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30th January 1972, Bloody Sunday in Derry -- British soldiers shot 26 people during a civil rights march in Derry, resulting in 14 deaths.

https://www.leftarchive.ie/on-this-day/01/30/#event-4800

On This Day, 30th January

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New document:

"19 Arrests - Campaign Will Not Be Intimidated!"

Armagh/H-Block News, Vol. 1, No. 5, 19th September 1981, from the Armagh/H-Block Action Group.

Active during the 1980/1 Hunger Strikes, the group was associated with the Communist Party of Ireland (Marxist-Leninist).

https://www.leftarchive.ie/document/6288/

Armagh/H-Block News, Vol. 1, No. 5 (1981) — Armagh/H-Block Action Group

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Our index of left political organisations includes 377 parties, formations and campaign groups.

This includes Irish left orgs. from throughout the 20th Century, as well as groups from outside Ireland who have produced documents on Ireland.

https://www.leftarchive.ie/browse/organisations/

Index of Organisations in the Irish Left Archive

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Our timeline of the Irish left traces the history of Irish left parties and groups throughout the 20th Century and up to the contemporary.

The timeline is always evolving -- if you are aware of a group that should be included or have any corrections, please let us know!

https://www.leftarchive.ie/page/timeline-of-the-irish-left/

Timeline of the Irish Left

Irish Left Archive

A section of the timeline of the Irish left diagram, representing organisations over time with lines on the horizontal axis and indicating merges and splits.
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"Landlord should be "tarred and feathered""

A 1975 article from The Irish People on poor housing conditions in Carlow.

The Irish People was the newspaper of Official Sinn Féin and then The Workers' Party, from the 1970s to 90s.

Full issue here: https://www.leftarchive.ie/document/2967/

The Irish People, Vol. 3, No. 25 (1975) — Sinn Féin [Official]

Irish Left Archive

Landlord should be "tarred and feathered"

He should be "tarred and feathered" Carlow Urban Councillor, Mr. Michael Byrne, said of one Carlow landlord when he finished inspecting a flat which was being rented out to a young married couple in the town. As a lesser deterrent Carlow Urban Council has decided to introduce bye-laws covering the conditions of rented accommodation in the town and containing penalties for noncompliance, including possible closure. The decision in principle was taken by the Council on 26 August and the September meeting is to discuss the enactment of bye-laws more fully.

The motion to introduce housing bye-laws was proposed by Counclllor Byrne who told colleagues on the Council that conditions in some of the flats rented by one particular landlord had made him "literally sick" and were not fit for a dog.
Such conditions were a serious indictment of public representatives, he said.


A tour by Urban Councillors around flats in the town brought to light shocking cases of extortionate rents for insanitary, often rat-infested, accommodation.

In one case, a group of flats, the sewer (open) was covered over by a flagstone.

Couples were living in danger of contracting disease carried by rat infestation. One child had dermatitis which could not be cured while living in its present home and another had been in hospital with gastro-enteritis on a number of occasions. Yet again, children had had to be hustled out of a building to avoid the rats in a flat which also used to chew their clothing.

One flat was so bad that the tenants were recommended for emergency rehousing; in another
the tenants' ESB bill, averaging £2-£3, had been upped to £21 odd because, they were told, the ground rent was included!

Under the 1966 Housing Act local authorities are empowered to introduce bye-laws setting out minimum standards of ventilation, lighting, heating, sanitary facilities, food storage etc. In rented accommodation. Councils, however, are not allowed to regulate the rents charged for flats.
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All of the bits and pieces of code used for the Irish Left Archive project are available on Github, including our main website and customisations to Microblog.pub for this Fediverse instance.

Much of it is fairly custom to our project, but interested readers are welcome to browse or reuse it.

All the Irish Left Archive repos are listed here: https://github.com/stars/Aonrud/lists/irish-left-archive

Aonrud's list / Irish Left Archive

GitHub

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A poster from a rally in May 2022 opposing the private ownership of the National Maternity Hospital.

The poster uses an image originally painted by Nina Vatolina for a 1940s anti-fascist poster.

From a collection of leaflets from that rally put together by @electionlit@mastodon.online as part of the Snapshots of Political Action project, which you can find at the link below.

https://www.leftarchive.ie/demonstration/6070/

Political Material from: National Maternity Hospital Rally, 14th May 2022

Irish Left Archive

A poster reading: Stop Handover of Our National Maternity Hospital to Nuns’ Private Company / Defend Abortion Rights Defend Repeal and featuring an iconic image of a woman in a red dress and red bandana.
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"Dig deep for the miners"

From the 1984-85 British miners' strike.

From our collection of documents from support work in Dublin for the striking miners' families. https://www.leftarchive.ie/collection/1147/

Document Collection: British Miners' Strike 1984/85

Irish Left Archive

A circular yellow sticker with black text in the centre reading: Dig Deep for the Miners. Red text around the perimeter reads: National Union of Mineworkers.
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"The Path to Marriage Equality in Gay Community News"

Written on the first anniversary of the marriage equality referendum, this series of articles traces same-sex marriage through the pages of Gay Community News, starting in the early 1990s (when homosexuality was still criminalised in Ireland).

https://www.leftarchive.ie/article/1989/

The Path to Marriage Equality in GCN: Part 1

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Traveller Activism in the 1980s: The Committee for the Rights of Travellers and Mincéir Misli

An article on Traveller activism in response to anti-Traveller protests and state mistreatment. The Committee ran the first Traveller candidate for the Dáil, Nan Joyce, in 1982.

https://www.leftarchive.ie/article/5703/

Image: A screenshot from an RTÉ Archives video.

Traveller Activism in the 1980s: The Committee for the Rights of Travellers and Mincéir Misli

Irish Left Archive

A still image from a video of a protest march in Dublin. In the foreground, Nan Joyce and her children are sitting in a horse-led cart. She's holding a sign (not legible in the image). Other marchers walk behind her with a large banner (partially legible: Commitee For...).
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Material from Occupy Dame Street in 2011.

From a march in support of the occupation, which took place on the 22nd of October 2011 from the Garden of Remembrance to Dame Street.

https://www.leftarchive.ie/demonstration/6140/

Political Material from: Occupy Dame Street March, 22nd October 2011

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"The Fruits of Apartheid"

From 1983, a cartoon supporting the boycott of South African fruit in response to apartheid.

From Ireland, international magazine of the Workers' Party.

Titled The Fruits of Apartheid, a sketch of various fruit with labels reading: whites only; violence; Forced removals; detention without trial; and poverty. It is captioned: Support the fight for justice in South Africa; do not buy South African fruit.
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23rd January 1973:

"Giving Irish Trotskyism a Bad Name"

A letter from the Belfast branch of the Revolutionary Marxist Group to the rest of the organisation over a proposal to change the name from ‘Revolutionary’ to ‘Republican Marxist Group’.

https://www.leftarchive.ie/document/3161/

Giving Irish Trotskyism a Bad Name (1973) — Revolutionary Marxist Group

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New stickers from Éirígí:

1/3 , 2021. Part of Éirígí's housing campaign highlighting corporate ownership of housing.

https://www.leftarchive.ie/document/6280/

#TrackTheVultures (2021) — Éirígí

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Published 22nd January 1973:

"Official Republicans Meet in Dublin: A Step Forward for the Irish Vanguard"

Gerry Foley on the Official Republican Convention in 1972. From Intercontinental Press, the magazine of the Fourth International.

https://www.leftarchive.ie/document/3237/

Official Republicans Meet in Dublin: A Step Forward for the Irish Vanguard (1973) — Gerry Foley

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🎙 New podcast episode:

https://www.leftarchive.ie/podcast/45-one-small-step-by-michael-flavin/

We talk to academic and author Michael Flavin about his novel, One Small Step . Published by Vulpine Press, the novel tells the story of a young boy from a Northern Irish catholic background growing up in Birmingham in the 1970s and the impact of the 1974 Birmingham bombings. We discuss Michael’s own background, coming from an Irish family in Birmingham, which he drew on for the novel, and his research into the Troubles, which also led to publishing the academic article, “Four Typologies of Leadership Applied to a Survey of the Provisional IRA and Sinn Féin in the Troubles ”.

Episode 45: One Small Step, by Michael Flavin — Irish Left Archive Podcast

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Vulgar cartoon satirising Gardaí / Police

From The Botton Dog in 1976, an unequivocal cartoon accompanying an article listing allegations of police misconduct in the preceding few years.

https://www.leftarchive.ie/document/view/410/?page=3

View Document: The Bottom Dog, Vol. 3, No. 70

Irish Left Archive

A cartoon showing a circle of police and detectives, each with their trousers down and leaning forward with their face in the arse of the next. One has a pig's head. The drawing is initialled I.K. It is captioned: The Special Branch investigating a case of police brutality.