Communist Politics in Ireland 1916-1945: Volume 1: Pursuit of the Workers’ Republic in the Post-Connolly and Larkin Era, 1916-1928 (Historical Materialism)

First published in 1984, Mike Milotte’s classic study of Irish communism in the early twentieth century leaves no stone unturned.The book offers a clear and meticulous reconstruction of Irish communism in the 1920s, reassessing the movement and its key figures in light of previously overlooked or misinterpreted material from the Comintern archives.Milotte follows a wide range of characters who shaped Irish communism in this period.During the revolutionary era, Roddy Connolly’s Communist Party robbed banks to fund its activities, and 20-year-old Connolly engaged in gun-running for the IRA while struggling to maintain control of his fractious party.In a later period of retreat, James Larkin refused to submit to the “imperialistic” British Communist Party or follow the dictates of Moscow’s Stalinist bureaucracy, resisting its policies and practices on instinct.