Anarchism in Ireland
A number of small local groups formed and dissolved throughout the 1970s before the establishment of the Workers Solidarity Movement (WSM) in 1984, which continued to exist as a national platformist federation up until its disbandment on 8 December 2021.
[2] The basic polity form of Gaelic Ireland was the tuath, a voluntary assembly of free men that democratically decided how to take action on the issues of the time, with the ability to elect their own kings, resolve matters of war and peace, and institute their own policy.
[4] Laws were passed down orally by a class of professional jurists known as Brehons who could be consulted by tuatha and enforced by groups of private individuals through a system of sureties, which were the basis for almost all legal transactions.
[5] The Gaelic Irish also did not mint nor issue their own coinage, despite Viking and later English colonists having done so, which allowed for fair and equal exchange to take place.
[6] When the Anglo-Norman invasion established the Lordship of Ireland in 1171, native Gaelic institutions came under some strain as they attempted to adapt to the political system brought by the new state.
Following the Glorious Revolution, Irish Jacobites attempted to restore James II to the throne, but they were defeated and Williamite rule was successfully secured over Ireland.
A Vindication of Natural Society, though intended as a satire of Henry St John's deism,[8] elaborated one of the first literary expressions of philosophical anarchism, which inspired the works of the English radical William Godwin and was later praised by the American individualist anarchist Benjamin Tucker.
[9] Some libertarian scholars have insisted that Burke was initially sincere in his anarchist views, but later disowned them in order to advance his political career,[10] although this characterisation has since been disputed.
In February 1872, a branch of the IWA was established in Dublin by Richard McKeon, but its activities quickly came under attack by anti-communist mobs, which forced its premature closure on 7 April of the same year.
The implementation of the Coercion Act to suppress the movement triggered the formation of the Social Democratic Federation (SDF), which quickly developed into the first nation-wide socialist organisation in the United Kingdom.
Largely the organisation focused on promoting "the advancement of democratic principles", but after a foreign Marxist was invited to speak at the club, nationalist members protested, causing a split in the DDA that resulted in its disbandment by May 1885.
The anti-parliamentarism and atheism proclaimed by the League quickly made the rounds at the local socialist club, in spite of the impediment provided by the prevailing religious orthodoxy in Ireland.
"[19][20] Unlike its predecessors, the activities and meetings of the Socialist League were able to continue largely unmolested until April 1886, organising among local bottlemakers during a lockout and inviting William Morris to give lectures in the city.
The NLL mobilised the unemployed to demonstrate in the streets and proclaimed a distinctly revolutionary socialist outlook, calling for the common ownership of land and for Irish workers to rise up against capitalism.
[31] This position led Connolly and Larkin to establish the Labour Party as the political wing of the Irish Trades Union Congress (ITUC), of which the ITGWU was an affiliate.
[28] Meanwhile, with the outbreak of World War I, a section of the ICA around Connolly began to plan for an armed uprising against British rule with the aim of establishing an independent Irish Republic.
In his analysis of the Rising, The Only Hope of Ireland, the Russian anarcho-communist Alexander Berkman declared that it had failed because of its nationalist character and lack of socialist program:[32] "The precious blood shed in the unsuccessful revolution will not have been in vain if the tears of their great tragedy will clarify the vision of the sons and daughters of Erin and make them see beyond the empty shell of national aspirations toward the rising sun of the international brotherhood of the exploited in all countries and climes combined in a solidaric struggle for emancipation from every form of slavery, political and economic"Following the Irish War of Independence, Jack White had found himself politically isolated from the main camps of the new Irish Free State, gravitating towards anti-parliamentary communism and briefly joining Sylvia Pankhurst's Workers Socialist Federation.
When the Spanish Civil War broke out, the Congress organised support for the Republicans and established the Connolly Column, with White joining it to fight against the Nationalists.
While fighting on the Aragon front, White trained militiamen and women how to use firearms, while also becoming increasingly disillusioned with the influence of the Communist Party over the Irish internationalists, gravitating closer towards anarchism.
White began to clash with Irish Marxist-Leninists like Frank Ryan, enough so that he relinquished command in the International Brigades and joined the anarcho-syndicalist National Confederation of Labor (CNT).
In the late 1960s, as the civil rights campaign took off, People's Democracy, before it became a small Trotskyist group, included some self-described anarchists[34] such as John McGuffin and Jackie Crawford.
The first steps towards building a movement came in the late 1970s when a number of young Irish people who had been living and working in Britain returned home, bringing their new-found anarchist politics with them.
