Politics and the Irish Working Class, 1830-1945

This is the first ever collection of scholarly essays on the history of the Irish working class. It provides a comprehensive introduction to the involvement of Irish workers in political life during a period of significant turmoil and profound historical change. Fourteen historians and political scientists examine the engagement of Irish workers in key political movements and moments that have helped shape modern Ireland. Survey essays on labour and politics, women workers, rural labourers and James Connolly are complemented by case studies that range from the co-operative movement of 1830s Belfast to the grassroots socialism of 1940s Dublin. A recurrent theme is the failure of class-based, socialist politics to become a feature of Irish political life. By concentrating specifically on the intersection of politics and the working class, this book not only broadens the focus of Irish labour history, but redresses an imbalance in Irish political history and adds to the international historiography of the working class.

Table of Contents:
Introduction; F.Lane & D.Drisceoil Robert Owen, co-operativism and Ulster in the 1830s; V.Geoghegan Labour and Politics, 1830-1945: Colonisation and Mental Colonisation; E.O'Connor Working Women, Trade Unionism and Politics in Ireland, 1830-1945; M.Luddy Politics, Sectarianism and the Working Class in Nineteenth-Century Belfast; C.Hirst 'Brethren in Bondage': Chartists, O'Connellites, Young Irelanders and the 1848 Uprising; C.Kinealy Rural Labourers, Social Change and Politics in Late Nineteenth-Century Ireland; F.Lane Parnellism and Workers: The Experience of Cork and Limerick; M.Cronin William Walker, Labour, Sectarianism and the Union, 1894-1912; H.Patterson Interpreting James Connolly, 1916-23; H.Woggon Labour Militancy During the Irish War of Independence; C.Kostick Radical Politics in Interwar Ireland, 1923-39; F.McGarry The Northern Ireland Labour Party, 1924-45; G.Walker Fianna Fail and the Working Class, 1926-38; R.Dunphy 'Whose Emergency is it?' Wartime Politics and the Irish Working Class, 1939-45; D.O Drisceoil

About the Author :
DONAL O'DRISCEOIL is Lecturer in History at University College, Cork. His publications include Censorship in Ireland, 1939-45: Neutrality, Politics and Society (Cork, 1996), Peadar O'Donnell (Cork, 2001) and, as co-author, The Murphy's Story: The History of Lady's Well Brewery, Cork (Cork, 1997) and Cork's English Market: A Living History (Cork, 2005). He is joint editor of Saothar, the journal of Irish labour history. FINTAN LANE is joint editor of Saothar, the journal of Irish labour history. His publications include The Origins of Modern Irish Socialism, 1881-1896 (1997) and In Search of Thomas Sheahan: Radical Politics in Cork, 1824-1836 (2001).

Review :
'...this edited volume is a welcome addition to Irish working-class historiography. It goes some way to tighten the accepted reasons for the lack of left-right politics in Ireland, north and south, while offering glimpses of when this development may have broken through the barriers of religion, nationalism and ownership of the land...The reading of Politics and the Irish Working Class, 1830-1945 prompts the reader to delve further, and the range and wealth of sources contained within illustrate plenty of scope for further research.' - Kieran McGovern, Reviews in History 'A welcome and important contribution to Irish working class history. It has taken far too long for a volume such as this to appear and the editors, contributors and publishers are to be congratulated on the publication of such an interesting and scholarly collection. It is a collection that will prove useful to experienced scholars and students alike and many of the chapters provide a large amount of useful references. ' - Irish Economic and Social History