July 4-7

Thur–Sun Robert Boyle Summer School, Lismore, Co. Waterford. Speakers: Anna Marie (Roos Uni. of Lincoln), Peter Elmer (Exeter), Bill Eaton (Georgia S. Uni.), Allan Chapman (Oxford), Rose Ann Kenny (TCD) & Liam Dolan (Oxford). Enquiries: +353 (0)58 54975, ehoward@lismoreheritage.ie, www.robertboyle.ie, www.lismoreheritage.ie.

The Great Lockout of 1913 by Joseph E.A. Connell Jr

James Larkin arrived in Ireland in 1907 to begin his union organising work. The first members were enrolled on 20 January 1909 in the new Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union (ITGWU). By 1911 the ITGWU had about 4,000 paid-up members, but this number had doubled by the end of 1912 and had increased to … Read more

The Communist Party of Ireland 1921–2011: Vol. 1: 1921–1969

Matt Treacy (Brocaire Books, €20) ISBN 9781291093186 Operating under various names over the decades—the Socialist Party of Ireland, the Communist Party of Ireland, the Irish Workers’ League, the Revolutionary Workers’ Groups, the Communist Party of Ireland (again), the Communist Party of Northern Ireland, the Irish Workers’ League (again), the Irish Workers’ Party (again) and the … Read more

The trade union pint: the unlikely union of Guinness and the Larkins

Martin Duffy (Liberties Press, €17.99) ISBN 9781907593468 This book chronicles how the general workers in Guinness’s brewery became unionised and ended up as members of Larkin’s Workers Union of Ireland (WUI). It tells this story through looking at the career of Jack Carruthers, a brewery labourer and later the full-time WUI branch secretary. Carruthers was … Read more