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Lost Revolution detailed in new book

Tuesday, 22 September 2009

A NEW book detailing the history of one of Ireland’s most interesting and once highly influential parties was launched earlier this month. The Lost Revolution by Scott Millar and Brian Hanley tells the story of the Workers’ Party and the Official IRA from their roots in the border campaign of the 1950s right up to their collapse in the early ‘90s. In this comprehensive book the authors tell the story for the first time of a political movement that helped shape modern Ireland through the words of people who were there as events happened. The book details the many influential personalities in the fields of politics, trade unionism and media, who passed though the ranks of the party over the years. Former members include current Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore along with outspoken journalist and Senator, Eoghan Harris. One of the book’s authors, Scott Millar, told Northside People that when he began work on the book he had no idea how much work it would involve. “When we started this as an 18 month project, over five years ago, we had no idea how many new friends we would make along the way,” he said. “People let us into their memories to tell us the sometimes painful, sometimes sad and sometimes funny tales of the official republican movement. “This story is a part of progressive politics looking anew at its past and working towards unity rather than division.” “The Lost Revolution was written as a narrative not as a critique, we are not in a position to judge these people, only to tell their story.” The Workers’ Party are still active in the North Inner City, with their head office located beside Gardiner Place, where they have been since they formed in the early ‘70s. However the group have become a shadow of their former selves since an early ‘90s split led by Northside TD, Proinsias De Rossa, saw most of their membership and six of seven TDs walk away from the party. This was the last in a long line of splits following the emergence of groups like Provisional Sinn Fein and the Irish Republican Socialist Party from the ranks of the Workers Party in the ‘70s. The book contains an extraordinary number of twists and turns, from the clashes between Catholic nationalist and socialist republicanism in the 1960s and ‘70s through to the many bitter feuds and splits the group suffered. Co-author, Brian Hanley, is a lecturer in Irish history at Queen's University, Belfast, and the author of A Guide to Irish Military Heritage and The IRA 1926–1936 He explained the sheer volume of records, newspaper archives, interviews, academic sources and Workers’ Party archives the authors had to trawl through for years to create this definitive story of the movement. “It was humbling to be welcomed into people’s homes, people we never met before who were prepared to talk about their past,” he explained. “They told us about the movement they were involved in, some of which they were proud of, some of which they may have regretted.” “People shared documents with us, personal papers and memories, to two people they didn’t know but they were happy to talk to us in the hope we would do justice to their story. “I hope we have done justice to their story. These were people who for all their faults and weaknesses did try to change Irish society for the better.”