Reddit reviews The Lost Revolution: The Story of the Official IRA and the Workers' Party

After reading books like for example "The Lost Revolution: The Story of the Official IRA and the Workers' Party" I can never say things like "the IRA are alright after all"

Highly recommended.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lost-Revolution-Story-Official-Workers/dp/0141028459

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lost-Revolution-Story-Official-Workers/dp/0141028459

This is a really good book.

I'll expand on this a little bit, if you don't mind

> Before the troubles their was the IRA which was Marxist Leninist, however this split during the troubles into the official IRA, the IRA from before which were referred to as the stickies as they didn't use violence and lost a lot of support, the provisional IRA , which was a purely Republican movement.

The IRA was heavily influenced by Marxist-Leninism following it's 1950's border campaign which failed to garner much support. It set about creating a broad platform which would be entirely independent of it's own structure. The Civil Rights Movement was a massive change in strategy for the Republican movement, born of the frustration of a failed armed campaign in which the northern nationalists showed little to no interest. The NICRA was heavily influenced by the Civil Rights campaign in the USA ^source

> The Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (Irish: Cumann Chearta Sibhialta Thuaisceart Éireann) was an organisation which campaigned for civil rights in Northern Ireland during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Formed in Belfast on 9 April 1967, the civil rights campaign attempted to achieve reform by publicising, documenting, and lobbying for an end to abuses in areas such as housing, unfair electoral procedures, discrimination in employment and the Special Powers Act. The genesis of the organisation lay in a meeting in Maghera in August 1966 between the Wolfe Tone Societies which was attended by Cathal Goulding, then chief of staff of the IRA. The hope of the IRA, which four years earlier had ceased military operations after the failure of its Border Campaign, was that out of the already-nascent civil rights movement in Northern Ireland begun in 1963-4 by the Homeless Citizens' League and the Campaign for Social Justice there would arise a campaign of civil disturbance which would assist its efforts to unseat the unionist government in Belfast, and that the creation of NICRA would enable it to direct that campaign's course. Although socialist republicans and one IRA member were among those involved in the creation of NICRA, the IRA did not direct it.^Source

The crux of the split In the IRA was not entirely an ideological one but one of strategy; it was a small organisation at this time but very influential in the initial stages of the Civil Rights movement. It did not forsee the level of violence with which the state would react to very moderate demands; around Electoral representation, Policing, Housing and Employment. Escalating violence from the Police and Loyalists saw a need for defense in Catholic areas, The Battle of the Bogside ^1, Bloody Sunday ^2, Played their part in hardening the nationalist populations will towards going on the offensive, the split arose due to the perceived inaction of the IRA leadership ^3 The PIRA was a sporadic and spontaneous reaction to events that unfolded around it, its ranks swelled in accordance with violence meted out by the state. Northern Ireland was a one party gerrymandered state that habitually discriminated against it's minority. National identity alone was not a catalyst for violence even when faced with such discrimination. The key change in all of this was demands for improvement in material conditions within the NI state, not a United Ireland, i.e Civil Rights. It is important to remember that these demands where not calling for a United Ireland but an end to discrimination in electoral representation, policing, employment and housing. It was the fact that the state reacted so violently to these reasonable demands that led to mass violence. It led those who once held high hopes for equality within the NI state to smash it altogether.

The Official IRA maintained an armed wing throughout The Troubles their position being one of defense rather than offensive regarding the escalating violence; ‘”We stand not on the brink of victory but on the brink of sectarian disaster”, Liam McMillen, Bodenstown June 28th 1973’ However the INLA/IRSP ^4 was a breakaway group that whilst Marxist-Leninist saw the need for an armed offensive campaign against the British State. The Political Wing of the OIRA the Workers Party did have modest success electorally in the south of Ireland, but a large rump within the WP had shifted to the right.

> In early 1992, following a failed attempt to change the organisation's constitution, six of the party's seven TDs, its MEP, numerous councillors and a significant minority of its membership broke off to form Democratic Left, a party which would later merge with the Labour Party in 1999.

>The reasons for the split were twofold. Firstly, a faction led by Proinsias De Rossa wanted to move the party towards an acceptance of free-market economics.[22] Following the collapse of communism in eastern Europe, they felt that the Workers' Party's Marxist stance was now an obstacle to winning support at the polls.^Source

Sinn Féin, the politically aligned to the PIRA have broadly been a leftist organisation, their position today could be argued to be Populist Social Democratic.

----

Regarding your earlier statement

> Northern Ireland, where two reactionary parties split the workers to avoid them pushing for anything.

I would argue that the present difficulty of a Left movement in the North of Ireland is not due to the actions of these parties but the nature of the state itself; Northern Ireland is designed to perpetuate sectarianism it is a reactionary state as James Connolly on partition noted

> such a scheme .. the betrayal of the national democracy of Industrial Ulster, would mean a carnival of reaction both North and South, would set back the wheels of progress, would destroy the oncoming unity of the Irish labour movement and paralyse all advanced movements while it lasted. ^source

For further Reading i would recommend these Books.

• The Lost Revolution: The Story of the Official IRA and the Workers' Party
  
  
• The Provisional IRA: From Insurrection to Parliament