for the national struggle that the social ones could not match, either in the I.T. & G,W.LI. or in the Irish Labour Party and Trade Union Congress.
The refusal of these bodies to seek to take the consistent lead of the War of Independence from the Dail enabled the latter to dominate what had to be the initial struggle against British imperialism. In this position, it won many from the economic struggle as the national struggle…
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