Born in Dublin, Nolan became active in the Irish Workers' League soon after World War II,[1] and was a member of its executive committee by 1952.
[4] At the 1957 Irish general election, he was asked to stand for the committee in Dublin South-Central, but refused, believing that anti-communist feeling following the Soviet invasion of Hungary made him an unsuitable candidate.
[3] During the 1960s, Nolan was prominent in the Dublin Housing Action Committee, while he also remained active in the Irish Workers' League.
[6] In January 1976, Nolan resigned from the CPI alongside Joe Deasy, Paddy Carmody, George Jeffares, Mick O'Reilly and others, in protest at the party's change of line on the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia,[7] which they opposed.
He was elected to the Labour Party's Administrative Council, and became a full-time organiser for the Union of Construction, Allied Trades and Technicians.