From Lucifer To Lazarus: A Life on the Left

In From Lucifer to Lazarus: A Life on the Left, Mick O’Reilly shares his experiences as a politician and trade unionist and his unwavering thoughts and insights on controversial, complex issues. O’Reilly discovered socialism and militant trade unionism in the early 1960s when he joined the National Union of Vehicle Builders. He went on to join the committee of the Irish Communist Party in 1967 and the Dublin Housing Action Committee, and helped establish Connolly Youth. He took part in strikes against the European Economic Community and negotiated for protection for car workers. This book explores the power struggles and negotiations that O’Reilly has faced throughout his career, without generalities or truisms. After a party dispute in 1977, O’Reilly was employed by the Transport and General Workers’ Union, and in 1979 negotiated a huge equal pay claim. Later, O’Reilly’s Labour Left group sparked reform within the Labour Party, establishing that its leader must be elected by its members. O’Reilly was even suspended from the Party for a time before the charges against him were proven to be untrue, and he was reinstated in 2004. Despite navigating a career filled with adversity, O’Reilly remains decent, honest and humble. The authenticity of From Lucifer to Lazarus: A Life on the Left emphasises these often overlooked values, setting itself apart as a unique, intimate read. The foreword is written by Gene Kerrigan of The Irish Independent.

About the Author :
Mick O’Reilly was born in the Coombe in October 1946 and was raised in Ballyfermot. He left primary school early, following an altercation with a Christian Brother. He worked at Sherling’s, May Robert’s, and Lincoln & Nolan’s car factory from a young age before pursuing trade unionism. O’Reilly first joined the Communist Party in Britain where he lived for two years before joining the Irish Party in 1967. He joined the Labour Party in 1989. In 1992, O’Reilly became District Secretary and sat on the committee for the ICTU. Four years later, he relocated to Belfast as the first ever nationalist Regional Secretary.

Review :
‘This memoir brings late twentieth-century Ireland to life – socially, industrially and politically … O’Reilly is ideally placed to dissect the fractious relationship between different elements of the Irish Left, and does so with gusto … This memoir shines a pithy, acerbic and occasionally erudite light on the development of the Irish trade union movement and the Irish Left.’ —Len McCluskey ‘This memoir brings late twentieth-century Ireland to life – socially, industrially and politically … O’Reilly is ideally placed to dissect the fractious relationship between different elements of the Irish Left, and does so with gusto … This memoir shines a pithy, acerbic and occasionally erudite light on the development of the Irish trade union movement and the Irish Left.’ —Len McCluskey This autobiography by the former Irish Regional Secretary of the Amalgamated Transport and General Workers’ Union (ATGWU, since renamed Unite) is, among other things, an important window into a period of the Irish workers’ movement going back to the 1960s and 1970s.