Thomas Davis: Means and Aids to Self-Education

 Educate that you may be Free!  [The below is taken from Thomas Davis, Selections from his Prose and Poetry"--II. Literary and Historical Essays] "What good were it for me to manufacture perfect iron while my own breast is full of dross? What would it stead me to put properties of land in order, while I am at variance with myself? To speak it in a word: the cultivation of my individual self, here as I am, has from my youth upwards...

Wolfe Tone's Speech From The Dock

This week (19th November) marks the 215th anniversary of Theobald Wolfe Tone's death. To mark this occasion here is the speech he made from the dock during his trial by court martial in which he defends his actions and explains his motives. ...

1803 Proclamation of the Provisional Government

"We therefore solemnly declare that our object is to establish a free and independent Republic in Ireland; that the pursuit of this object we will relinquish only with our lives" ...

The Ralahine Commune

The Ralahine Commune was a co-operative society founded in 1831 on the estate of John Vandeleur at Ralahine, Co. Clare, with the assistance of a socialist from England called Thomas Craig. Here follows James Connolly's account of the Ralahine Commune as published in his book "Labour in Irish History", the entirety of which you can read or download here. James Connolly In 1832 the great English socialist, Robert Owen,...

The Suppression of Nationalist / Republican Councils in the North of Ireland

I wrote this a while back and it was originally published on Politicalworld.org's excellent group blog 'It's a Political World'. It's an interesting topic and it got a decent response so I decided to post it here also. Edward Carson In 1920 25 councils in the six counties were controlled by nationalists, some of which had voted allegiance to the Dáil. Needless to say the unionists were not pleased, especially with the prospect of the boundary...