Books on Ireland

["Liam O'Ruairc" <loruairc@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I will limit myself here to books and will not refer to journal articles.

- Marx and engels writings on Ireland are available in one volume titled
"Ireland and the Irish Question".

- The most important Marxist thinker in Ireland has been James Connolly.
Most of his writings are available online, however unfortunately his
collected works have no been published to date. There is a vast litterature
aqvialbe on Connolly, however three books stand out:
- CD Greaves "Life and Times of James Connolly", 1961 is the best
- C and A Reeves "James Connolly and the United States", 1978 is brilliant
- Anderson, "James Connolly and the Irish Left", 1995 is also very good.

Another CD Greaves book is worth reading: "Liam Mellows and the Irish
revolution", 1971 is excellent on the whole 1916-1922 period.

- Priscilla Metscher's massive work on "Republicanism and Socialism in
Ireland " (1986) is very impressive and covers the 1798-1916 period.

General histories of Ireland written from a Marxist point of view include:
- Connolly, "Labour on Irish history". Path breaking, although it contains
significant historical inaccuracies, especially on the celtic period.
- TA Jackson "Ireland her Own" is readable, although Strauss "British
democracy and Irish nationalism" (1949) is vastly superior.
- Berresford Ellis "History of the Irish Working class" is not to be
recommended. It is very ecclectic and lacks any analytical scope.
- O Connor Lysaght, "The Republic of Ireland (1970) is the only Marxist
history of the 26cos until 1968)
- Michael Farrell, "The ORange State" (1980) is an important book on the
history of the 6cos 1921-1975"

- Ronnie Munck "Ireland: Nation, State and Class Struggle" (1985) is a
brilliant work (although some parts are weak) on the different aspects of
the Irish question.

- Conor Foley "Legion of the Rearguard: The Ira and Modern Irish state" is
also to be recommended

- David Reed "Ireland: the Key to the British Revolution" (Larkin Press,
1984) is excellent
- Kevin J Kelley "The Longest War" (1988) is very good on the political
evolution of the Provos.

- Bew, Gibbon, Patterson "The State in Northern Ireland: Political Forces
and Social Classes 1921-1979" is very impressive, but is very hostile to
traditional Green Marxist litterature.
Henry Patterson "The Politics of Illusion: Republicanism and Socialism"
(1989) is an analysis of "Republican Socialism" from this revisionist
school.

- O Dowd, Rolston, Tomlinson "Northern Ireland: Between Civil Rights and
Civil War " (1980) refutes most of the above arguments


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